Aurea Thornycroft was a senior citizen who noticed some strange creatures crawling on her walls at home in Devon’s Saunton Sands.
When the local pest controller peeled away the wallpaper inside her conservatory, he found it teeming with strange, white, ant-like creatures that he’d never seen before. Each was approximately one centimetre long.
‘They were found in two timber-frame walls, heated by pipes,’ the man later recalled. ‘The timber was damp and the combination of heat and moisture has produced the perfect micro-climate for the insects. They have been there for years.’
But it was not until several months later that it emerged Mrs Thornycroft’s chalet-style holiday residence was the scene of a bona fide ecological emergency: Britain’s first ever subterranean termite infestation.
The damage done by these creepy crawlies, which eat the wood in buildings and are small enough to be a nuisance for homeowners across America or Europe every year, is costing billions of dollars each year.
No one knew where the creatures had come from, though initial speculation (later debunked) was that they’d arrived via a pot plant imported from the Canary Islands.
Their usual habitat is in warm areas of the world, but they can be found there in many habitats, including forests, grasslands, and large colonies. They survive by eating cellulose, especially from falling wood.
In the wild, termites play a crucial role as ‘soil engineers’ helping to prop up the food chain. But when they rub up against mankind, or more specifically the villages, towns and cities we inhabit, they can transform into a terrifying pest, known colloquially as the ‘terrorists of the insect world’.
The damage done by these creepy crawlies, which eat the wood in buildings and are small and voracious, causes homeowners across America as well as Europe to spend billions of dollars each year.
They have caused havoc in places like Madrid and Paris in recent years, taking out structurally important wooden beams as well as putting entire floors at risk of falling from historic buildings.
The real problem, as experts examining Mrs Thornycroft’s bungalow soon realised, is that, once properly established, a subterranean termite population is almost impossible to eradicate, no matter how many millions (yes, millions) you succeed in killing.
One colony may reach 7m underground and cover an area as large as two swimming pools. Stock image
One colony may reach 7m underground and cover an area as large as two swimming pools.
And even if pest controllers think they’ve wiped out the lot, should they leave behind just a tiny population (sufficient to fill half a small matchbox) the tenacious creatures will not just return, but swiftly spread far and wide.
In 1998, the UK Termite Eradication Programme was launched by the government to rescue North Devon and the nation.
The stated goal of the project is to employ state-of-the art techniques to control and remove alien invaders from green, pleasant areas.
This began a 23 year-long saga that involved dozens of scientists, and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The grizzled team that was behind the announcement declared victory last week: No termites had been detected in Saunton in ten year, so Britain is now officially termite-free.
‘We are confident that eradication has been successful,’ says Dr Ed Suttie, who has run the project since 2003. ‘Nobody has ever done this anywhere in the world. It’s a complete first.’
This is not only a victory for British innovation but it also celebrates the bulldog spirit that Dr Suttie has brought to his pioneering team. They overcame obstacles and falsities that could have decimated less-bloody bug busters.
They have caused havoc in places like Madrid and Paris in the recent past, taking out structurally important wooden beams, and leaving whole floors in historic buildings at risk of falling.
Perhaps the most soul-crushing was in 2009, when a routine six-monthly inspection revealed a handful of termites under a paving slab on Mrs Thornycroft’s patio.
It was the first time in eight years that they’d been spotted and the discovery shattered the cautious optimism of the team — who were beginning to believe that the colony had been destroyed.
‘When we arrived, the soil was alive with the things,’ recalls Dr Suttie. ‘If you dug your hands in, they were everywhere. They were quickly reduced in number. But achieving complete removal has been a labour of love.’
The tenacity of the termites revolves largely around their lifestyle, since this particular species — the Reticulitermes grassei — lives deep underground, making it impossible to control them by simply dousing an infected area with pesticide, or even destroying a building they have infested.
‘Someone initially asked, “Why can’t you just burn the house down?” ’ explains Dr Suttie. ‘Well you could do that, but the things would just end up coming back again.’
The UK Termite Eradication Programme, a bold program launched in 1998 by the government in an attempt to save North Devon from the apocalyptic scenario of home destruction.
Another potential plan — to remove thousands of tonnes of topsoil and dump it in the sea — was also discounted, this time due to impracticality.
Instead, the team designed a novel scheme that revolved around a chemical called hexaflumuron, a so-called ‘insect growth regulator’ which prevents young termites from maturing.
They could convince foraging insects that the material was safe to be taken back to their colony. Then the entire reproductive cycle of the colony would end.
Wooden bait stakes were buried at some 695 sites within a 500- metre radius of Mrs Thornycroft’s bungalow. The bait stakes that had been eaten were replaced with plastic tubes containing Hexaflumuron.
Things didn’t start out exactly as expected. In a development that sparked headlines about ‘gourmet’ termites, it initially emerged that the insects disliked the taste of the chemical. So to persuade them to tuck in, Dr Suttie’s team doused the bait sticks in a type of fungus extract that gives off a pheromone termites find particularly attractive.
The same pheromone can also be found in blue ink in ballpoint pens.
At times, the experience was also rather traumatic for both Mrs Thornycroft — who is now in her late 90s — and the residents of a neighbouring property, which was also found to be infested.
The insects were prohibited from using their lawns to eat the grass at the beginning of the project. Until last month, the properties were the subject of a ‘restriction of movement’ order issued by the Forestry Commission, which banned the removal of soil or wood from the area.
This began a 23 year-long saga that involved dozens of scientists, and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Following the 2009 setback and her property being effectively condemned for structural damage in 2009, Mrs Thornycroft sought permission to demolish it to start over.
But planning permission was denied due to the risk of spreading any remaining insects following an intervention from the then Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who cited the ‘potential catastrophic economic, environmental and social consequences’ of such a development.
However, Mrs Thornycroft was allowed to construct a new addition on the grounds.
Over time, thankfully, the tide finally began to turn on Britain’s only termite colony and six-monthly inspections from 2011 onwards drew a blank.
After the UK officially declared the extinct species, the focus has shifted to making sure that the insect population does not return.
To that end, £19,000 of government funding was announced last week. The funds will partially be used for creating an instruction manual to help authorities eradicate future bugs.
Last week the team of grizzled termites declared victory. No termites were found in Saunton over the past ten years. This means that Britain is officially free from termites.
After all, the chances of such a development are high: DNA analysis has shown Saunton’s termites are likely to have originally hailed from the South of France, suggesting they were probably imported on timber packaging.
Robert Verkerk is the scientist who led the team from the beginning. His theory was that termite colonies don’t yet exist in South-East, where most of our trade goes to Britain.
‘In Devon, the soil is much sandier, and the weather is also milder, making it more suitable,’ he says. ‘It’s definitely likely to happen again, I think, because of human vectoring — in other words, the way we transport things around the world. You can see how they spread throughout Europe by following the road and canal networks. In many ways, we’ve so far been very lucky.’
As travel and commerce increase each year, it is reasonable to expect that termites will be equally ineffective against hexaflumuron.
If not, then, for Britain’s homeowners of the future, it’ll be what you might call a bug’s life.