[motydesign]

I got a set of 4k termites that did great for 2 months, i ended up splitting the culture to trade for some other feeders. Since then it seems as if my culture is crashing (slowly) is there any way to bring it around? or is there a fatal flaw i made when i split them? it seems as if there is no reproduction.

 

[Ed]

It takes awhile for secondary reproductives to get established. When you split the culture a number of things could be going on but probably it hadn't established the secondary reproductives and conditions aren't optimal to sustaining the termites long term so you are seeing it decline.

Ed

 

[motydesign]

Thank you ed, any suggestion? I set up a piece of wood with a 5"x 2"x1" hole in the middle filled with wet cardboard, placed on a 3" bet of cocofiber and bark mix. Kept lightly moist. And a pile of wet cardboard on the other end of the sweater box

 

[Ed]

How warm are you keeping them?


Ed

 

[motydesign]

73 at top of coco mix and 75 measured at the bottom

 

[Ed]

do you have the culture set up like this way? Culturing termites - Arachnoboards

They need 100% relative humidity so your housing method may be too dry if you aren't keeping that container inside another one with water as a moat.
It can take as long as 3-4 months for eggs to finally be laid and another month or so for new nymphs to appear. If you are still harvesting from the culture, you are going to wipe it out quickly. Ideally the culture should be started with as many termites as possible.
Ed

 

[motydesign]

yeah thats the set up idea i used... i will look into this a bit more then? interesting, sounds like i just didnt wait long enough for secondary reproductives to establish, OR when i split the colony i may have pulled them out of the colony (i guesss that would be unlikely, but assuming they are in similar parts of the of the CX i could have pulled them all together. of 4k i dont know how many secondary reproductives would establish?

thanks ed for all your help!

 

[Ed]

The number of secondary reproductives that end up developing is variable but depends on how healthy the culture is and the conditions. If the humidity is too low, you will lose all of the termites before they develop.

Ed

 

[Divegod]

I have been working with termites for almost 10 years. Ed is right, humidity (or lack thereof) is the number one issue. Heat is the next. Finally, having secondary reproductives is great, but you are unlikely to have gotten a queen with your colony. The colony will make another queen eventually, but they need to be very comfortable to do so. And, they need time. My recommendation: get a 10g, get a glass top and find a very quiet and cool place to situate it. Set it up with sandy, sterilized soil in the bottom, and pieces of wood above that. At least some of the wood should be old and waterlogged, and should have some of native soil and pieces of wood from where the termites originated. Mist occasionally and dont mess with it for 6 mos. If you can see juvies, congratulations, you have a queen. Now, you can remove some (SOME! like, less than 50) every two to four weeks. Termites do NOT like being disturbed, and my experience has been that they need a 'critical mass' in a colony before you can feed from it consistently.
Good luck!
DG

 

[motydesign]

thank you DG, my culture has still been putting along, i havent even opened it in a month. i doubt that it has a queen, but they seem to be living life, well see where it goes from here, but obviously the divison was what took my "mass" away and disrupted everything

 

[Steven rider]

sorry for the dumb question. were exactly can you get termite cultures?

 

[Ed]

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/40636-sub-termite-culture.html

It is against federal law to ship them across state borders unless you and the shipper are both in possession of the proper pest permits issued by the USDA. The above thread discusses collecting and culturing them.

Ed