I heard (from a good freind) that termites don't eat wood. They just chew wood (lignin) into tiny pieces. Termite keep some friends (little black ants) who can collect (wild) yeasts which can ferment (or eat or process) wood powder into glucose and ethanol. Termites then eat (and drink) the glucose and the ethanol and be merry ;-). So things work as we see but the details of how they work are quite interesting.

BTW ทองอุไร has a kind of terpentine oil in the wood and roots. Termites don't like terpentine!