Some time ago I promised a few AFFers I'd take some photos as I hunt/collect termites. Took a while but I remembered!
I believe the 2 nests collected this morning are both Nasutitermes exitiosus due to the pointy dark headed soldiers (no nippers).
I find the best locations are vacant council or RTA land that's been stuffed up in the past during road works or similar. These government mobs rarely take care of their land so there's no topsoil, heaps of scrub but little decent grass cover which the termite species we want seem to love. Contrary to carpenter/builder advice I find they seem to love ironbark trees. So if you spot an ironbark in the scrub there'll likely be a termite nest nearby.
Here's the first nest of the day which is roughly 600mm diameter and 300mm high (2 foot wide by 1 foot high in the old money).
Next shot is the same mound after sinking a shovel into it. Notice it's pretty soft so no mattock or bar is needed.
Split it into three large chunks and then into the bin. I try to put it back together in the bin as much as possible - seems to last longer this way. In my experience this termite species and in particualr this size mound will survive for at least 2 months.
I took all of this mound so nothing left but dirt!
The next one I found is a fair bit larger. Probably about 600mm or so high (2 foot or so in the old money). This means it has a rock hard case just under the outer shell. I often leave these ones and search for a smaller one, but for the purpose of this post I collected part of this one. In my experience the larger ones don't survive so well in a bin so need to be separated and/or fed out quickly. This next image shows the result after launching a 6 foot steel pry bar at it - really tough.
After banging away for a while you're able to pry off a section of the hard "crust" to reveal the crunchy inside. You can easily spoon this stuff out with a shovel.
Here's what's left of the nest - I only took maybe a quarter of this nest and then shovelled some dirt in to cover the hole a bit.
I always intermingle some of the hard crust with the soft stuff within the bin otherwise you'll find the termites tend to get squished and hence don't last long at all. Here's the full bin.
As I unpacked the 4WD this guy (and many of his mates) were watching from the wheelbarrow. Must have known what was on offer.
And finally the happy ending!
Termite hunting expedition
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mattymeischke
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- Posts: 862
- Joined: 25 Jul 2011, 20:25
- Location: Southern Tablelands of NSW
top work, Sam.
thanks for the pics.
thanks for the pics.
Avid amateur aviculturalist; I keep mostly australian and foreign finches.
The art is long, the life so short; the critical moment is fleeting and experience can be misleading, crisis is difficult....... (Hippocrates)
The art is long, the life so short; the critical moment is fleeting and experience can be misleading, crisis is difficult....... (Hippocrates)
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maskedshoey
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- Posts: 11
- Joined: 19 Jan 2012, 20:18
- Location: Douglas Park NSW
good one dad
1pair masks plus a fair few babies, 1pair ruddies plus heaps of babies, 1pair orange breasts plus heaps of babies yet.
