CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Can termites be kept as pets?

Termites can be artificially bred

Due to the special lifestyle of termites, the various morphologies in the same colony, and the fact that they all live in groups, when raising termites, one must first understand and master some of the characteristics of their lives, so that one can use everything from breeding equipment to management methods with ease in the work of raising termites.

Additional information:

Termites are thermophilic insects, with the equator as the center of their distribution, spreading out to the north and south. The lower the latitude, the more species there are. Their distribution range is 45°N in the north of the Palearctic, 52°30′N in the New North, and 45°25′S in the south of the Neotropical. In China, except for Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai and Xinjiang, they are distributed and cause harm in all other provinces and regions.

Among them, the northern limit of the distribution of Reticulitermes is about 40°N, that of Soil Termites is 35°N, that of House Termites is 32°～33°N, and that of Sand Mound Termites is about 28°N. South of the Yangtze River in China, there are many species and high density.

Termites can be artificially bred. The following are termite breeding techniques.

Termite breeding techniques

To raise termites, you must first understand and master some of their characteristics in life, so that you can use everything from breeding equipment to management methods with ease in the work of raising termites.

① Characteristics of termites: If we summarize the characteristics of termites, they can be roughly divided into 5 categories:

A. Sociality: Termites are social insects. A group of house termites is usually led by a pair of queen and king ants, who are the reproductive organs of the ant colony. Each nest usually has tens of thousands of worker and soldier ants to build nests, forage, feed and guard, but they are all incapable of reproduction. Once the king and queen ants are lost in the nest, supplementary reproductive individuals - short-winged queen and king ants - must be cultivated from the young termites in the nest to take on the reproductive task. Therefore, termite breeding must have breeding equipment that can accommodate a large group and space for its reproductive activities.

B. Nesting and feeding habits: Each termite colony has a relatively large main nest, which serves as the palace of the queen and king, and is also the center of group activities. In addition, there must be many secondary nests, and each nest is connected by tunnels. House termites often build nests under the roots of trees near the village (especially pine and fir trees), in tree trunks, and in various wooden buildings and utensils in the house. The fibers in these woods become natural feed for termites, especially for trees with weak growth or dry wood with fresh fiber tissue, but they are not greedy for wood that is too rotten. Termites also have the habit of eating the old skin, excrement or corpses of newly dead ants shed by their companions. Therefore, enough greedy wood (preferably tree stumps, thicker tree trunks, and wooden boards of a certain thickness) as food or nesting materials for termites should be placed in the breeding container to meet their needs.

C. Ground-dwelling and water-loving: Termites mostly build their nests underground, so they are called ground-dwelling insects. The depth can generally reach 0.5 to 2 meters. Even if they build their nests in wood on the ground, they must build tunnels to communicate with the underground so that they can bring in soil particles, excrement and saliva to mix and build ant tunnels. Termites cannot live without water. No matter where they build their nests, they must first build a waterway (water absorption line) connected to the main nest and connected to the nearby nest or underground water source. Once the water source is cut off, all the termites in the nest will die within more than 10 days. Therefore, there must be a certain thickness of soil layer and a device to supply water in the breeding container.

D. Social and photophobia: Termites are very social and never move alone, especially in the low temperature stage, they gather in the nest. Termites also have the characteristics of licking each other and feeding each other. Termites are usually afraid of light and only move in nests or ant tunnels made of wood and soil. They escape when they see light and work together to block the holes that occasionally appear in the ant tunnel. However, when winged adults leave the nest for mating flights, they have a strong tendency to be phototropic, but this is only temporary. Once they complete mating and shed their wings, they lose their habit of being phototropic and quickly drill into the soil or under the wood to build nests and raise their young. Therefore, the breeding container must have shading equipment and create conditions for them to live in groups. E. Group flight: Group flight is the early form of termite swarming. When the population density of growing termite colonies is too high, a large number of winged adults (reproduction ants) will be produced. Every year in late spring and early summer, in the evening when the weather is hot and humid after rain and the air pressure drops significantly, they leave the nest for mating flights and then build new nests. Since termites have the habit of flying in groups during mating, the breeding container must have not only a flat surface area but also a high space to accommodate the mating flight. According to the above five characteristics of termites, the breeding container is best set up outdoors, with a breeding pool several meters long, wide and high built with bricks, a fine gauze installed on the pool, and a rainproof awning made of fir poles and bamboo curtains; the pool is filled with soil and wood, and a perennial water storage tank is set at one end. The periphery of the pool should be equipped with a protective water tank to prevent natural enemies from attacking. A pool can be divided into several small grids to raise several groups.

