日治時期臺灣白蟻災害防治的研究乃為大航海時期以來殖民地博物學研究的一環。日治時期以後臺灣總督府建設的公共建築與官舍在不到10年之間受到白蟻嚴重的侵襲，引發臺灣白蟻研究的風潮，甚至帶動日本本土白蟻蟲害防治的研究。臺灣總督府轄下的農業、林業、糖業、營繕、研究所等單位的技師攜手合作在一九○四至一九一七年間快速地建立豐碩的研究成果，在白蟻的生物性研究、驅蟻的藥物性研究、建築的防蟻構造研究以及木材的耐蟻性研究上皆有所成就；同時其研究範圍擴及日本本土、東南亞及中國南部等地，達到廣域的比較研究與跨領域合作研究的成果，而其成果亦被廣泛應用在木材防蟲防腐處理和建築設計施工上面，形成臺灣近代建築的特色之一。

The research of the prevention and control of termite disaster has been an important part of the naturalistic research since the Maritime. The research emerged in Taiwan due to many public buildings and governor’s residency were seriously damaged by termite within a decade short after the Japanese Occupation. The departments of agriculture, forest, sugar industry, civic construction and research institutes had co-operated and established prosperous researches of termite-related issues between 1904 to 1917. The profound researches of that time included the biological research of termite, vermicide drugs, and the preventive construction and material from termite. In addition, the study area of the termite-related researches expanded to mainland Japan, areas in South East Asia and the southern districts of China. Therefore, the researches were towards comparative and co-operative tendency and applied widely to the prevention treatment of timbers and construction. Furthermore, this became the characteristic of the Modern Architecture in Taiwan.