Lamb
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If you look up termites on the web, you generally get info about how to kill them...the opposite of what I want to do. So, after finding a good number of termites under some rotting bark on a log, I decided to scrounge around to see if there were any tips to keeping the sample I've got alive and well until my E. cirrigera can gobble them up. Here's what I found:
3 things are key to termites
1. temperature - their activity levels are defined by it, and they wont forage terrestrially if too hot
or too cold
2. moisture - they are thin 'skinned' and can dry out quickly, this is why the colony typically
must stay in contact with the soil. They use mud tunnels to help them create moist
environments for travel.
3. food - cellulose, cellulose, cellulose. Obviously they eat wood, but they'll also eat cardboard and
paper. There are some types of wood they don't like as much, and occasionally they'll eat live
plant material.
These are the simple basics. Right now, I've probably got 100 or so in a 1.5 gallon mason jar with mud, soil, bark, and rotten wood that I found them with. I've seen soldier castes, and regular looking termites. You can find some pretty cool pictures of each of the castes online. I'm going to supplement the jar with some paper and wood, and see how it goes. I also plan to mist the jar once a day. It is covered by cloth and then the metal lid with holes poked in it. I'll let you know how it goes. If anyone knows how to keep 100 or so termites alive in a mason jar for a few weeks, please reply.
3 things are key to termites
1. temperature - their activity levels are defined by it, and they wont forage terrestrially if too hot
or too cold
2. moisture - they are thin 'skinned' and can dry out quickly, this is why the colony typically
must stay in contact with the soil. They use mud tunnels to help them create moist
environments for travel.
3. food - cellulose, cellulose, cellulose. Obviously they eat wood, but they'll also eat cardboard and
paper. There are some types of wood they don't like as much, and occasionally they'll eat live
plant material.
These are the simple basics. Right now, I've probably got 100 or so in a 1.5 gallon mason jar with mud, soil, bark, and rotten wood that I found them with. I've seen soldier castes, and regular looking termites. You can find some pretty cool pictures of each of the castes online. I'm going to supplement the jar with some paper and wood, and see how it goes. I also plan to mist the jar once a day. It is covered by cloth and then the metal lid with holes poked in it. I'll let you know how it goes. If anyone knows how to keep 100 or so termites alive in a mason jar for a few weeks, please reply.
, and I'm not up to date on caste names. When I get a second it might be fun to look into.