I'm kind of talkin' out of school, here. I am not an entomologist, but my understanding of termites is that they are decomposers that attack DEAD plant tissue. Now, grubs (of which there are many, and are white like termites but differently shaped) can attack living tissue. With no pictures, my guess is that you are seeing other than termites, maybe some type of grub. Google termite, then grub, and repost if you can't take a picture.
hortster

I'm thinking that grubs would not be described as 'tiny'. However, kmgard might have uncovered an ant nest.

What makes you think that these are termites? Do you have tree stump nearby, or raised beds made of untreated lumber?

Termites don't eat veggies. There is no way we can tell whether the garden is SOL.

Dan

For some reason I can't get the picture small enough to load... I do have a blog though, and I've posted about it here. The picture of the bug itself isn't that great, so I will try to upload it again here (just have a feeling it will be very small).

I've already googled my own photo though, and I'm almost positive it's termites. We used untreated pine to build the bed, and it's looking like this can actually be a pretty common problem here in the southeast (wood beds + moist soil = termites).

I hope hortster and dan are right, though - that they won't eat my plants. The red peppers might be a coincidence and maybe they died some other way. It was just strange that when I tried to dig them up (well away from the plant itself), they simply fell over at the soil line... like they had been severed or something).

It's a mystery! Thanks for trying to help...

Here is a link that might be useful: Kate's Termite Problem

Okay figured out how to do it with html... much better.

You can see photos of the whole garden here, but here is what I believe to be a termite (there were a LOT of them):

Looks like termites from here. I doubt your plant issues have anything to do with the termites.

Dan

I saw some wood in that picture - the termites are probably going after the pieces of wood. I don't think they would damage plants. I use wood stakes for tomatoes - and get termites in them - but they never bother my tomato plants.

Termites food source is cellulose, and plant tissue is cellulose. Termites diet is not limited to wood but can be grass or any other source of cellulose. Termites also will travel quite long distances to get food. You can do a web search for "Termites", Termites food", "Termites diet", etc. and get a lot of hits most of which are nonesense.

i had same thing happen last year ... i had green peppers almost ready to pick and noticed coulpe days later was wilted and thought was from heat of summer/water and i touched it and it came right out of the soil with termites attached to it. I was told pepper plants are a woody stlye plant and they would be more likely to kill pepper plants than other plants like tomatoes etc. I was also told to use seven dust or think that was name not suppost to be bad on foods you eat , but oi never tried since my plants were killed. Everything else made it. I just checked my plants this afternoon and found some so im worried it will happen again

Sevin is carbaryl a broad spectrum poison that is toxic to humans which is why the directions on the label tell you not to apply it quite some time before you plant to harvest that food. Carbaryl is not something anyone should want to use in their garden.
That is a termite in that picture, however, termites do not eat live, growing plants. Peppers and tomatoes are in the same plant family and are similar in growth habit and structure. Ron, whomever gave you that misinformation is someone that shold not be listened to.

For what its worth, I just googled for this same problem, same termites hanging out in my tomatoes, right around the roots. All the tomatoes in the 2 30 gallon containers are stunted. I transplanted some tomatoes and they bounced back to life. Not sure if the termites cause the problem but my tomatoes really don't like that specific container.

I buy the 3qf mulch/compose mixture to put around my trees and to mix with the soil to "soften" it. While I was pouring water from a two gallon container, the water flow was hard enough to cause the mixture to turn up from underneath exposing a lot of larva. They looked alot like the pictures shown on this forum. There were two types. I took a picture of one which came out nice using Paint. It looks very much like the "Worker Termite". I do not have a URL? site to post the picture but if you are using Mulch, which is wood chips, rotted wood ectra, it could very well be termites. I am concerned that they will eat the roots of my fruit tree? I guess I'll know in a couple of years. Then I can have an answer-----

Your picture looks like the bugs I have found in my garden. We have been treating for termites, with those traps they put around the house. Unfortunately they love my geraniums and have killed over half of them. The roots have been completely eaten away. So I do fear for my veggies as well. The weeds that have sprung up can be just brushed aside. There aren't any roots left! So now what? we are at a lose and I don't want to loose all the work that I've done.

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

I noticed one of my pepper plants looked like it had been hit by cutworm. I pulled it up and half the stem below ground had been eaten away and the middle of the stem above ground were filled with termites. Trust me, I know what termites look like. I always thought they ate only dead cellulose also, but I guess I was wrong. My main problem is figuring out where they came from. It was in a raised bed with all purchased organic garden soil and compost on top of a layer of garden cloth.

I know they didn't come up out of my dirt, so they must have been in the bags I used to fill the raised bed. Now I don't know how to get rid of them and keep my garden organic. I know this is an older thread, but I am still interested in it.

My raised bed is made of concrete blocks, not wood, an there has never, in my lifetime anyway, been wood there.

This post was edited by mtwocats on Mon, Jul 8, 13 at 12:05

Formosan termites, they will eat about anything, are known to exist only in the south eastern tier of the United States, Texas, Lousianna, Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida, Mississippi, etc. so people in colder areas need not be very concerned about them, yet. Since many people do not know how to tell the difference between a termite and an ant, or many other insects, most of the time people mistake the problem they have for something it is not.

