Yet another Indian bank has had to deal with an unhappy customer reporting termites eating up his savings. Just recently, 48-year-old Ashok Agrawal opened a steel locker that he was renting at the United Commercial Bank in Pension Bada to retrieve some of his savings, which amounted to 150,000 rupees, only to find that termites had eaten the banknotes and rendered them worthless. Upon informing the bank officials of his unhappy plight, Agrawal was informed that this was not the bank’s responsibility and that the bank would not be reimbursing him for his losses, despite the fact that it was the lack of good termite control from the bank that led to Agrawal’s troubles.

The bank manager has gone on record as saying that it could not be blamed upon the bank as Agrawal had wrapped his banknotes in old newspapers, and that this might well be the source of the termites that had thus far been isolated to Agrawal’s locker. Agrawal insists that the bank should have provided for the possibility of termites by putting in place proper termite control and prevention measures, however, and that it is highly unlikely that the termites came from the newspapers he used. Furthermore, he asks how it cannot be the bank’s responsibility when he was being charged nearly 900 rupees per year for the supposed security of the bank’s locker.

This is not an isolated incident: Indian banks have a rather bad history when it comes to termite control and prevention. Not too long ago, in Bihar, termites went through several safe deposit boxes in a bank, eating up several people’s life savings and hard-earned money. The same thing happened in Patna, where money was again lost as the critters took over and began to feed on the paper money.

Early this year too, another incident proved even more costly as it involved termites eating about $225,000 worth of banknotes in a bank in the Barabanki district, where banknotes were stored in a room known to have a termite problem yet not maintained or given a proper termite treatment. As a result, the bank was charged with the responsibility of recouping the customers’ money. Agrawal, who intends to take his case to a higher authority, is hoping that this shall be the ruling granted to him as well. He intends to use part of the money for his daughter’s wedding.

Whatever the outcome shall be for Agrawal, it remains a fact that Indian banks and those placing their money in them should be a little more informed about proper termite control and treatment procedures, and a little more vigilant in following recommendations from pest control experts. Several banks have already sent out memos to their locations, warning staff to be extra-wary of termite infestation signs, just to be on the safer side.

A great many human inventions are actually inspired by nature’s designs, and it looks like yet another may be in the works, this time specifically for the termite control and termite extermination industry. Scientists from the University of Toulouse, headed by Angelique Vetillard, have been studying an African ant species that is proving to have one of the deadliest poisons in the insect world, especially where termites are concerned. What they have discovered about the way the ant’s poison works can be helpful to those in the termite control industry in the future.

The interest shall most likely come from those involved in developing pesticides for termite control. The scientists studying the ant species, which is named Crematogaster striatula, have found that the ant often preys on termites much larger than it by using venom that is emitted from a gland called the Dufour gland. This in itself is quite a singular piece of information already, as the Dufour gland is not typically the source of such substances in ants: there is actually a distinct poison gland that ants use for that. In this particular species, however, the Dufour—which is more often used to generate the chemicals that ants use to mark their trails—is the source of the poison.

What makes the poison so special would be its potency as well as its method of deployment. Most ants with stings need to actually come in contact with the prey for their venom to work: their sting is a contact-based one that relies on a prick or bite to be discharged effectively into the prey’s body. With Crematogaster striatula, you get something quite unusual—so unusual, in fact, that there is only one other known ant that employs a similar method of discharging its poison. C. striatula can release its poison as an aerosol.

The ant basically lifts its stinger, releases the poison as a fine spray, and thus manages to kill its prey in a more effective manner. Effective at a maximum distance of 10 millimetres away, the spray managed to kill termites in a test within 10 minutes of deployment. This is easily one of the most efficient ways of attacking prey, especially prey like termite soldiers, who naturally try to hold their ground when their nest is attacked. The ants merely need to do a few raids to get a good supply of termites back to their own nest for food.

Termite control experts are already talking about how this could be applied to the termite control mixtures they use. More research has to be performed by the scientists studying the ant species in question, of course, but once the proper chemicals have been identified, experts hope that they can be used to generate a new and very potent termiticide.

One of the most popular landmarks in the Kolkota area of India, the St. James Church, has just been opened again to the public after over a year of restoration and termite treatment procedures. The church was originally closed down because of inspections of the structure revealing that the extent to which termites as well as rainy weather had eaten out the edifice, leading to it being pronounced unsafe for both tourists and churchgoers in the area.

The cruciform church should actually have been given a restoration much earlier. It had suffered from more than the results of a lack of proper termite treatment and relentless rains each year: it had also weathered several earthquakes, leading to many cracks and injuries to the overall structure. However, as is the way with most structures of this type, restoration had to wait for funds to be gathered first.

A common outcry conservationists and those dedicated to causes of heritage in all countries is about the lack of funds for preserving structures of the same type as the St. James Church. According to these people, these sorts of buildings actually have a definite value that goes beyond the monetary, rooted in the historical significance and cultural investment to be found in these structures. Unfortunately, a very limited number of these buildings get the attention they deserve, and are thus more or less ignored when it comes to government funding for restoration projects. Churches in particular are subject to these circumstances: in this year alone, several small but historic churches in the United States too have had to undergo restoration and repair for issues such as termite damage, with the money being provided not by government institutions dedicated to conservation or heritage but by private donors.

This is the usual way when it comes to this sort of building: funds have to be raised by the actual churchgoers, parishioners, and other locals in order for there to be any restoration at all. And restoration can cost quite a lot for these structures. It is not just about repairing termite damage and installing termite prevention for the future: it is usually also about replacing cracked pieces of flooring, replacing broken stained glass windows, re-plastering the whole edifice, and various other things. In some cases, as a matter of fact, a complete overhaul of the wiring system may even be required for safety’s sake.

Clearly, conservation is an expensive business, and the Kolkota community is most fortunate to have managed to get up enough funds and donations to have had their church restored and given a proper termite treatment. The St. James Church, by the way, is also locally referred to as Jora Girja, in reference to the pair of spires that make it so easily distinguishable.