(all taken from obersavations of my colonies and from internet sorces of easteran subterranean termites)
how to keep termites-
to start off make sure you have the proper space to keep these massive colonies, 5-10 million per colony (depending on species). also beaware that every male and female termite worker (when together) has the potenital to become a secondary reproductive pair. and you may end up with doezens of secondary reproductive pairs each capible of laying up to 86,000 eggs a day not a typo i really mean 86,000 (depending on species). and since new termite coloines ussaly start off as a secondary pair tunneling away from the nest with the workers they gave birth to, and since you more than likely wont be able to release any of your termites in to the wild (invaseive species issues) your encloser will becom rather big in a short peirod of time.
second make sure you have a spot to keep the queen, king, and about 10 workers for about 3 - 4 years (depending on species). the queen and king will mate then go about there bussnis eating and drinking lots of water. then in about a week you will notice that the queen has gotten slightly larger and her abdomen has gotten whiter. she will then lay 8 - 10 eggs (depending on species) and about a month latter they will start to hach. after those first 8 - 10 eggs are layed it is not uncommon to have them stop reporduceing all together, for the next 3 - 4 years (again depending on species) the queen's reproductive organs will grow to full size. she will grow from about 3 mm to about 3.5 cm in leangth and will no longer be able to move without the aid of her workers. after she is fully grown she will start to mate again and in about a week she will start to produce eggs non-stop up to 86,000 a day. also be prepared to have her for a while because unlike ants whose queens usally live to be only 30 years old a termite queen can live to be 50 years old and since they have mulitipal reproductive pairs per colony the first queen will die but the colony may never.
first encloser to keep your termites in-
i would suggest staying away from test tubes because unlike ants the termite pair you have may just eat the cotton ball procting them from drowning so i would suggest a petry dish of some sort. in the dish put a few q-tips (cotton part only no stick) in with a pice or 2 of paper over each of them so they have a little roufed house (they will even seal the edges to close it up). and along the edge of the dish put a small pice of wood put a drop of water on the pice of wood each day or when you notice the paper underneth it is dry.
- first encloser pic
second encloser to keep your termites in (probly last)-
so long as the second encloser is excape prof you should have no problum keeping them. but make sure that this new encloser has the ablity to expand as your colony will get big fast. this encloser can have dirt but does not need it, however it would probly be best if it did. it can be a basin or display type and for wich ever one you chose fill it only half way with dirt as they will construct mud tubes to expand as they need to. as far as watering goes at this point just keep there food sorce moist and within contact of the ground or water the ground itself as well as the food sorce. if you chose not to have any dirt you must provide a massive water sorce for them or they will surly dehydrate. for food any dead plant matireal would do fine but stay away from ceder and pine. ceder has a natrual bug repellent (possilbe insecticide but not sure) and the termites will not go near the stuff. and as for pine for some reason i do not know they seem to try and avoid the stuff as much as possible i assume that it has something to do with pine acididy but not sure. also beaware that each individule worker will consume about 30(cubic)cm of wood a year so you will need a lot of it and from what i have obsevered in my colonys they would appere to prefer maple over anything els. also termites are complete vegitareans so no meat at all is needed.
thats it good luck
(this guide is still under construction, and i will modify it as i get more info and if any of you have any input please post it thank you for reading
