Guys, meet my termite colonies!
They’re just starting up and I’ve experimented with different setups to try to get them to
successfully become mature termite colonies.
Why am I doing this?
Well, first off.
I’m an insect nerd and I love this kind of thing, but second: farming this particular
species of termite may have some pretty big agricultural benefits for us humans.
You see, these termites aren’t the house-destroying type of termites that everyone hates.
These termites are known as Macrotermes gilvus, a species of termites that farm a special
type of fungus for food, a symbiotic fungus called Termitomyces, whose mushrooms are soooo
delicious!
I actually managed to find and even eat some of these termite-grown mushrooms while visiting
our future Antopia Park this week, but more about that later.
So turns out, humans have not yet been able to farm this highly prized Termitomyces mushroom
artificially in a lab.
To this day, we humans still need to go out hunting for these termite mushrooms in the
wild, sprouting after a lightning storm from termite nests!
But my dream and hope is for us to be the first to try to grow these tasty termite mushrooms
indoors, in a termite nest setup.
And so, on this channel we’ve been following the growth of these starting termite families
from the moment I caught the newly wedded royal pairs to this stage where the termites
now need to try starting up their initial fungus combs, which is truly the hardest part
for the termites.
A vast percent of these starting termite colonies fail at this fungus farming stage, but my
hope is that at least one of these termite colonies goes on to create a successful fungus
garden, and guys, I’ve got some truly great news regarding our hopeful termite colonies
to share with you all today!
This episode is a continuation of last week’s episode on our epic termite farming project.
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel, termite edition.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL ICON!
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
This episode is brought to you by our friends at The Ants Underground Kingdom, the world's
first ant-themed strategy mobile game!
You guys already know how cool I find this game, with its rich world and ecosystem where
you take on the role of an Ultimate Ant Ruler, who leads the queen, builds the nest, collects
the resources, and trains your ant army!
You can form alliances with other lords to expand your territory, defend it from foreign
enemies, and eventually build your ant empire!
It’s a pretty epic game, if you ask me!
And here’s some cool news: They’ve just released a whole new Winter version, a snowy
ant world for you to explore!
Like check out this game play!
I love the details of the snow, the frosted plants, and animal tracks.
It really changes the whole experience and feel to the game, and I'm sure you guys will
love it, too.
If that’s not exciting enough, to express their gratitude for players’ support, the
game will open the Black Friday Time-limited Store (only available once per year) from
November 22 to November 27, where you can redeem your Black Friday points for valuable
rewards.
Just enter the Redeem Code "XXX" in the game to obtain 50 Eggs, which you can use to obtain
Purple Special Ants and various other rare resources, to protect your kingdom!
Download The Ants: Underground Kingdom now in the link I’ve placed in the description
box.
Let's build our ant kingdoms together!
And now on to the video!
So I was visiting the site of Antopia Park this week, i.e. the vast space I acquired
a couple years back where I’m hoping to create a conservation park, to protect native
ant species, as well as other forms of wildlife and plants.
You can watch the video covering my epic plans on turning this 82 acre plot of land into
a sanctuary for native ants and wildlife here!
Anyway, I noticed a big hill with so many termite mounds on it.
I suspected they were Macrotermes gilvus.
And low and behold, sprouting from a little mound in the ground was a mushroom, a Termitomyces
mushroom!
I couldn’t believe we had found one, and had no idea it was still in season, seeing
as they are most commonly found from August to October!
It had stormed the night before, so perhaps it was a cue for a few of the termite fungus
gardens below ground to send up their fruiting bodies, this Termitomyces mushroom.
It blew my mind to think that this very mushroom which I’ve been learning about all this
time from researching our termites was now in my hands.
I just had to eat it!
So, I had our farm manager who takes care of Antopia Park and understands how to best
prepare the mushroom for consumption, cook it.
First, the mushroom had to be washed well.
Then the outer skin peeled.
Then the mushroom was wrapped in banana leaves.
Then it was placed onto a fire where it cooked for a few minutes.
The resulting cooked mushroom smelled delicious and was so juicy!
Eating it, the mushroom flavour was divine, especially knowing its backstory!
