Effects of 2 components; termite-biomass and experiment duration on estimates of wood-consumption rates (mg wood/g termite/day), were examined. Three models; (1) no mortality, (2) linear mortality and (3) nonlinear mortality were used to calculate mean standing-crop biomass of termites. Model (1) predicted a significantly lower wood-consumption rate than those based on models (2) and (3). No significant difference was detected between rates based on models (2) and (3) when data within defined experiment duration were used.