Sorry Guys but termites does indeed eat peppers and eggplants at the stalk in the base the touch the soil and even about an inch underground, I lost a few eggplants and sweet pepers to them this week, its rare but they attack those plants. Its not ants in my case but termites. I was not sure at first because termites are not supposed to eat live plant tissue but it happened to some very healthy plants in my raised beds. I need something organic or at least not toxic to control them, any ideas?

If you asked me last year if termites killed plants, I would've said no way, they eat wood. This year they're in one of my garden beds. I discovered them today while harvesting radishes. I looked on one of them and noticed termites burrowed inside of it. I took out the termites and squished them and threw the radish in the compost bid. I dug around the soil and found more termites. I poured vinegar on the soil to kill them, but I know it's not going to get them all. So I ran to the computer and ordered beneficial nematodes. By the weekend, I'm hoping all termites will be eliminated.

i dont think benny nems work that fast ... more like years .. rather than days .. or weeks... or months ...

ken

I know this thread is literally a decade old... but, I was dead set to prove I'm not crazy, and neither are you! I live in Georgia, so southeast US as well. We (apparantly) used untreated lumber to build our two 20'x4' raised beds this year. I planted 9 stalks of peaches n' cream sweet corn at the far end of the first bed. They were doing great! Then, one started curling like it was dehydrated. So, I checked the soil, realized it could be a little more moist, but the roots were pretty close to the top of the soil. I decided it would be best to add a bag of garden soil around the stalks to keep the roots from being exposed when it rains. The next day, I go to check on the corn and that stalk was done for... and two more were showing signs of dehydration by curling. So, I pulled the dead one up and when I did, the stalk easily broke at the new soil line I had just added the day before! I thought it was strange and dug around the base of where the plant was to pull the remainder of the stalk and the roots out, and when I gently pushed the soil that I had just added out of the way, there were TONS of termites... just like your picture! I panicked and checked around the base of the other stalks and lo and behold - termites. So, I dumped the 2 stalks that were not salvageable and weighed the pros and cons of transplanting the stalks to the second bed. Do I risk losing the plants to shock or losing them to termites? So, I shocked the bejeesus out of them (sadly) by completely cleaning their root balls of termites by rinsing them in water (if I had any other choice...). I replanted them in the opposite end of the second bed and hoped the termites wouldn't make it that far before we could harvest... the corn did show signs of shock for about a week, but then perked up and took off! They were doing great! Then, I walked out to the garden one morning and two of the stalks had broken off at the soil line and completely fallen over... checked the soil - termites. So now, both beds are completely infested and I don't think I'll ever be able to grow corn in my garden :(

Anyone have any luck planting termite buffet food in containers that they cannot penatrate? Metal garden beds? Heat treating the soil? I'm at such a loss and really disheartened... </3

Same here ... I'm an avid gardener for the last 30 years. Moved to a fixer-upper lake house in NH last Fall. We built some new raised beds to put on top of the poor soil for this gardening season, until we can do more of a yard makeover. Filled the beds with purchased raised-bed soil and loam. In the past few weeks my broccoli and kale plants have gradually gotten spindly and died. When I pull them up, the roots are covered in termites. We know what termites look like, these are unmistakeable! Some other plants I grew in large boxes or pots that do not touch the ground, filled with the same soil mix, and no termites in those. There's wood bits in the soil of course, all soil has wood bits. But these termites are eating holes in the plant roots. It's clearly visible. Never heard of this before but I'm here to tell you, it's true. My plan is to watch for which plants do poorly, and try enclosed boxes next year for those, so they do not touch the underlying soil.

There is a relatively new product called fipronil. To treat a house, you dig a shallow trench (few inches) around the outside, pour the diluted solution in, cover it up and spray the soil above the trench too. It is carried back to the colony to kill them all. I do NOT know if this can be used in a garden situation, but it's supposed to be great stuff. You might go to Do My Own Pest Control ,com, they have experts who can answer questions, and ask them what they recommend for your situation. They do sell the fipronil (Taurus SC), I've used it myself and am a satisfied customer.

The numerous comments that termites only eat dead wood fiber are false. I live in New Orleans and had termites eating the actual tomatoes on my plants this summer.

I was amazed by this thread! I would have never thought about that.

Thankfully don't have this problem (yet).

It's enough to make you switch to plastic lumber for the raised beds. I'm going to do a little of that anyway when I rebuild one bed each year, instead of using those treated wood landscape timbers. Plastic 4x4s are expensive but if I just do one layer, it won't break the bank but it will make a difference, it will close the loop on all the plastic I send to recycling, and it will be one less layer of treated wood I will have to replace again after a few years. Actually termites shouldn't eat treated wood anyway, but cedar and untreated pine they will go after.

I have had termites totally destroy my hot cherry plants! No, these were not ant, grubs, etc.,; I live in an area where termites just are everywhere unfortunately. They have killed LIVING tomato plants, hot pepper plants and whatever else they can get their nasty mouths on. So, termites DO NOT only eat the dead, they also eat the living and love it!!!!!