28 replies to this topic

[Nare]

Well they're still alive, so that's a start. For lower termites, first brood does take ages to develop. Just be glad you aren't keeping Zootermopsis nevadensis - I think a subspecies of that species can take up to 2 years to get anywhere. Undoubtedly, lc3 will be along to correct me if I'm wrong. Is the substrate still moist enough?

[CoolColJ]

Well they're still alive, so that's a start. For lower termites, first brood does take ages to develop. Just be glad you aren't keeping Zootermopsis nevadensis - I think a subspecies of that species can take up to 2 years to get anywhere. Undoubtedly, lc3 will be along to correct me if I'm wrong. Is the substrate still moist enough?

I've been adding water every few weeks.
Although not much gets absorbed in so it still well hydrated

Edited by CoolColJ, January 13 2019 - 6:34 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Summer 17th January 2019
 
Toilet paper test tube setup - red film - in incubator @ 27 degrees
 
Been a month since I last updated, and not much has happened.
I add water every couple of weeks.

Their chamber looks much the same and they still hang out in the same place.
I just don't think they have any brood right now...

[TennesseeAnts]

Update?

[CoolColJ]

Autumn 298th April 2019
 
Toilet paper test tube setup - red film - heat cable
 
Added water to the test tube today and did not see any activity...
Usually they get alarmed and run around.
Perhaps they have tunneled further in

[CoolColJ]

RIP

 

I found both Termites lying in the open on their back dead...The test tube dried out most likely,,,,but the paper still felt damp

Looks like their brood never got of the ground as well

 

gasters look very small and shrunken

 

I don't think the test tube method is sustainable

Edited by CoolColJ, August 26 2019 - 1:47 AM.

[Nare]

RIP
 
I found both Termites lying in the open on their back dead...The test tube dried out most likely,,,,but the paper still felt damp
Looks like their brood never got of the ground as well
 
gasters look very small and shrunken
 
I don't think the test tube method is sustainable

Sounds like they dried out, yeah. I think I saw somewhere that someone else said they had much more luck with petri dishes for founding. However, I've had great sucess with test tubes, at least in the colonies I've kept. I suspect founding colonies need lots of moisture - I've been keeping my test tube founding colonies in moisture chambers, and 1 of them has almost 10 or more larva after just 2 months since being paired up. However, in the colonies that I've sold that aren't being kept in moisture chambers, larva are only now just appearing.

 

Another factor could be the heat - might have dried them out rather fast, or been too hot for them. I wouldn't put it past termites to not found due to heat.

 

If you find more, it might be a good idea to slip in a piece of cardboard as well. I've found my subterranean pairs haven't done a ton of digging in the tissue paper, but they've made themselves right at home in the cracks and crevasses of the cardboard.

 

So I wouldn't say the test tube method is unsustainable, but it does need some work. I'm learning as I go, as is everyone else I think.

[Antkeeper01]

update? did you catch new termites this year?

[CoolColJ]

update? did you catch new termites this year?

Long gone and dead now

 

I have unearthed a few nests under rocks, but left them mostly, apart from grabbing some feeders for my ants sometimes

 

No Kings and queens so far