They eat wood in houses, utility poles, furniture and dying trees. Termites can not digest the celluose directly. Termites also groom each other, thereby eating cast skins and feces of the members of the colony. They also clean up the colony by eating dead individuals. They are usually located in the ground.
Location is usually below the frost line, but above the water table and forck formations.
Mud tubes are built to cross areas of adverse confitions between the colony and food sources. If a constant source of moisture is available, such as leaky pipes, the colonies can exist above ground and without ground contact. Because termites eat wood from the inside they go undetected.