The Oldest Bug Can Outlive Your Dog and Lays 200 Million Eggs

Photo byUSDA

When you think of bugs, you probably assume they have short lives. And in most cases, that's true.

Flies only live about 15 days. Any spider unwise enough to find itself inside my house meets an untimely demise under a shoe or paper towel within minutes.

But it turns out there's a specific bug that can live almost three decades: the queen termite.

Queen termites are the most important members of a termite colony. They live underground and are tended to by thousands of worker termites.

If you see a termite swarmer in your home, that's one of the workers of the colony (and you should probably call a pest control company). They have short lifespans like most bugs.

But the queen termite, who stays back in the nest and lays eggs to keep the colony up and running, can live for 25 years or more.

Think about that for a second: that's a bug that lives longer than your dog.

A queen termite can lay an incredible number of eggs. On average, she will pump out a new egg every three seconds. That's over 200 million eggs over her lifespan.

With all those workers, termite mounds can grow up to 30 feet high over many decades. And if a queen dies, a new queen will replace her.

Here's the weirdest thing, though. Queen termites are considered a delicacy in many cultures. People eat them. Apparently they taste like goose liver.

It's a weird way for a 25+ year old bug to perish. But then, almost everything about termite queens is a little weird.