21 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

Finally after 4 tries, I got an actually successful colony of Incisitermes minor. Usually they die in days (1-3 in the past), so them still alive and rather active and no dead ones...safe to say its a success. For termites, in my experience they usually do really bad the very first day or two or do great.

 

They are also building one of those funky cellulose tunnels that my one colony made. That colony would have been still alive actually and was sort of a success. But I checked about a week later after making my post of them being dead. And, I noticed one of the wood pieces I gave them had a ton of mites. I forgot to add that part of why the colony died. So something for others to keep in mind. Even though it was a completely dry environment, guess they were dry climate mites. I noticed one of the workers that was actually still alive was covered in mites.

 

So, be sure to check ALL wood (even if its dry) before giving it to your termites.

Edited by Vendayn, March 24 2019 - 5:52 PM.

[Vendayn]

So, I went looking for Zootermopsis. I saw them before, but they must be super rare around here. Instead I found Incisitermes minor and this weird elongated tiny subterranean termite. They were both sharing the same wood.

 

Good news though is the I. minor colony is the biggest colony I've found yet. They easily number in the 1000s and I'm almost sure I got the queen with how big the colony is inside the wood. The colony is massive. So now I have a large colony that number in the 100s, and one in the 1000s.

 

I was telling LC3 on chat last night, now that I spent 10 years looking for Drywood termites...now I keep finding them instead of finding other species of termite lol. Its fine though, they are still really cool. I hope maybe because the colony numbers so much, they'll be more active than my other colony.

 

Also...this Summer will be fun. The newest colony are for sure gonna produce alates. Not a good place to fly in a garage.