Termites, collection and breeding methods

[Tiaris]

I know a couple of people who cut a flat top on the top of the termite mound, put a 20litre drum on top which has plenty of holes drilled through the base, moistened hardwood fence paling pieces are then put into the drum (vertically), a plastic sheet is thrown over the whole lot and anchored with rocks/dirt around the base. They come back weekly to the same mound to tap the termites off the palings into a bucket and remoisten and replace them or simply collect the whole drum & replace it with another set up exactly the same & do the extracting at home.
You could do this indefinitely with a single mound as the queen will remain in the mound but numbers would be depleted after a while if taxed too regularly & would need a period to repopulate, but by working a group of mounds in a single patch of bush you could do this sustainably for many years.

[Tintola]

What a fantastic idea!!!!

[MadHatter]

Victoria has the best termite species. You guys have a small ground mound nester that is not a grass eater. It can be harvested from the mound nest with timber slats and a nest will thrive for 12 months or more after being dug out. All you need to do is take a drive north of the city for an hour or so .

Speaking for myself (and I'm guessing it's much the same for finchster) the issue is finding nests to harvest. Even if I was in the right area, I rekon I'd walk right past a nest and never even see it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I must have done so many times already. And then there's the question of whether you are permitted to harvest them. In National Park, I'm sure you can't legally do so, but i'm less sure about how that works for state parks, etc. Otherwise, you'd have to harvest from private property with the permission of the owner, and I don't think I know anyone with property out that way...

[Finchster]

Victoria has the best termite species. You guys have a small ground mound nester that is not a grass eater. It can be harvested from the mound nest with timber slats and a nest will thrive for 12 months or more after being dug out. All you need to do is take a drive north of the city for an hour or so .

Speaking for myself (and I'm guessing it's much the same for finchster) the issue is finding nests to harvest. Even if I was in the right area, I rekon I'd walk right past a nest and never even see it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I must have done so many times already. And then there's the question of whether you are permitted to harvest them. In National Park, I'm sure you can't legally do so, but i'm less sure about how that works for state parks, etc. Otherwise, you'd have to harvest from private property with the permission of the owner, and I don't think I know anyone with property out that way...

Yes i agree i think i would walk straight past them and like MadHatter i don't know anyone out that far. I still think someone should harvest them
freeze them and sell them like mealies or even like maggots over seas. There would be a big market for them i would be the number one customer
lol

[Misso]

would there be any around Heathcote area?? my pop has 40 acres there and backs onto the national park???

[Diane]

I would be willing to try a test run if desertbirds can find, box and freeze the termites.

[MadHatter]

would there be any around Heathcote area?? my pop has 40 acres there and backs onto the national park???

Should be around the right area from what I gather. As an amature naturalist, I'm reasonably confident it would not take me too long to learn to recognise the nests, though I'm sure i'll knock the tops off a few piles of plain old dirt before I eventually get my eye in. I've no need for any termites for myself at the moment, but I'd be happy to come out for a day of birding and termite hunting if you're keen. So long as your pop does not mind us wandering about the place that is.

[Danny]

What a fantastic idea!!!!

They use this method a lot in WA BUT we don't have the right species for it on the east coast (or I'd be doing it myself).

[Tiaris]

I know of blokes using it effectively on the local big red mounds. The 2m+ ones found in moist forest around here. These are too difficult to try to just dig the termites out of as their population is sparsely spread over a huge mound but this method has worked for this species of east coast termite at least.

[Danny]

The ones that friends of mine use in Wa are a large black ground nest with a softer papery outer shell. Similar to the papery one we get here in the east in gum trees but without those pointy nosed sap squirting soldiers.