Guys, these mushrooms you see here are quite special.
I bought them from some local farmers just down the street from me, but these aren’t
just your ordinary mushrooms.
These mushrooms were grown by termites, a special group of termites that are the only
ones who possess the secret and “magic sauce” so to speak, to grow these mushrooms, which
are highly prized by humans and taste so delicious!
Mmmm!
But the thing is, as much as humans love to eat these mushrooms, which by the way are
appropriately called Termitomyces mushrooms, agriculturalists and scientists have not yet
been able to come up with a way to mass produce and farm the mushrooms for mass human consumption.
After centuries of us humans eating these shrooms, the only way to enjoy them is to
harvest them from the mounds of termites in the wild, but guys, last year we on this channel
came super close to nailing the process of growing these mushrooms in a captive setting,
by culturing the specific type of termite and providing them what they needed to grow
the Termitomyces fungus combs, the precursors to the Termitomyces mushrooms, from scratch!
We rejoiced when one of our several test colonies of Termites successfully began to grow their
fungus comb within their enclosure that we built for them, taking pieces of decaying
wood back to their nest to nourish their growing fungus structure.
It was all so very promising, until one day, the fungus comb they had been working on mysteriously
began to shrink and eventually the colony began to die out.
I don’t know why they died, but termite hobbyists I spoke with hypothesize that one
of the reasons the colony failed and died was because of high temperatures, seeing as
the colony began to do poorly as soon as summer hit my place and temperatures in my Ant Room
began to rise.
I guess in the wild, come summetime, the termites dig deeper into the ground where it's cooler.
Now initially, during a recent tour video of my Ant Room, I mentioned I wasn’t going
to try keeping termites again this year, because it was so much harder and more complicated
than keeping ant colonies, but then when the final round of annual nuptial flights of termites
happened again in my yard, I thought to myself, “You know.
What the heck?
Why not try again?”
So I did and caught a bunch of virgin royal kings and queens and placed them into a container
with coco peat to pair up and construct their founding chambers, because I had learned from
last year that test tubes, unlike ants, don’t make good founding environments for the termites.
I figured I could let the termites pair up themselves, create their own chambers in the
digging medium, and I could simply sort out the termite pairs later and rehome each pair
into their own separate containers, so they could continue raising their own colonies,
to farm Termitomyces again, but guys, what the termite royals ended up doing truly surprised
me, and an even greater surprise, just this week, the termite mounds in my area just sent
up their legendary mushrooms, right on time for the welcoming of this year’s new generation
of termites.
This time, I know more, several factors tilt the odds much more in our favour than last
year, and I have an ultimate plan to ensure that we do not fail this year!
Buckle in because it’s time we make agricultural-entomological history, and meet our newest allies in this
quest to be the first in the world to grow these Termitomyces mushrooms completely indoors!
Welcome to the AntsCanada ant channel, termite edition!
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL ICON!
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
AC Family, don’t you just love science, that is, trying out things and testing ideas,
and whether or not the ideas work out, you still win because you always learn something
new at every step?
That’s how I feel with this Termitomyces growing journey we’ve been on since last
year, and this year, there are several new things I have to show you that make this attempt
much more likely to succeed, than our previous attempts.
But do keep on watching until the end because I want you all to be involved in this whole
process, and will be asking for your opinions on something critical regarding our new generation
of Termites, and how to get them to best raise their Termitomyces fungus farms under our
care!
All that and more coming up.
But guys, before we go ahead and meet this year’s colony and team of termites, for
those of you who are new, let me give you guys a brief backgrounder on how the termites
and the mushrooms are dependant on each other for survival so you can better understand
what we’re trying to achieve here and how to answer the question I will be asking you
at the end of the video.
Listen to this.
So the Termitomyces fungus and the special group of termites that farm them are codependent
on each other for survival.
One cannot live without the other, i.e. they have a mutualistic symbiotic relationship.
It all starts when rainy season hits, and the termites send out their virgin kings and
queens into the air one night where they each pair up and ‘marry’ so to speak, then
go off to start their own colonies of their own somewhere underground.
The pairs lay eggs, which hatch into the cutest little nymphs, which develop into adult workers.
Now meanwhile, as this first generation of termites starts to arrive, the Termitomyces
fungus farms cultured by mature fungus-farming termite colonies underground, begin to develop
what are called primordia, which for some reason are triggered by lightning storms to
send up Termitomyces mushrooms which end up sprouting from the top of the termite nests.
That’s when we humans go out hunting and collecting them, after a thunderstorm at this
time of the year between August to Octoberish.
But for those mushrooms that don’t get picked or eaten by humans or other animals, they
release the spores, known as basidiospores, which get carried by winds to blanket an entire
area with a radius of many miles, falling onto soils and decaying material, right on
time for the first generation of termite workers to break out of their starting nest chambers
and forage for decaying material covered in these basidiospores.
