Termite Mounds

This reminds me of when we used to feast on termite heads in our childhood plucking off the abdomen and crash fresh the yellowish head with it’s black mandibles
Friends it’s not a pile of soil, termite mounds are raised during the rains, when insects use saliva to fix mud into durable cement and come up with such a castle.
Fresh construction can raise inches overnight. They make sure the tall towers surround ventilation shafts that reach deep into the ground, providing a cooling system for underground fungus garden, queen and the ants.

Termite Mounds – the amazing castle

We broke off a small piece and the fierce soldier termites emerged to confront us.

A number of animals live in the tunnels; among the squatters are mongooses, birds, lizards and snakes.  Other animals use termites as source of food; aardvarks, pangolins and aardwolves depend on the insects for survival.

During nuptial swarm, when columns of lace winged insects spew from the mound like a volcano in eruption, a whole array of animals joins in feasting on them. Baboons, hornbills, eagles , jackals, hyenas and even humans, all relish the fatty abdomens of reproductive termites .

We broke off a small piece and the fierce soldier termites emerged to confront us.Ant hills that have been torn apart by aardvarks often become home for burrowing animals such as rodents, warthogs and hyenas. 

Termite mounds are more commonly seen than the insects themselves. The white ants avoid the heat of the sun and are mostly abroad at night, during the day, you may find them beneath pieces of downed wood.