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Termites - Science topic
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I saw the termite attack on my cannabis farm. The termites had hollowed out the stems of mature plants. Without any apparent symptoms. I was able to control it by adding poison to the irrigation water. Does anyone have a similar experience in this regard? Termites are not reported as a common pest of cannabis. How can I report this?
I've tried various products currently on the market designed for honeybee mites, but none of them have worked.

I am working on termites and doing in situ hybridization but at the end, I can't see cells in specimen slides. my question is how to maintain the structural integrity during fixation or whole process can influence cell structure. I think fixation is the main part of hybridization. I am using 4% paraformaldehyde at 4degree to fix termite for 3-4 hours then gradient dehydration with ethanol. if any suggestions it would be highly appreciated.
My study area is in eastern Himalayan foothill landscape which is a tropical to sub-tropical forest; elevation ranges from 150 to 1300 meter. The forest is some parts dominated by sal, tick and bamboo plants. The area is not plan at all that's why line transect can't be possible whereas the area having ample of epigeic termite mounds, intermediate mounds, subterranean mounds.
I want to prepare a termite sample for SEM observation and i know it is dehydrated with a graded series of ethanol. but my sample has already been fixed in 75% ethanol for more than one month. So how to treat these samples to prepare for Scanning electron microscope? kindly suggest.
Understandable that empirical data is biased towards bees, ants, and termites but I keep seeing these species in general theoretical papers as well while no mention about thrips or aphids despite a couple of decades having passed after their discovery as social insects?
Hi, would you please tell me which genus termite shown in these pictures?
these picture were taken in the border between Burmese and China.
Thank you very much.
Jianguo, Wang


What could be the correlation of high rates of meiotic recombination (that has been observed in many eusocial Hymenoptera species) to kin selection in eusocial insect species? Preferably looking for some explanation that might be applicable on both - haplodiploid hymenopterans (bees, ants, wasps) and diplodiploid isopterans (termites).
It is known that bees and some other eusocial hymenopterans have elevated rates of recombination. What evolutionary reasons could be there to select these higher rates of recombination in eusocial insects (and not in other organisms)? Also, is there any explanation that would apply to both - haplodiploid (bees, wasps) and diplodiploid (termites) - there are no reports but if we assume termites, being eusocial insects, have high rates of recombination as well?
Hello,
I am trying to purify intact nuclei from termite cells (Cryptotermes secundus to be precise) without any success. My procedure involved dissociation of the tissues using papain followed by lysis of the cells to release the nuclei. After nuclei release, I stain the nuclei using DAPI/tryptophan blue. Using either of the two dyes, the nuclei are not visible under a phase-contrast microscope which convinces me that the extraction was not successful.
Has anyone ever been successful in isolating intact nuclei from fixed termite cells? I would also appreciate it if you could share termites, honeybee, or ants cells/nuclei stained with DAPI or tryptophan blue.
The end goal is to use the nuclei for ChIP-seq analysis in a technique that requires me to isolate intact nuclei and fragment the DNA before lysing the nuclear membrane to release the nuclei (not the traditional sonication method).
Thank you,
We interested in naturally termite resistant timber and their phytochemical characteristics.
Dear All
Have any effective management practice or application for controlling termite in chickpea where no irrigation facilities (rainfed crop). Please suggest which are effective and feasible for farmers
I want to farm the flying termites to mitigate food insecurity and malnutrition in Kenya
Novaluron is a chitin synthesis inhibitor used in termite control. I want to understand the time taken for the bait be effective to kill a termite.
One of the properties of complex adaptive systems is inherent order. It means that system can be orderly even without central control. According to Prigogine,1967, Holland,1998, and Kaufman,1995., self-organization is the key idea in complexity science. For example, termites build the largest structures on earth, yet there is no CEO termite. Similarly, there is no central controller for the stock market, the Internet, or the food supply of the big cities. However, anyway, I wonder myself, is there central controller for stock market, the Internet, or the food supply of big cities? What do you think?
I am extracting DNA of 3 years old termite specimen for bar coding through chelex extraction but facing low quality of DNA (most probably because of long storage or improper transportation)? Is there any one faced the same issue and how it was tackled? or any one having similar experience. Any help regarding this would be much appreciated.
Many plant have termite infection in BHU Campus and fall down by wind current.
Termites are the whites ants which eat the wood and residual of the living organism
I am working on the evaluation of the efficiency of a biopesticide against cocoa belowground pests such as termites in semi-controlled laboratory conditions. This biopesticide needs to be burried near the cultivated crop and the number of insects attacking the root system of each stand is measured after some period of time. Therefore three parameters of the biopesticide application (distance to the crop, burial depth, number of pellets of the product) to were recorded in view to assess the best combination of application with 03 values per parameter (low, medium and high). The experiments were repeated several times.
We have already collected some data but we don't really know which statistical test or procedure will permit us to decide which is the best combination of distance x depth x pellets.
I am familiar with a few species such as: grasshoppers, caterpillar and termites from central Africa and these are resources becoming available during a certain season of the year. How about growing insects as if they were livestock? What species are most adaptable and easy to grow?
we have problem in our field experiment of safed musali (Chlorophytum borivilianum ) cultivation. there is attack of termite in the soil which damage the roots in plant. we approached for organic cultivation thats why we need organic method to destroy the termites in land. and want to know is there microorganism which can help us to destroy these termites.
please guide us with reference.
Microcerotermes is a genus of termites with importance as a pest of structural wood in buildings.
This group has become a serious pest in forest environments causing death on young and old Eucalyptus trees.
Commercially available baits did not been effective on attraction and control of such termites.
May we have a discussion on this topic?
Thank you
Hello, I've isolated a bacteria from termite gut. After 16S ribosomal DNA sequence it was identified as Streptomyces sp. my strain was having cellobiohydrolase activity but i don't have it's genomic DNA sequence. How can i find the corresponding gene for this cellobiohydrolase activity?
i want to know about morphological description about termites. Need suggestions?
Blind, these social insects build ingenious large constructions (with air conditioning and regulated temperature). Some scientists claim that the sole gradient of pheromone enable the realization of such constructions (stigmergy).
I need to get learning about insects particularly about “termites' Identification key and scientific categorization” for morphological identification. I am confronting troubles in finding precise ID key of termites and their definite ordered arrangement up to species level?
I carried out a research on termite pest community of cocoa in different shade managed systems in order to assess effect of shade on community interactions. I Would like to quantify the intensity of competitive interactions using specific abundance of termite species but I am struggling to find out an index especially fitted for this circumstance. I thought about dominance / equitability indexes (Simpson, Pielou etc.), but they are not strong enough to characterize this type of interaction.
I'm currently doing a study involving termites and all the termites I acquire doesn't seem to live long after bringing them back to lab. I needed to test the durability of my product (CLT) against termite attack. The common species existing in my area is macrotermes.
because i need it for my thesis proposal.
What do we feed the termites (soil feeding) with to produce more methane gas?
What type of environment can we create for the termites to enable them produce more?
How do we capture the gas produced by termite?
What is the quantity of methane gas that can be produced per termite/day?
Termites tunnels were found at a house, coming from the walls, when I went out to the garden where I looked for an evidence of the colony . Dead tree was found and was heavily infested with subterranean termites .