The basidiospores are ingested along with the decaying matter by the termites, brought
back to the nest, and within the termites’ gut, special microbes and enzymes biologically
process the basidiospores, a secret process which scientists still don’t understand,
and the resulting poop gets piled together to form a cool structure which forms the fertilizer
bed on which the Termitomyces fungus starts to grow.
Isn’t that such a crazy process?
OK, so here’s the thing.
For those of you who have been following our previous attempt at getting the termites to
farm the Termitomyces fungus, you may recall we had a few test setups to see which setup
worked the best.
Only two setups ended up working, and one colony actually managed to start their fungus
comb.
See the white fuzz, the mycelium, which are the fungus’ root structures, and the little
white buds, the mycotetes, which is what the termites actually eat?
But to get this far, I actually had to cheat a bit.
By complete fluke, I ended up finding a wild termite nest in my yard, and discovered a
huge fungus comb they were culturing.
I took some of this comb and introduced it to this colony, and the termites just managed
to keep it alive.
So you see, this was a cheating way, because the termites didn’t start their fungus comb
the way they would have in the wild, i.e. ingesting the organic material covered in
Termitomyces basidiospores.
I feel this could have been another reason why our previous termite colony didn’t manage
to keep their fungus alive, which ultimately lead to their death, assuming summer temperatures
weren’t the reason, because I actually caught these termites far away up high in the mountains
where I used to live, and it’s known that these fungus-growing termites can farm several
species of Termitomyces fungus, and perhaps the Termitomyces fungus species I gave them
from my yard, wasn’t the most compatible with the species of fungus-growing termites
I was keeping?
I don’t know, but this year, as you will see shortly, we won’t have this problem
AC Family, because this time, I was determined to do things the proper way.
Now listen to this!
So I have been chatting with my Termite hobbyist friend named CicadaFun who has been awesome
at helping and guiding me along the way throughout our journey getting these termites to grow
their fungus.
He showed me a few successful setups where other hobbyists managed to get their fungus-farming
termites to build fungus combs, as well as laboratory setups.
Have a look at some of the setups he has shown me, and take note of them because what I’ll
be asking you guys at the end of this video has to do with what you will see here.
After this, I will show you my big problem regarding the setup I have our current Termite
royals in!
OK so let me show you some of the lab setups first.
I love this first setup.
Here you will see four separate colonies and in each setup there are two adjacent chambers
with the pieces of wood containing the basidiospores, and the central chamber where the colony nests
and has started their fungus combs.
I see a little test tube of water there for the colony and a pebbly, sandy floor.
Crazy to think that it seems like this setup is so open and exposed to light, both of which
I assumed was bad for these termites, but apparently not.
Alright and check out this setup.
It’s so simple!
Just an enclosed bottle with a layer of soil in it, in which the termites nest and build
their fungus comb.
The end of the bottle is plugged with cotton, and on top of the soil rests some wood which
I assume contains the basidiospores.
This was also an interesting setup.
This third lab setup is probably my favourite!
Here they have a foraging tank where the decaying material is placed, connected to a nest tank
filled with soil where the colony lives, and another tank, not filled with soil but containing
more decaying material and a water source.
Interesting!
Have a look at those huge and healthy fungus combs!
Wow!
It seems at some point, several of these foraging areas can be connected to the main nest for
the termites to frequent.
But all these setups so far show somewhat mature colonies.
I wanted to know what setup to keep the termites in at the founding stages.
So check out these setups now, guys.
Both these setups show starting colonies on what looks like a thin layer of soil with
a plastic dome over them.
CicadaFun feels this is the best method for the starting stage.
It kinda was like our previous attempt, only not a test tube, but a dome.
It seems the dome has holes through which the termites can exit and forage for the necessary
organics with basidiospores for the building of their fungus comb.
So, AC Family, now that you’ve seen these sample setups, now it’s time to show you
what I’m keeping our termites in now, and what they’ve done that makes this whole
thing a bit more complicated than last year’s attempts.
AC Family, behold, the container in which I placed all the termite royals I captured
on the night of their nuptial flight a little over a month ago.
It contains a layer of moistened cocopeat which I found to be a great digging medium
for ants as of late.
The royals dug deep into it, but have a look at what I saw when I looked below ground.
Instead of pairing up like I thought they would, they formed a supercolony!
Can you believe it?
This is a group of 13 kings and queens that decided to band together to found a colony.
There is their collective pile of eggs!
After speaking with CicadaFun, apparently sometimes termites can create polygynous colonies
like this, depending on species, but he’s never known a group this big to band together!
It’s usually three or four royal members forming a group, not thirteen!
So interesting!
Additionally, here’s another interesting fact.
CicadaFun asked for a close photo of their wings, which luckily were inside the enclosure
still.
