2 replies to this topic

[ChemistTermiteMan]

Hey guys,

 

I'm a chemist at a wood company and I'm attempting to colonize termites in a terrarium for use in eco-friendly termite repellent wood additives for use in products. I have a couple questions before I get started and in my attempts to answer them I stumbled upon your community.

 

It would be great to have a consistent contact for questions so if you consider yourself an expert, preferably one who is familiar with the practice of science, reach out and let's be friends if you are interested.

 

I did want to note that we are not using termiticides, but rather repellents that keep the termites from burrowing into wood structures, as opposed to attempting to kill the termites. Ideally, I am trying to raise a colony (is that the correct term?) that I am able to sustain, while running experiments to test strength of repellents.

 

Has anyone explored this type of test? Would using wood containing the repellent and determining which is more appealing be the right test, or would using something like sand as burrow material to see if burrows are deeper in untreated sand be more of an applicable experiment?

 

Thanks for the help and I'm excited to participate in discussion

[VenomousBeast]

I would make your test as a natural as possible to get the best results. I would have a huge colony of termites that then have 2 seperate options for diet. One being the untreated wood and the other with the repellant. As far as I know, none of us have tried this type of test with our termites due to them being very chemical sensitive and we tend to be very affectionate of our termite colonies after we spend years trying. There aren't that many members on this forum that have had huge success with raising termites in general. I have raised a couple colonies of termites and currently have one, although it's taken a hit in numbers driving it back down to 500-600 workers. There's also the question of what species do you intend on raising for your experiment? For instance, drywood termites don't do too well in very moist woods, while Subterranean termites can eat both dry and wet wood as long as they have high humidity which they can create due to their mud tubes.

[ItalianTermiteMan2.0]

Greetings ChemistTermiteMan, first of all: do you already know  which genus (or genera) of termites you seek to house? For example Rhinotermitidae like Reticulitermes, Coptotermes and Heterotermes are ideal subjects for the kind of tests you want to carry out as they are quite easy to keep separate-piece nesters of extreme economical significance in many countries around the globe.

Regarding the tests themselves, i am not a researcher but as far as i know your first hypotesis (providing one or more colonies with different treated/untreated wood samples to observe their response to them) is the standard procedure employed to explore the effects of wood treatments (or simply wood species) on termites. 

 

If you have further questions ask away and i will asnwer as best as i can