Not sure if the flavour I tasted was what the termites taste when they eat the fungus
buds that sprout from their combs, but man, if it was, then those are some lucky termites
to be eating this every day!
This was footage from last week’s episode, where I managed to dig up a sample of Macrotermes
gilvus fungus comb.
So the brown stuff is basically digested decaying leaves and wood which the termites poop out
and form this comb structure, and all that fuzz, known as mycelium, and the little white
buds make up the Termitomyces fungus growing on the comb and feeding from it.
The termites eat those nutrient-dense little white buds.
Now in last week’s video, you saw that I gave a couple of our termite colonies some
sample fungus comb to see if they would start farming it and get their fungus gardens going.
One colony totally tore it up to shreds.
The other colony adopted and ended up tending to the fungus comb.
As for the other colonies in last week’s video that didn’t get fungus comb, one colony
contracted mites, strangely.
Another colony died.
And another colony sealed themselves in a mud dome.
Now guys, I have some really exciting updates on all of these termite colonies!
I’ve since provided the termites with some new building materials, to hopefully get them
to start up their own fungus combs and some of the colonies have responded to my offerings.
I believe our plans are working, AC Family!
I also have a couple more termite colonies not included in last week’s video, that
I’ve housed in other setups, that I also want to show you.
So let’s get to it and have a look at our hopeful termite colonies.
First, an exciting update!
This colony, whom we’ve named Colony A for now, is the colony with the mites.
It seems there haven’t been any deaths since last week’s video, which is a good sign.
It’s still possible that these mites are a non-harmful type that are just hitching
along for a ride on the termites’ bodies.
Anyway, the majority of the colony is hiding in a soiled up area of their test tube.
I’ve decided to add some detritus collected from around a wild Macrotermes gilvus nest
in my yard.
It’s a couple pieces of rotting wood.
Now the idea is that hopefully this rotting wood, contains the needed Termitomyces spores
on them, which the termites will ingest.
Inside the termite’s gut, the rotting wood and fungus spores, along with some soil which
they also ingest, undergo an awesome, special process with the help of enzymes and microbes
within the termites’ gut, and the resulting poop, forms the starting fungus comb which
will begin the fungus farming process.
And AC Family, have a look at the exciting thing I spotted when I looked into the setup
just yesterday.
See it?
It’s a sort of elevated ridge where the consistency of the soil looks a bit different
from the surrounding soil.
If you're not looking carefully you could easily miss it, as it is designed to be camouflaged
with the surround soils.
The ridge looks a little bit granular.
That, AC Family, is a subterranean tunnel coming from their test tube to the decaying
wood.
Yay!
The termites have officially begun to forage, and have created a connection to the decaying
wood.
I bet within this tunnel, the termites go back and forth eating fibers from this decaying
wood piece from below the soil, and back at the test tube they could have started working
on their fungus comb.
Now sadly, because things are so obscured by the soil, I can’t see if they’ve started
building a fungus comb yet.
But I’m sure eventually, it will become more and more apparent that the termites are
farming their fungus comb because this test tube will at some point, be insufficient space
for the fungus comb, and the termites will inevitably need to start building their fungus
comb outside the test tube.
When that happens, I’m sure we will see it!
I can’t wait to see what’s up next for Colony A!
They’re clearly on the right track despite having mites!
Colony B was released into my yard because sadly one of the royals died.
Colony C. Another exciting update!
This colony was definitely one of my favourites.
So this colony had some detritus placed into their setup for a couple of days, and were
also given some fungus comb, but they ended up destroying the fungus comb and I ended
up removing the detritus because I was afraid it contained the same mites that Colony A
had contracted.
But guys, have a look at what I saw in their setup this week!
The termites have strangely created these interesting structures.
See them?
They’re like platforms and shelves of soil, but guys, what excites me is this!
See this photo?
This is what a starting fungus comb looks like.
It’s not beige, but starts off blackish in colour.
As the fungus grows on it, the structure turns brown over time and starts to develop the
fuzz, the mycelium, and later the white buds which the termites eat.
So what do you think?
Do you think these new structures are the start of their fungus combs?
Or are they just trying to build something else, perhaps chambers or something.