②Seed collection and artificial breeding

A. Seed collection: It is the process of introducing ant colonies into the breeding pond. The methods are: First, dig out the nest chambers and mushroom beds with ant kings and queens from the ant nests built in the wild and move them into the breeding pond. The best time to dig is when the sunlight is strongest, because most of the ant colonies are concentrated in the nests at this time, and put them into cloth bags and bring them back. Some termites left in the tunnels or secondary nests will still build nests in groups in the original place as long as there are supplementary reproductive ants. Second, during the mating flight period in late spring and early summer every year, use lights to attract new reproductive ants that have shed their wings near the ant nests (try to collect as many as possible to prevent some of them from not adapting to the environment and dying), move them into the pond, let them choose their own mates, and choose a location to build a nest. The latter is more convenient to collect seeds, eliminating the need to find and dig the main nest, but because the reproductive ability of the newly born reproductive ants is poor, the ant colony is small, and the harvest is small.

B. Artificial feeding: In the process of raising termites, in addition to giving them suitable natural feed, they should also give them artificial feed as a supplement to natural feed, which can improve their reproduction ability, expand the population and increase the source of medicine. The artificial feed formulas for raising house termites and yellow-breasted termites that have been successfully tested are: Formula 1: (percentage of wet weight) ergosterol 0.06, protein 0.05, distilled water 65.82, cellulose 34.06, paraben 0.01. Formula 2: β-sitosterol 0.06, casein 0.05, distilled water 65.82, cellulose 34.06, paraben 0.01. Formula 3: ergosterol 0.06, vitamin B mixture 3.23 [vitamin B mixture is to add choline chloride and inositol to Vanderzant (1957) solution], Wei's salt 0.4, distilled water 62.04, cellulose 34.26, paraben 0.01. The preparation of artificial feed is to place the raw materials of each formula in a glass dish (with or without Webster salt) according to the proportion, and stir it to form a thick paste, but not a soup. Put it in the corner of the breeding pool, cover it with wooden boards, check it after 5 to 7 days, and replenish it after it is eaten up. If it is left for too long, it will be contaminated and moldy. Judging from the current distribution of termites in the wild and the number of nests, collecting them in the wild can meet the medicinal needs. Moreover, termites are the enemy of wood materials and dams, and collecting them in the wild can turn harm into benefit. From the perspective of preserving species and ecological balance, planned collection and breeding should be combined.

Termites (white ants), also known as insects, belong to the phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Isoptera. They live in a social environment similar to ants, and their social classes are queen ants, king ants, soldier ants, and worker ants. Although termites and ants are generally called ants (see Formicidae), in the classification of the termite social system, termites belong to the lower hemimetabolous insects, while ants belong to the higher holometabolous insects. According to fossils, termites may have developed from ancient Orthoptera insects and first appeared in the Permian period 200 million years ago. People may mistakenly believe that termites are a type of ants, but in fact, termites and ants are two different species. Termites are soft and small, usually long and round, white, light yellow, reddish brown to black brown. The head is pronotum-like or hyponotum-like, and can move freely. The antennae are bead-shaped, the base of the abdomen is thick, and the front and back wings are equal in length; the antennae of ants are knee-shaped, the base of the abdomen is thin, and the front wings are larger than the hind wings. The terms ants, ants, flying ants, ants, li, and G in ancient Chinese books are all confused with ants. The name of termite began to be used in the Song Dynasty and was determined to be another name for termites. Termites are distributed in tropical and subtropical areas and feed on wood or cellulose. Termites are polymorphic, social insects with strict division of labor. Once the group organization is destroyed, it is difficult for them to survive. More than 2,000 species are known in the world. In China, except for the Australian termite family, the other four families have been found, totaling more than 300 species. The distribution range is very wide.

Chinese name: termite

Aliases: Insect ant, giant water ant

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Subclass: Pterygota

Order: Isoptera

Distribution area: Termites are found on six continents except Antarctica, mainly between 45° north and south latitude.

English: Termites

Termites are pests that destroy buildings and furniture.

If you want to keep an easy-to-keep pet, I suggest you choose a hamster, a Shih Tzu bear, or a goldfish. Don't keep insects or the like.

Termites are also called "ants", but they are completely different from ants. Although we can find worker ants, soldier ants, winged reproductive ants and queen ants in termite nests, we can also find ant kings! Male termites do not die tragically after mating like male ants do. On the contrary, they stay with the queen ant for life.