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eleven months ago
over the next hour i continued to watch
the termite king and queen dig in sheer
amazement until i decided it was time to
allow them to continue the process in
the dark and in private
this was truly an amazing night
after 24 hours i returned to the nest to
check up on them and as i semi expected
the termites were nowhere to be seen
i didn't mind this i assumed they must
have been buried somewhere under all
that digging medium
already beginning the egg laying process
perhaps
i knew eventually if all went well and
as planned
we would start to see termite workers in
this hybrid nest as well as a huge
pulsating white sausage of a queen
busy building her termite army with her
king
here's to a future flourishing termite
colony
let's wish our new king and queen the
best of luck
on the building of their future empire
i will surely update you on their
progress in the months to come
please subscribe to my channel and hit
the bell icon welcome to the ac family
enjoy
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ac family so many of you have been
asking for an update on the termite king
and queen i captured 11 months ago and
placed into an ac hybrid nest well i
have some good news
and some bad news
i'll be telling you the bad news first
so do keep on watching until the end to
help me out with your valuable feedback
now before i tell you the bad news first
let me quickly recap and catch those of
you who are new up to speed
as to what termite king and queen were
referring to so 11 months ago i captured
a married termite king and queen during
a mating nuptial flight yes i say
married and you guys will get to see
what a termite wedding looks like later
anyway i placed them into an ac hybrid
nest a product from our shop at
antscanada.com
which is normally used to house ant
colonies and i placed this pair in the
dark to hopefully raise a flourishing
termite colony
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now i've successfully raised a mature
termite colony on this channel before
for all of you og ac family you may
recall the terminators a huge termite
colony we had a few years back which was
raised from a paired king and queen
termite i saved during a termite nuptial
flight that was happening in my ant room
one night and were falling into my ant
setups of course my ant colonies housed
in open terrariums just loved when
termite nuptial flight season came
around because they always got to have a
literal termite feast but saving a pair
of these termites proved to be super
rewarding when they gave rise to a huge
termite colony we named the terminators
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that termite colony ultimately ended up
being exterminated by an invading colony
of wild pharaoh ants that managed to
break into their terrarium which was
super sad but since then i'd been
wanting to try again raising a termite
colony they make great ant food and are
such cool eusocial insects that i feel
have a bad rap by the end of this video
i'm sure you too will find them to be
super cool
but ac family
it's time to break the bad news to you
turns out
that termite king and queen pair
ended up dying
super sad
as i was really banking on them to
succeed but i also found out why they
probably didn't make it
getting the king and queen pair to found
a colony was actually way more
complicated than i ever thought so much
harder to start than any ant colony
that's for sure so ac family check this
out
a few knowledgeable termite experts
pointed out that the species of termites
we had were in fact fungus growers
yes they eat fungus kind of like
leafcutter ants growing vast fungus
gardens underground in their nests which
they eat however in leafcutter ants a
new queen keeps a fungal pellet with
spores in a special pocket under her
mouth
taken from her birth colony's fungus
garden in order to seed the fungus
garden for her future colony but in
these termites the way the fungus
gardens start is much different
check out what ac family cicada fun
wrote
these are highly specialized species of
termite that do not eat wood they
instead farm a specialized species of
fungus they require high humidity and
warm temperatures to survive
they do not store any fungal pellets
like any atini ants do
instead the first workers forage for
fungal spores that they can use you can
typically take a fungus garden from an
already established colony from one of
their mounds
only give them a fungus garden when they
have workers the queen and king will not
be able to keep the fungus alive by
themselves they need soil with high clay
content to found in and a constant
source of water
i would also like to add that the
termites do somewhat indirectly feed on
wood where they will ingest dry leaves
grasses and wood which they forage for
then poop it out use it to build comb
which they then seed with fungal spores
which will then grow and is what the
termites will eat directly macrotermines
and odonto termis are very finicky
during founding since establishing the
fungus garden is usually the hardest
part
fungus can easily die from pathogens if
there's not enough workers to routinely
care for it but also can be over eaten
if there's too many workers so a good
balance needs to be met so ac family
that's probably why they died they may
have went on to lay eggs and create
their first workers but lack the fungus
or fungus bores needed to start their
fungal gardens they also probably need a
digging medium with high clay content
and other specific conditions that
matched their native soils
talk about a complicated founding
process right
definitely not like founding an ant
colony which is super low maintenance
and easy all you need is usually a test
tube setup and you're good
seems the termite king and queen we had
were very much dependent on elements of
their environment to survive
i.e up in the mountains where i had
collected the pear far from the city in
which i was living at the time i mean
remember when we visited the mountains
of mount banajao in search of the
legendary blue ants and ran into a
massive colony of termites that were
harvesting carpets of fungus from a tree
wound talk about a highly specialized
lifestyle termites such as these seem to
be much more difficult to keep in
captivity seeing as they need fungus
well ac family
indeed our hopes of founding another
termite colony from this very large pair
of termite royals were doomed from the
start
venturing back out into the mountains to
try and locate a fungus i had no idea
about nor looked like was just not
possible especially because there was
still a raging pandemic at the time and
my country was locked down plus even if
i was able to head out into the
mountains in search of termite fungus i
didn't have a clue as to where the main
original nest of our termite king and