Let me know in the comments section what you think they are.
I really hope they are the starting fungus combs.
And look at the bodies of some of the workers.
They’re filled with soil and other things.
It’s quite possible the termites managed to get the starting fungus spores they needed
from when I offered them some fungus comb last week, and were also able to have a few
bits of detritus needed to nourish the fungus, and were now recombining it all inside to
poop it all out again to form the comb to their own liking.
Only time will tell, but I look forward to these soil pieces turning brown in the near
future.
Crossing fingers!
I have another exciting update, on Colony D, the colony which sealed themselves inside
a protective mud dome.
I decided to place a couple decaying leaves collected from around a termite nest in my
yard, and look!
I see a connection tunnel!
It seems the termites have begun to forage and were probably taking small bites from
the leaf from below.
This was awesome!
It looks like the tunneling has also branched off in some areas.
Now, I may have to replace these leaves soon because they have started to grow mold.
I may place decaying wood because I heard that starting Macrotermes gilvus termite colonies
prefer it over leaves in the beginning.
Yay!
Go Colony D.
Moving on now to Colony E, the most promising colony, seeing as it looked like they were
tending to the fungus comb I gave them in last week’s video.
The fungus comb was still there, and as I looked closely it really looked like the termites
were eating from it!
Awesome!
I could also see some of the white fuzz, the mycelium which means the fungus was still
definitely alive and thriving on the comb piece.
Now in case the termites ever needed to forage for more detritus to eat and poop out, to
further feed their fungus garden, I placed in some detritus, again collected from around
a termite nest in my yard.
I’m unsure if the termites have broken out of their test tube to forage for detritus,
as I don’t see any tunnels, but perhaps the termites will be ready to do that soon.
Now here are two other termite colonies which I housed into smaller simple setups, after
learning what I learned in last week’s episode.
This colony is in a simple petri dish of clay soil.
This is a relatively young colony with only one developed worker and a bunch of little
nymphs, and lots of eggs.
I don’t think this young colony is ready to forage yet, but they seem to be on the
right track.
I love how they’ve sealed in all the edges with mud creating this large, cozy chamber
for themselves.
Once I see about 15 or so adult termite workers I may find a way to connect this petri dish
via a tube to a foraging container with detritus so they can start building their comb.
Meanwhile I will not open this petri dish so they can continue to grow in peace.
The other termite colony is not viewable as they have sealed themselves completed under
a layer soil.
When I start to see tunnels, I’ll know this colony is ready to forage.
And so AC Family, that was it.
These were the exciting updates I have on the termite colonies you saw last week and
the two new ones this week.
These are actually also my remaining termite colonies from the many termite pairs I caught
on that fateful night several months ago.
Amazing to think that these six colonies were the only ones to make it this far.
In nature, termite colonies and pairs that don't make it along their journey to colony
founding, become food for other life forms.
It’s all part of their role in the ecosystem.
But those that do make it on to create their fungus combs, end up growing into absolutely
massive colonies erecting huge termite mounds, consuming considerable amounts of detritus
to feed their vast fungus gardens underground, making the termites very important detritivores,
as well.
The Termitomyces fungus they grow, end up creating mushrooms which sprout out of their
nests for other animals to eat, like us humans!
The mushrooms that sprout out above ground also go on to release their spores, carried
by winds to cover detritus all over an area, which become the starting materials and seed
for new Macrotermes gilvus colonies like the ones we have, to start their fungus combs.
When the termite colonies mature enough to produce new reproductives, they all fly on
a special night to engage in a nuptial flight to pair up and begin the cycle all over again.
Isn’t it amazing how the circle of life works and giw the termites fit into it?
These termites have multiple and important roles in the food web, which I only began
to truly appreciate when I started keeping these miraculous little termites.hearts and
have become a part of this entire journey of termite discovery with me.
Thank you!
Hope you guys remember to subscribe to the channel to follow this continuing story of
how a colony of termites grows into a thriving, mushroom producing kingdom, and hopefully
we can be the first in the world to cultivate these delicious mushrooms indoors.
I’ll be sure to keep you all updated on their progress.
Thank you for watching and supporting the ants and termites.
It’s ant and termite love forever!