151 replies to this topic

[CoolColJ]

I came across the original nest that had the termites at the start of this journal today.
The last time I looked it appeared to be raided by Aphaenogaster longiceps, and was deserted.
Today there were at least a 100 alate nymphs and back in action!

But before I arrived at the nest I found another one which looked to have a few hundred alate nymphs!!
Spring things... anyway scraped at least a 100 of them plus workers and a few soldiers.

tonight my ants will dine on one alate nypmh each

Then the rest will go into my 90mm glass petri dishes, which are also deeper
I hope to setup up a water dish for humidity - maybe just a cotton in a lid/cap
Apart from that I don't have any idea what to do

Their nest is just tunnels and chambers under a rock slab.
So maybe something similar will do, but what they eat is more important.... which I don't think is wood...

Edited by CoolColJ, September 20 2018 - 8:29 PM.

[CoolColJ]

So I read this in a PDF  https://www.google.c...PCcLPvWEJeVX0cE

 

Australian nasutes are ecologically dominant in savannah habitats and are known for their
diverse feeding habits, ranging from sound wood through to
rotting wood, leaf litter, grass, soil or a combination of
these substrates

 

hmmm

 

So soil from their area and some leaf litter would cover a lot of bases.

As the area there did not have much grass, but a lot of leaf litter

 

but the PDF states N. dixoni and N. fumigatus feed on wood...

 

so best would to get some wood from the area

Edited by CoolColJ, September 20 2018 - 9:23 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 21st September 2018
 
Alate nymphs have wings!

At least the 3 that I can see staying above, which might be the only surviving ones...

Edited by CoolColJ, September 21 2018 - 12:31 AM.

[CoolColJ]

I dumped those alate nymphs I collected today, with some workers and soldiers in the mix, plus their original nest dirt into the 90mm glass petri dish
Then spread it out, and feed the dead ones to my ants.

Placed a wet cotton in the centre, and after an hour half of the 100+ termites have packed themselves onto the wet cotton!
They obviously seem attracted to it, so one would think wet cotton is a nice thing to keep them in...

[Nare]

Pictures please! This is kinda exciting...

[CoolColJ]

Nest has gotten moldy and had quite a few deaths, but the surviving alate nymphs have grown some wings, but still not mature yet

You can see the mold spores...

 

click to enlarge

The new batch - at least 100 here, and some are under the cotton!

 

[CoolColJ]

In the new setup with the 100+ termites, the larger 90mm glass petri dish seems to help.

Not all the soil gets moist from the 3 wet cotton wool, about a third remains dry, so if things get too wet the termites can move out

 

So far the termites here do move around a lot more. I see workers foraging in the soil it appears.

Everytime I look there is a different distribution of them in the dish

 

So it would appear that larger = better for survival

Edited by CoolColJ, September 23 2018 - 6:56 PM.

[Nare]

 

Not all the soil gets moist from the 3 wet cotton wool, about a third remains dry, so if things get too wet the termites can move out

 

A gradient is probably the best thing to have, so that the termites can choose themselves where to go. Good luck with this batch!

[CoolColJ]

With the 90mm glass petri dish, the lid is quite a bit larger than the base, so what I did was put a thick rubber band wedged inbetween the lid and base.

So there is a gap between the lid and base on one side, for air flow

And that side's soil does appear to be much dryer as well

 

--

 

In a few days time the plan -

 

put another new wet cotton on one side of the current cotton cluster, touching to wick water.

Leave the other ones alone.

Then later add another new wet cotton on the other side and let the others dry.

remove the completely dry one on the opposite side.

 

repeat

Edited by CoolColJ, September 22 2018 - 3:08 PM.

[sirjordanncurtis]

There's so many nymphs.....

[CoolColJ]

There's so many nymphs.....

 

yeah maybe too much for the amount of workers, but they also make great self contained protein packed meal for my small ant colonies

[Nare]

 

There's so many nymphs.....

