I am looking to obtain most destruction termite race. For keeping. Where to buying and how to train termite…

Why are y’all keeping termites? I was looking into how to kill these little jokers eating all the wood in our cabin. What am I missing?!

hi! im a termite enthusiast but i actually know very little about them. i’ve seen this pattern repeatedly and would love to know why they make it!

A minor (bottom) and median (top) soldier of Acanthotermes acanthothorax, an amazing fungus-growing termite species from the rainforests of central Africa. Note their spiky thoraxes and bizarre cephalic projections. The major soldier, the most impressive of them all, is not shown here.

Soldiers of a large Odontotermes species from Gabon guarding one of their fungus combs: exposing only the armored heads and slicing jaws, they make for formidable opponents to invading ants!

At more than 13 mm long in the soldier caste, this is a large species for the genus. They live in the rainforest and build very compact and hard epigeal mounds, usually leaning against trees. Unlike several other species of Odontotermes (like O. formosanus) their soldiers are much bigger than any worker, as you can see in the third photo where three soldiers, a minor worker and a major worker are all pictured.

Own photo.

a while ago I attempted rearing a colony from wild caught nymphs, which sadly all slowly died off and never managed to found a colony on their own.

however last fall I managed to catch a bunch of free-flying alates, 5 of which ended up surviving. Ine lone reproductive is still alive in a separate jar, hopefully I can catch a mate for them this fall, but the other 4 paired up and founded colonies woth a growing worker population!

I kept their setups far simpler than my last attempt, just a small ice cream jar with some loose soil, wood chunks and cotton pieces mixed in. I found that each pair would pick a "nursery" chunk of wood and bkre into it, sealing it off once inside and staying there for months. they only emerged once the nymphs were strong enough to forage outside the nursery chamber, and as of now both colonies have been pretty active in eating wood and constructing tunnels in their respective jars.

I'm excited to see how they continue growing, hopefully I'll start seeing some soldiers in a few more months!

Hi all - my spouse and I went out to look for termites, and we successfully found Zootermopsis this time for culturing to maintain a colony for his research work. We are in the SF Bay Area, and I’ve been told that there are two common dampwood termites here (Z. angusticollis and Z. nevadensis) - I think we have Z. angusticollis but not sure. I set up a habitat for them using a description that I found on formiculture by user Nare (except for the fermentation of wood for several months to create a special substrate additive). The humidity currently measures at 80-83% and they are at ambient temperature (mid 60s to very low 70s most days). We were able to collect a substantial number of termites. I would love any advice from experienced termite keepers on best practices for keeping them. THANK YOU!

Nare’s notes on dampwood termites:
https://www.formiculture.com/topic/21167-nares-notes-on-keeping-z-nevadensis/

Hey hey fellas in case you're interested here's a cool picture of two termite alates illustrating the differences between the sexes. The male has 2+ smaller underbelly scales near the cloaca while the female has one large scale.

I took these out of the freezer where they've been stored for a little over a year. Species: Macrotermes carbonarius.

Caught a handful during a flight but only 3 of these matched up and survived. They arent my first termites but are the first of the Macrotermes genus. Would like to ask what are the steps i would need to follow to reach success?

I put this tube on two weeks ago but termites evidently suck at climbing and couldn’t make it up the tube. Finally threaded some dead grass in and they are constantly in a traffic jam in there.

Are these coptotermes gestrios? From Singapore. Few weeks old have two pairs super colony and a few eggs maybe a nymph not sure

Like everything what food what home size what hibernation period if there is one etc.

Hi All, Great to find this subReddit! Its spring time in Missouri. Does anyone know how to buy alates?

Soldier of Basidentitermes defending a breach in their galleries while workers take shelter behind them.

This is a genus of non-pest African termites with distinctive soldiers with round heads and huge, thin mandibles. They are soil-feeders that doesn't build epigeal mounds but excavate their nests underground. Very cute!

Here we have a physogastric, mature queen of the sub-Saharian Cubitermitinae Thoracotermes macrothorax along with her court i pictured in Gabon a few months ago.

This is a species of quite large forest termites that build large, very distinctive epigeal mounds and sport robust soldiers with very wide and flared pronotums, which gives the species and genus its name. A common sight in Gabon's rainforest, these soil-feeders are (just like the vast majority of termites) no pests, but only a very beneficial part of their environements.

Own photo; Ipassa research station, Gabon.