Aussie Finch Forum

Hi guys

I have a quick question regarding collecting termites (sorry if this has been covered elsewhere). I live in a rural area, so termite nests are plentiful (I have quite a few nests within walking distance ). I was wondering how you guys go about collecting them. How much of a nest do you take at a time? What do you use to transport it in / store it? Do you get enough to last a few days / week / weeks etc? Do the ants last long away from the nest?

Thanks in advance.

Dal,now that you have your 5 posts up, go to advanced search and type in termites,there's some great info and the new ways of harvesting and freezing them to store them. Search Termite Tumbler Cheers Craig

If you have them that close and have easy access you can harvest them direct from the nest.
All you need is a hessian sack that is wet and some wet hard board(masonite board) or soaked hardwood.Small sections are best.
Simply cut off about 20mm or so off the mound top and see if the ants appear. If they do place the boards across the flat section
and then the wet sack over the top.At first leave it alone for 4 or 5 days then simply take your container,lift the sack away and you
will see 1000's of ants eating the wood. Simply shake them off into your container,replace the wood back in a similar position wet
the bag again and place it over the top. This can be repeated every few days. If you have several nests set up this way
you can rotate your harvesting. JUST REMEMBER do not try and put ants from different nests in the same container as the workers
will all try to escape at high speed and the protectors will have a massive fight.

Thanks E Orix. That's great . How long will they stay alive in the container once they have been collected?

keep them in shady cool spot for maximum keeping time. This varies highly according to temperature & humidity.

I have a mate who breeds Finches & he takes the whole nest as he lives in town. He keeps the nest in a bathtub covered with a wet hessian bag, the bath doesn't let them crawl out. I keep mine in a bucket with a lid in a cool place with moist soil. They can keep for days like this --- I usually use them pretty quickly so I don't have to worry too much about storage

Another method a mate in WA uses is to sink a 20 litre bucket into the centre of a mound. The bucket is drilled with 10 mm holes all around. Fill the bucket with tomato stakes, pre soaked in water and cut to size or slighly moistened toilet rolls. Once a week - pull out the stakes or rolls, shake off the termites and put it back together. When first setting it up, allow a couple of weeks for the termites to repair the damage around the bucket. If you are using toilet rolls you can also use a piece of drilled 100 mm water pipe and just slide the rolls in. Don't forget a bucket lid or pipe cap on top to make it dark.

Hi Dal,

All good advice flowing there from DAnny, Orix, mrs and Tiaris...............Some of the answers depend a bit on what species of termite you're talking about also......sorry I'm not familiar with your territory, but I'm guessing you'll be dealing with a different species than we have up this way......as Tiaris suggests, they'll keep in the nest for months sometimes........and they wont wander off and eat our houses ........with some of the other species collection and storage can be a bit more complicated.

If you can take a pic of the nest and then some close-ups of the beasties, someone on here might be able to ID them

When separated from the nest I find they die pretty quickly but you can keep them in the fridge where they'll survive for a week or two. If you use Danny or E Orix's suggestion you might only need to raid a nest once a week or so.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Since first posting I have developed a little system, which has been working ok for me. Given that I have easy access to dozens of nests (some within 200m of the house, others a five or so minute drive) I have been collecting a small section of nest once a week. I've getting better at taking only a weeks supply. I shake off enough termites and a bit of nest to freeze in two or three takeaway containers. The rest I leave in a large plastic tub and pinch a bit each morning to feed straight out. The termites seem to be surviving 4-5 days. The other few mornings I use the frozen ones. My painteds are appreciating them, but my hen BFPF is always the first into them. It's the first place she goes after I've done the morning feed without fail. Hopefully a good sign of her intentions in the near future