Termites feed mainly on wood, happily munching their way through houses and other wooden structures.
They will also chew through many other materials in order to get to a tasty morsel of wood, including insulation around underground electrical lines, causing power outages. Symbiotic protozoans in the termite's gut help to digest the cellulose in wood, and the termite can then digest the by-products. Winged drywood termites swarm on windless, humid evenings, land and lose their wings, then run around to find a mate. They then find a nice nesting site and begin to breed. These types of colonies grow slowly, but steadily, chomping away at furniture, cardboard boxes, wooden house parts.