Mystery wood full of larvae

[George Zarifis]

I was splitting some firewood the other day and a ton of larvae fell out of the inside of the logs. I'm not really sure about the wood species but the tree has long leaves similar to eucalyptus leaves, the wood smells a bit like eucalyptus and it's very oily. I just hope these creatures won't eat all my firewood until winter comes... I will post a couple pictures of the tree this wood came from whenever I obtain some and perhaps some of you will recognize the species.












It's worth noting that some of the logs were green and some were pretty dry. Of course, only the dry ones had larvae in them.

[LeeB]

I hate to have to tell you, but those larvae are termites. I have no idea what the wood is.

[George Zarifis]

Oh, that can't be good... I'll make sure to burn this wood first and hope not to get a termite infestation in our home.

[Ianab]

Those are the "worker" termites, they can't reproduce, and soon die if away from the nest.

The nest with the breeding queen is usually underground near the source of wood. But once they establish a tunnel to some tasty wood they can quickly hollow out a tree trunk (or a floor joist)  >:(

[George Zarifis]

That's certainly a relief! At least when I was splitting the logs I made sure to burn as many as I could with a blow torch...