31 replies to this topic

[Leo]

how are they?

[dspdrew]

I'm going to go ahead and declare them dead. I haven't seen them come out of their little piece of wood in months.

[Leo]

oh

[Subverted]

Unless you break up the wood you will never know if they are alive because they have evolved and adapted to fit between the rings in the wood. I have been tricked by them before.

[dspdrew]

Updated 2-16-2018

 

Well, it's been almost a year since I declared them dead, and apparently this colony is actually still alive. I cracked open the tiny shell of a piece of rotted wood they were living in, and they were still in there, alive. Either the queen or the king has died though, so it doesn't look like they are producing anything anymore. I gave them a new piece of wood and they immediately started chewing into it.

 

[sgheaton]

HAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.........Can't wait for you to become a parent

[NikolaBale]

They are so cute and chubby

[sericultivist]

Termites are weird in the sense that they don't NEED a king or queen to found a colony. All termites are born with the capability to become reproductives, and I've started colonies just by capturing a bunch of normal termites.

[LC3]

Huh they have wing buds. You might be getting a new king and queen sometime drew.

[ponerinecat]

that dried up and flat body is from a lack of moisture. Best to use a test tube or put a sponge under the wood.

[Vendayn]

that dried up and flat body is from a lack of moisture. Best to use a test tube or put a sponge under the wood.

This would be most likely wrong. I definitely had moist wood with moisture with mine and they still dried up and died. I even misted their setup. I've tried dry setups, humid setups, wet setups and they always dry up and die lol. I dunno what that is about.

 

But it would definitely be wrong to assume dry wood termites live in dry conditions and that is what they must live in. They thrive in florida where its really wet and humid most of the time. So for that fact, that means they probably actually do better in humid environments funny enough.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-8-2019
 
Well a couple weeks ago we had a flight of these again and I collected a few of them. When I got home I dropped them in the same little setup I had the last colony in. I put a piece of an old dried up log in with them, and right away they started digging into it. I ended up with what looked like two termite pairs, and two holes in the wood.

 

 

 

A few days ago I checked on them, and noticed a dead termite in one of the holes. I checked the other hole, and there was what looked like a little black plug in it. I pulled it off, and saw a few little eggs in there, so it looks like they might be starting a colony. The next day, I noticed they closed the hole back up with some termite frass.