Territory Termites

[desertbirds]

Not a bad name for a business?? .A few shots of the termites out here that are grass eaters and quite safe as far as your house goes.Theres literally hundreds of kilometres of these mounds so if someone can work out how to freight the contents sensibly let me know.

[GregH]

use a light trap to get the alate (winged) ones as they leave the mounds in the evenings as the storm clouds gather early in the wet season. I posted a link on Kimberley Breeders post about collecting them.

[desertbirds]

Sounds easy , so do i pull out as the rain starts belting down,when the wind picks up a tad and blows them all away or when the Hilux is down to the axles.Fortunately if i stand on the roof of the hilux i can get reception on a good day.i will buzz when ya when i doesnt quite work out.

[GregH]

I gather you don't have the same problem as us at times with the house full of termites. Every light in the house is turned off and if you're game you draw the blinds and turn on the television. I do get your point though it's not something that you can do once the wet really sets in however for the most part the termites come to you - you don't go to the termites - no need to go off road. Courtesy of Clark Pest Control

There are battery powered light sources that can be used for traps but as you can see from the tennis courts above the brighter the light the more you attract. Thankfully it doesn't happen every year for us but I've never seen the density of mounds here that there are in tropical grasslands.

[desertbirds]

Funnily enough every mound in my photos is also active and it would usually be about 1 in 10 thats active.I think these termites produce alates on a fairly regular basis as there is usually alates in the mound but it does increase and alates form wings as we get closer to rainy season.I did try the light thing but it came up windy and very a black looking storm was headed my way so i bailed out.There is no where near the numbers of fliers that you have photographed.

[Jayburd]

just bring your cages and line up!!!

[GregH]

You guys caught me out. That isn't my photo but honestly that's what it's like when they swam here. After a night like that at our compound's tennis courts the grounds staff can sweep up 1/4 of a garbage bin full of dead ones. If you trapped them I'm sure you could fill a couple of bins. I'm not sure about the density of nests around Alice Springs but some places I've been to in the Barklay Tablelands and Kimerley's the mounds are a thick as mob of sheep in the holding yards. If you could capture them I'm sure it wouldn't dent the population of the termites or their preditors and if you could freeze and despatch them it would be a boon to the many that would like to breed but don't have the time or facilities to do insects.

[desertbirds]

Yes Greg i have seen the areas with really dense mounds.These grass eaters arent that close to town ( about 30ks out) so we dont get the swarms in town .We may get one or two nights a year with several hundred fliers around the lights.Quite often its the wood eating ones that are in the greatest numbers.Im a bit wary of the wood eating termites as the soldiers have large pincers.Even with the small type if one bites, it locks on and you seperate the head from the body trying to remove it.The head stays attached and i think that could cause problems for small chicks and even the parents if one was attached to the inside of the throat.