This is a photo of termites building a tunnel through a crack in the garage slab.  Termites must create tunnels when leaving the soil.  The tunnels are a way for termites to protect themselves against the environmental elements as well as potential predators, such as ants.  Termites use the tunnels to help keep themselves moist while traveling upward into a potential food source, such as one's home.  Tunnels are built and have no rhyme or reason to them.  As you can see by these pictures, these tunnels vary in size and shape.  Sometimes tunnels are thin and straight and sometimes they are thick and zig zag.  Termites are blind and build, hoping to find a food source quickly.  There is no rhyme or reason as to how they build their mud tunnels.  View the pictures below to see what termites can do and how they travel.

Infested Firstline Bait Monitor. You can see how the termite bring dirt/mud into the galleries they infest.  What you are seeing is the worker cast.  However, if you look closely, you can see two termites that each have an orange head.  Those termite are the soldiers and they protect the workers from harm.

The termites begin their infestation of the wooden stake from the bottom, up.

These are the termites that came out of the bait station monitor.  You are only seeing some of those from the wooden stake.  There were many more termites that were found infesting this 2 inch wide and 6 inch long wooden stake.  Imagine how many termites are infesting your home?