Pet termites: incipient colony of Kalotermes flavicollis

[ItalianTermiteMan]

Just a quick sharing of a pic representing one of my incipient colonies of Kalotermes flavicollis, the mediterranean yellownecked wood-dwelling termite.
We can see the queen, the king, a few eggs and some pale, tiny larvae (yes, despite being hemimetabolous insects in termites dependant immature stages without wing buds are to be called that, with the exception of presoldiers). These larvae will soon molt into small pseudergates that will take on the colony's work while continuing to molt and grow and at least a single nanitic (smaller than usual) soldier will arise relatively quickly too.

This termite is very easy to keep and big enough to be handily observed (soldiers in mature colonies can exceed 1 cm), but as is the norm in its family Kalotermitidae grow slowly. Despite their primary royals usually having a yellow pronotum (from which both its scientific and common names comes), some populations also produce some with darker "necks", like those in this pic.

 

[ThatOneEightLeggedThing]

How do you house termites? I'm curious.

 

[ItalianTermiteMan]

How do you house termites? I'm curious.

There are several ways depending on the species, the stage of the colony and the desired observability-preferability to the animals ratio (termites tend to be very criptic critters), in this case to have the Kalotermes royal couples found i use a test tubes with the bottom fourth/third filled with pressed untreated cotton, then thin and narrow slices of untreated spruce wood occupying most of the central space (with small diveders of cotton to form several "rooms" trhough their lenght) and finally a plug of untreated cotton. I keep these setups vertical, humid but not damp, wrapped in thin foil for darkness and at around 25 C.

 

[ThatOneEightLeggedThing]

There are several ways depending on the species, the stage of the colony and the desired observability-preferability to the animals ratio (termites tend to be very criptic critters), in this case to have the Kalotermes royal couples found i use a test tubes with the bottom fourth/third filled with pressed untreated cotton, then thin and narrow slices of untreated spruce wood occupying most of the central space (with small diveders of cotton to form several "rooms" trhough their lenght) and finally a plug of untreated cotton. I keep these setups vertical, humid but not damp, wrapped in thin foil for darkness and at around 25 C.

Now, for a mature colony do you house them similar to an ant colony?

 

[ItalianTermiteMan]

No: very indicatively, there are two main keeping methods for them: either you use a natural-like setup (little more than a container filled with wood, soil and sand so to speak) which is the preferred solution by the critters but severely limit visibility; or if you want to observe them well you prepare a planar nest made with two sheets of glass or plexiglass with an internal space filled with a slice of wood or pieces of soft white-root wood thin enough to prevent the termites from hiding themselves. You can search "termitat" on google to get a general idea of the functioning of the latter type of setup, though you can build them in many different ways.

 

[ThatOneEightLeggedThing]

Termitas are quite impressive. I wouldn't mind having one in the future. thanks for the info!

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

No: very indicatively, there are two main keeping methods for them: either you use a natural-like setup (little more than a container filled with wood, soil and sand so to speak) which is the preferred solution by the critters but severely limit visibility; or if you want to observe them well you prepare a planar nest made with two sheets of glass or plexiglass with an internal space filled with a slice of wood or pieces of soft white-root wood thin enough to prevent the termites from hiding themselves. You can search "termitat" on google to get a general idea of the functioning of the latter type of setup, though you can build them in many different ways.

Can’t wait to see your termite collection!!! Impressive! I see the resemblance to roaches in the king/queen.

 

[Tentacle Toast]

How do you house termites? I'm curious.

Well I'll tell you what I did..
I used to feed native termites to my dart frogs; I'd go & find them in the wild, in the WNY area, they seem to be abundant along the "woods" following the old rail lines, & I'd dig & chop their colony out of whatever mound they inhabited, along with some of the wood they were feeding on, & throw them in some of the large Rubbermaid storage containers that they sell at hardware stores, with pieces cut out of the lids. Never had to buy fruit flys or "extra small" crickets again.... perpetual food source.