The village of Odayssat, about 20 kilometers south of the historical city of Luxor (670 km south of Cairo), is being severely attacked by termites, which have gorged many houses and founded colonies under them. No plague fighting capacities are available for the poor people and their houses being built of adobes, palm trunks and other kinds of wood are a breeding ground for termites, which have destroyed their furniture, roofs, windows and doors, forcing some to move to neighboring villages.
Scamper
The village of Odayssat, about 20 kilometers south of the historical city of Luxor (670 km south of Cairo), is being severely attacked by termites, which have gorged many houses and founded colonies under them. No plague fighting capacities are available for the poor people and their houses being built of adobes, palm trunks and other kinds of wood are a breeding ground for termites, which have destroyed their furniture, roofs, windows and doors, forcing some to move to neighboring villages.
Scamper
Baghdadi Sadi’s family home was no more once termites ravaged the furniture and left the rest of the house as debris. “I spent the most beautiful days there of my life with my wife and five children.”
Sadi did everything possible to get rid of the termites; including setting fire to all the rooms in hopes that the smoke would destroy the colonies deep within the house’s fundament.
A few years ago, Abdulhamid Khalil tore down his adobe house which had been built by his father, and built a modern one of iron and cement in order to avoid the plots of termites; however, he was disappointed since they attacked the wooden furniture and windows.
The dream of Muhammad Ali Bashir’s son of getting married was shattered when swarms of termites destroyed the second floor of the modest house the son built of adobe and palm trunks to be his marital house.
Villagers’ inability to fight termites have provided a fertile ground for old legends saying that termites are soldiers of jinn (genies), fighting human beings and enforcing them to leave their houses in order to take them over.
Out of sight
Agriculturalist Hussein Ibrahim said termites lived in desert-neighboring areas, and existed extensively in the villages of Odayssat, Qernah, Gharirah and Tod in Luxor where they fed on the cellulose of wood, leaves, and textiles. They live in colonies in large numbers and differ basing on their structure and job.
Each colony is ruled by a queen whose key task is laying eggs; it produces about 6 eggs a minute. Only one king lives with her in the colony, while soldier ants carry out the tasks of guarding and protection.
Termites build tunnels and ditches beneath the colony to pass through them freely and out of sight. This is why termites are so dangerous since they attack unnoticed and only the traces of the destruction they produce can be seen. Termites live for more than 15 years, while the queen can live and keep producing eggs for 50 years.
Slow fighting efforts
In 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture sent a pest-fighting team equipped with termite insecticides, and the team managed to destroy more than 70% of their colonies, according to villagers. However, not a single visit has been paid by the team since then, what has enabled termites to severely re-attack the village.
Director of Agricultural in Luxor Mahmud Zubi said the ministry allocated 480 liters of required pesticides to get rid of termites in many Luxor villages, adding that the Agricultural Directorate would send a special team equipped with all the requirements to fight them in Odayssat during the following days.
“There are many kinds of termites pesticides,” said Zubi, “and they are used by digging a ditch 50 centimeters off the inflicted tree or adobe house, breaking the tunnels and mud blocks and putting traps in the tunnels before they are filled with watered soil.”
Zubi stressed that early warning of termite colonies helped fights them to a large extent; thus, saving time, efforts and costs of fighting.
When a flat is attacked by termites, it is fumigated with methyl bromide gas, closed for three days and then ventilated for three days, and only then can its inhabitants go back to it.
