“I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
When pest manager Eddie Pearce was called to an abandoned quarry in Gordonvale, Australia, a few years ago, he expected to find the usual signs of insects or other pests.
Instead, he discovered something extraordinary.
Inside an old office building that had been left unused for years stood a massive termite mound stretching from the floor almost all the way to the ceiling.
Pearce had worked with termites before, but nothing had prepared him for the enormous structure inside the abandoned building.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Pearce said.
He believes the termites had gradually built the mound over more than a decade, taking advantage of the fact that the building had been left undisturbed for a long period.
The neglect had allowed the insects to completely transform the interior. According to Pearce, virtually all of the wooden material that had once been part of the building’s steel-and-timber structure had been consumed.
The mound itself reached roughly 10 feet (3 meters) high, with part of the structure continuing beyond the ceiling and into the space above.
And despite its enormous size, the termite colony was still very much alive.
“It’s still active,” Pearce said.
Rather than destroying the remarkable structure, the property owners eventually decided to leave it alone. Since the office was no longer being used, there was little reason to disturb the colony.
“No one’s done anything with it,” Pearce explained. The owners were not particularly concerned because the building was already abandoned and there was no practical need to reclaim the space.
The building was eventually fenced off, effectively leaving the unusual structure and its inhabitants undisturbed.
Although the sight of a giant termite mound growing inside a building may seem bizarre, termites are well known for constructing impressive structures in the wild. In parts of Australia and Africa, some species create enormous above-ground nests that can remain standing for years.
Thomas Chouvenc, an associate professor of urban entomology at the University of Florida, explained that mound-building termites use a variety o