Turns out, this species of fungus-growing termite from my yard was indeed different
from those I caught last year.
Last year was a large species known as Macrotermes gilvus.
But turns out this species of fungus-growing termite, was a totally different genus!
These were Odontotermes, not even a Macrotermes termite.
So, you see?
This could have also been a contributing factor to our last attempt failing because I had
given them some fungus comb from a termite nest in my yard, thinking they were the same
species, while all this time, I could have given them fungus comb from a termite nest
of a totally different genus.
But, guys this year, would be different.
When I saw that vendors were selling Termitomyces mushrooms at the side of the road, that had
just been freshly picked from termite mounds that morning in my area, I bought a whole
bunch and took them home because I had the ultimate plan to make sure these new Odontotermes
termites of ours would succeed at helping us be the first to grow these highly prized
mushrooms in captivity.
So here before me were the mushrooms!
I couldn’t believe we actually had them now.
They were absolutely massive mushrooms, too!
I could see why they were so prized!
Two supertyphoons had rolled through my area this week, which spurred these to grow from
underground termite nests.
The thing I needed to do now was collect basidiospores from them.
CicadaFun mentioned they should look dusty and that dust were the basidiospores.
I tried stroking the gills of the mushroom cap, and then tapping the mushrooms from above
to see if a dust would emerge, but none did strangely.
CicadaFun said perhaps the mushrooms were just too old and had casted off all its basidiospores,
but I wasn’t convinced that was the case.
I checked all mushrooms for dust, but sadly couldn’t find any, but then CicadaFun shared
with me a method that he read a lab did to harvest basidiospores from termitomyces mushrooms
for their studies.
For this spore harvest, I needed a pitcher.
I also needed some filter paper, used for coffee makers.
Placing the filter paper inside.
Then I placed in a mushroom, breaking it up carefully.
Done!
Next I needed to add some distilled water.
I then used the stock of the mushroom to stir things around a bit and let the entire thing
sit for five minutes.
I also decided to add a few more mushrooms just to increase our chances of getting the
spores.
And guys, five minutes later have a look at what the entire mixture looked like.
The water was cloudy now, and looked a lot like coconut water.
I removed the pieces of mushrooms, and if this cloudiness was indeed the basidiospores,
then we had surely hit the jackpot.
I could use this water to water the termite setups in the future, as well as cut up the
filter paper which also would be covered in basidiospores and feed them to the colonies,
acting like the decaying edibles for the termites to eat and build their starting fungus.
I placed the entire thing in the fridge for use in the future!
We now possibly had our future basidiospore harvest waiting to be used!
As for the remaining mushrooms, I decided I would clean up and deal with them later,
but you guys won’t believe what happened.
I literally screamed!
Coming back a few hours later, check out what I saw.
A tonne of black crazy ants eating a layer of whitish dust that had fallen from the mushroom
caps!
Woah!
Have a look!
The mushrooms had released their basidiospores, and it seems some wild black crazy ants found
it to be a tasty treat!
I’m not sure if the mushrooms just simply release the basidiospores in such small amounts
that I couldn’t see it with my naked eye or feel it with my fingers, but this for sure
was the good stuff we needed!
So, I took some filter paper and wiped up the powder.
I then took the mushrooms and went back to our pitcher.
I placed in the new filter paper I used to wipe the dust to add to the one that was already
in there, and added more mushrooms to the mix.
It was amazing to see the basidiospore dust, even in the light now that it was in such
high concentrations!
After 5 minutes, I removed the mushroom pieces, and took our pitcher which was now super milky,
which I knew had to be full of the basidiospores we needed, into the fridge for future use.
Our termites this year had their future fungus spores secured!
So now AC Family, after all you’ve seen and heard in this video, here’s where I
need your help and opinions!
What should I do with their current setup?
Should we keep them in this container and eventually connect it to other chambers like
in the lab setups?
Or should I transport them into something like these dome setups?
Or perhaps some other setup you think might work like the bottle?
My fear is disturbing them at this stage could be a fatal mistake, though.
CicadaFuns says if we do decide to move them into another setup, it might be worth waiting
until the nymphs mature into adult workers so the colony has more help, but whatever
we decide, what makes this entire situation scary is that this is our one shot, seeing
as they are now acting as one supercolony.
We don’t have the luxury of several colonies to experiment with this year, so what we decide
now is of the utmost importance!
AC Council, do let me know what you guys suggest for their setup in the comments, and I will
do my best to help our beloved fungus-farming termites succeed in their quest to grow their
fungus gardens, so we could succeed in our quest to be the first to grow these highly
prized Termitomyces mushrooms in captivity.
Do subscribe to the channel to be part of this exciting journey of termite mushroom
discovery.
The fate of these termites, and our future mushrooms-in-the-making are in your hands.
Hope you can SUBSCRIBE to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It's ant love forever!