A serious pest of timber throughout its range. Coaton & Sheasby (1973) report a number of large scale infestations in habitations and wooden structures outside of houses. Also attacks young date palms, trunks of growing vines, the stems of standing dry maize plants, and dry stalks of millet.
In Egypt Psammotermes is and was historically a serious pest: for example, the Pharaohs imported termite-resistant wood for their mummy cases (Harris, 1970).
Psammotermes occupies deserts wherever there is vegetation to feed on, and appears to replace Anacanthotermes in drier areas where both genera occur. It is the most arid-adapted termite, and occurs in areas where few other arthropods can survive. It is even recorded from deserts without vegetation where it seems to survive on wind blown accumulation of organic debris. In other parts of the true deserts Psammotermes may survive on sub-fossil relics of a humid Pleistocene fauna (e.g. trunks of Tamarix in the Sahara, Harris, 1970).
