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It’s annoying to discover unsightly holes, mounds, or tunnels in your lawn or garden beds. But figuring out what’s excavating without your permission isn’t straightforward.
The nests are often completely overgrown by grass, however, often their presence is betrayed by small mounds of loose soil material between the grass stalks. They will also nest under large rocks or concrete slabs. Lawn nesting will eventually become obvious as the aphids clear sections of grass or portions of gardens. [1]
They can deplete grass in pastures and contribute to soil erosion, but are less effective when grasslands are not overgrazed or disturbed. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Over the long term, however, their decomposing and recycling of plant material contribute to soil fertility and the global cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and other elements.
The aardvark is a predator of M. viator, and a study of mounds near Clanwilliam Dam in South Africa found that 53.16% of intact mounds bore signs of aardvark excavation. Many of the mounds bearing signs of aardvark predation were still active, indicating that M. viator colonies are capable of surviving aardvark predation events. [17]
Some of the mounds are 3 m (10 ft) tall and 10 m (33 ft) wide, and they are spaced about 20 m (66 ft) apart. Underneath the mounds are networks of tunnels that required the excavation of 10 cubic kilometres (2.4 cu mi) of dirt. Scientists performed radioactive dating on 11 mounds. The youngest mound was 690 years old.
The surface of the mound also contains very little organic matter because it is mainly soil that was uprooted from the mineral horizons of the soil layer. This coupled with the observation that seed deposition rates are lower for mounds than pits, makes plant establishment on mounds unlikely and problematic for the plant. [6]
Like other termites, Macrotermitinae are soil engineers, mixing their salivary secretions with soil particles to make their strong, hard mounds and galleries. [5] Their mounds are some of the largest built by any species of termite, with volumes of thousands of litres and lasting for many decades.
A Michigan man has been arrested and charged with six counts of attempted homicide after driving over 700 miles and allegedly setting fire to the Pennsylvania home of a man who had been ...