queen was
since i caught them flying around lights
so i had no idea what soils to scoop up
for them or where to look for already
established termite fungal gardens
it was all just impossible and a doomed
project
but
having said all that ac family
now it's time to tell you
the good news
meet my new king and queen termites
yup i caught another pair
turns out nearly a year later
termite elates flew everywhere again
just a few nights ago and you guys will
love how these two chose each other's
hand in termite marriage
watch this
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so the night of their nuptial flight i
set up this simple termite trap
using lights and a tank
a few alates had flown inside and were
scurrying around
but soon i had noticed 108 had shed its
wings and was beginning to pursue
another elate still with wings
little did i know i was about to witness
something beautiful
more and more the pair continued to show
interest in each other it looked like
they were kissing each other in the face
and on the body
round and round they tussled
i watched in amazement as they performed
the termite marriage dance
termites are one of the planet's few
truly monogamous animals and it's on
this special night which they've both
been waiting for their entire lives
that they choose their one and only
partner whom they will be with for years
possibly decades until their dying days
they seal the deal with this termite
wedding dance which you are seeing here
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finally when i caught the newly wedded
pair tandem running
i knew they had made their life defining
choice to be united co-founders of a
future termite colony
isn't that beautiful ac family
this doesn't happen in ants in ants
males die after mating and queens are
left to be single mothers
so in the morning i put the termite
newlyweds in here
they both were wingless now i don't know
what species they are
but they seem to be a different species
from what i caught last year
these termite alates seem slightly
smaller
but are still quite large and are
definitely larger than the king and
queen of our old terminators
any termite experts out there care to
take a stab at their id
aren't they stunning
they're just super cute
right now they're being housed in an ac
test tube portal with soil and guess
what
i'm actually living in the mountains
right now
the same mountains from which i caught
the last fungus growing termite king and
queen that died what's even greater is
i'm pretty sure i know where they flew
from
as i saw a ton of shed wings in one spot
their main nest was definitely somewhere
in my yard
the temporary rental home i've been
staying at until we move to our new ant
house in antopia next month so these
soils here were scooped up from my yard
close to where i saw all the wings
dropped
were these soils ideal for this pair of
termites i didn't know but it did seem
the pair of termites were okay treating
this entire ac test tube portal as a
chamber for now unlike our last pair
last year they didn't attempt to dig a
burrow and seemed content just huddling
in a corner i've been watching them
closely over the past few days and i'm
still unsure which one is the king and
which is the queen
here is the underside of one of them
termite experts care to let us know if
this is the queen the pair has actually
been super cute with each other i often
catch them grooming and massaging each
other as you can see the termite on the
left doing to the one on the right
such a loving partner
again i'm curious to know if this is the
king catering to his queen
or the other way around
i also am eager to know if this is also
a fungus-growing termite species or if
they are a pesticide species that feed
on wood
if they are the latter that would mean
founding a colony from them might be
much easier as i found out from starting
the late terminators i just buried them
into some soil with pieces of rotting
wood and they were good to go
if this is a fungus grower then perhaps
getting a termite colony from them might
be much more of a challenge
so ac family this is where i need your
help
what should i do now
should we just leave them in the setup
and see if they lay eggs and just
attempt to feed them rotting wood or
should i keep them in a deeper setup
perhaps a terrarium or ac ant tower so
we could see them
and just fill everything with more soils
from my yard in hopes they contain the
necessary fungus spores they need
in case they are a fungus growing
species
let me know in the comments what you
think i should do
i really want to try to get this right
there's a top beating shoot i can just
drop any food or water for the termites
if needed
it also will be an added challenge when
it comes time to move to the new ant
house because if these termites are the
fungus harvesting type like the ones we
saw in mount penahau
then this will truly make things harder
because i don't think i'll be able to
constantly keep going back into the
mountains to give them the fungus they
need because again i still don't know
what this fungus looks like nor where to
find it if these termites were fungus
growers it would be awesome however if
they were like leafcutter ants that just
need to jump start their fungus gardens
at the beginning using spores and then
from there on in keep the fungus gardens
growing on their own using their poop or
something as suggested by ac family
cicada fun and all i would need to feed
the termites were grasses dead leaves
and wood
that would be amazing and such a fun
process to document on this channel
in case this pair of termites fails to
found i actually captured a second pair
who also got married in the termite trap
that night and we'll be keeping them for
backup perhaps we can try raising this
second pair in another type of setup
with different conditions to help
increase our chances of termite colony
founding success
what do you guys say anyway so
complicated but ac family you have never
let me down before
you guys always give me the best
collective advice on such dilemmas which
almost always works out well
with your help ac family i'm sure we can
one day achieve the termite colony of
our dreams let's cross our fingers and
hope for the return of a new thriving
termite colony on the channel
can't wait to see what you guys suggest
especially from any termite pros out
there i'll be doing what the majority of
you feel we need to do
to ensure these termites have the best
fighting chance at colony founding
if they do succeed do let me know what
we should name them oh and lastly if you
want to watch more extended play footage
of our new termite king and queen
click here to watch this hidden video
thank you for watching
and supporting the ants
and termites
it's ant and termite love
forever
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you