206 Bulletin 151, Truck and Garden Insects

 SWEET POTATOES
TERMITES IN SWEET POTATOES (Termes flavipes) (See also page 189)
 Termites or white ants, often called "wood lice" in Florida,
sometimes mine sweet potatoes, and their tunnels are frequently
mistaken for those of the sweet potato root-weevil. It is not
difficult to tell them apart, however. The tunnels of the weevil
are of a small and uniform diameter and nearly circular in out-
line, while those of the termites are very irregular in shape and
size and are usually very much larger. Then too, the potato
infested with weevils has a very bitter taste, which is not present
in termite-eaten ones unless they have commenced to decay.
 The termites themselves are somewhat the color of the grubs
of the weevils, but are more of a yellowish white. They can be
told at once by the prominent legs and head with strong jaws.
 Termites live chiefly in rotten wood and it is only in soils
having more or less of this material, such as newly cleared land,
that they are found in any numbers.