 

yeah maybe too much for the amount of workers, but they also make great self contained protein packed meal for my small ant colonies

 

In my colony with a similar demographic, they seem to be surviving, but aren't digging much. The workers just seem to stand around. When they molt into actual reproductives, I hope to see more action.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 25th September 2018
 
Nest 1 - I think there is only 3 alate nymphs, 2 with wings, 1 worker and 1 soldier left, at least the ones that hang out up top ....
I removed the old cotton and tehre were no termites under it, and the moldy leaf bits, and put in a fresh wet cotton.
termites are hnaging out on the wood.

There may be some under the wood.


Nest 2 - some dead bodies that I didn't clear out went moldy and hairy mold spread on the backside of the nest!
Cleaned that out, and dumped some springtails onto the wet cotton, no much but I did see some adult sprintails running around a bit.
My culture aren't dense and old enough yet

Things go moldy so fast in these setups!

[CoolColJ]

Going to try move some of the termites from the second setup into a test tube all cotton one to test

And the rest into another glass petri dish

Edited by CoolColJ, September 24 2018 - 10:48 PM.

[Nare]

Going to try move some of the termites from the second setup into a test tube all cotton one to test
 

If you have toilet paper, I recommend that instead of cotton. My termites have had a much easier time digging tunnels in toilet paper, and in the tunnels they've dug, there are 0 signs of mold. It's also easier to shove toilet paper into a tube than cotton - I've fractured at least a tube or two trying to shove cotton into them.

[CoolColJ]

 

Going to try move some of the termites from the second setup into a test tube all cotton one to test

If you have toilet paper, I recommend that instead of cotton. My termites have had a much easier time digging tunnels in toilet paper, and in the tunnels they've dug, there are 0 signs of mold. It's also easier to shove toilet paper into a tube than cotton - I've fractured at least a tube or two trying to shove cotton into them.

 

Too late
Although I might do that with the other termites still in the dish
I used a 20mm test tube so it was not too bad


Spring 26th September 2018

 

Quite a bit of dead or dying alate nyphms in the 90mm glass petri dish setup.

With hairy mold growing fast!

Moved them to a clean 90mm glass petri dish with just wet cotton.

Separated the dead non moldy ones to feed my ants.

 

Moved 60% the 90mm petri dish setup into a 20mm glass test tube, with 4 syringes of water and enough cotton balls to pack into it tight and absorb all the water.

I formed a flat area at the front and a small starter hole.

In hindsight too much water and cotton, so not much space left at the front....

 

At least 30 workers in this setup

 

click to enlarge - some of the alate nymphs look to be on their death bed...

 

Edited by CoolColJ, September 25 2018 - 4:42 PM.

[CoolColJ]

I moved another combo of termites into a 20mm test tube and toilet paper + 4 syringes of water combo.

 

There are some 30-40 odd alate nyphms left over sitting in a 90mm glass petri dish with 2 cotton balls.

These will probably die out, but will fed to my ants in any case. We shall see

 

I do see the poop from the test tube setups already.

The concentrated natures of the setups should maximize any anti-bacterial action it has if any.

Probably too crowded as well...

Edited by CoolColJ, September 26 2018 - 1:15 AM.

[CoolColJ]

Went queen ant hunting in the bush today

 

I turned over a rock that revealed a termite nest with more advanced alate nymphs, with brown wings already, so these termites may fly within a month or so.

There was a Polyrhachis ammon nest right next to them, under the rock, which probably had no idea they were next to termites!

Some of them scrambled and grabbed a few termites, while others moved their cocoons into a small hole

 

I captured another batch of termites from here, some brown wing alate nymphs, workers and guards.

Hopefully I can get some mature alates out of these and get my own tandem pairing king and queen action happening

Edited by CoolColJ, September 26 2018 - 9:10 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Spring 27th September

 

Setup 1 - 55mm petri dish

Since I put in hew cotton wool a few days ago, the termites on the surface went underground.

I just saw one of the alate nymphs on the surface and she has dark wings!

[CoolColJ]

I left the newly collected termites in the capture vial overnight, with their dirt.

The room RH is 52% , and it should be higher inside an enclosed area so maybe 60-70%

 

They dug out some passages and chambers inside the vial against the sides, even though they are exposed to light

Workers of this colony seem much more active.

 

Will likely move them to a 20mm test tube and toilet paper setup today