Is there any quantification of how much enriched soil is produced by termite? and is it good as fertilizer?
Hi, I am confused with using standard for my compound profile analysis. Im currently analysing termites defense fluid and focusing on fatty acid methyl ester and I have no data and previous study to confirm the defense fluid profiling for the species. I want to use standard from sigma-aldrich fatty acid methyl ester unsaturated for tlc and glc but im afraid that the defense fluid extract may contain saturated fatty acid. Is it ok to choose the standard? Im afraid that when im comparing my result and the standard peak will be different. Thank you.
In western Ethiopia, strong soil acidity coupled with termite infestation is one of the overwhelming challenges to crop production. With pH less than 5, in some cases, the soils have been found to contain exchangeable acidity greater than 6 meq/100 g soil, specifically saturated with exchangeable aluminum. Besides, termite infestation is becoming another headache to crop producers sometimes leading to total crop failure. When crops reach at vegetative stage, the termite often clear cuts the roots of crops in the soil; leading to overall wilting and dying of the whole crop biomass in the field. Application of amendments (e.g. lime) in acid soil amelioration is not sustainable and also it is nothing to do with problem of termites. Use of chemicals in termite control was environmentally counterproductive and not sustainable. Recently, use of biochar in soil management is becoming an interesting research topic. Many research papers were published on the potential of biochar as organic source of fertilizer and soil acidity mgt. Biochar is also a promising alternative to enhance soil health by building carbon. However, I got little information if biochar is a good option in termite control and management. Do you think, biochar will be the best environmental friendly extract used to ameliorate soil acidity and control termite infestation at same time? (i.e. can biochar control termite problem while ameliorating soil acidity simultaneously)?
Baits that can be made at the garden and that were tested by an expert.
I need it to be in liquid form. Because after that i would mix it with methanol for toxicity and repellent test against termites. Any solvent that won't compromise the results for further tests?
I would like to post my extracts and isolated compounds to your laboratory and obviously collaborate on a paper or two.
Termites remains to be a threat to agricultural production responsible primarily for crop lodging. I would like to assess the activities of termites in agricultural fields under conservation agriculture where crop residues are left in the field prompting us to suspect of increased termite activities.
Commonly termites nest building from soil mixing natural material. They are a social insects and living in different castes such as workers, soldiers, queen and male. In my activities as entomology, so difficult to find termites queen. I need more information how to detect presence of her, I mean where her exact location?It impossible broken all of the nest to find it. Thank you.
I need any articles regarding insecticide resistance in termite especially pyrethroid?
Hello friends! I am currently working on extraction and characterization of insect venom and I strongly need experts to tell me the best and easiest methods to follow. Thanks
Are there any reproductive symbionts in the termites (Isoptera: Macrotermitinae) that may be used to manage termites of economic importance? Any published research on the occurence of symbionts/parasites naturally infesting the reproductive system of the termitidae?
Termites host nitrogen fixing symbionts and may therefore in principle show N conversion efficiencies exceeding 100%, however, we have not been able to find data on the relationship between ingested N and the realised amount incorporated into termite biomass. Does such data exist for termites or alternatively for other insects? We want to compare our results on ant colonies with other insects.
Many soil fauna studies (old and recent) mix together social and non-social insects in their analysis, and ants and termites often have 10x more individuals in total specimens sampled. I believe that compare data from social and non-social insects are a source of bias. This, together with a low taxonomic resolution, by treating the ants just like "formicidae" slows or barely do not allow, the advancement of knowledge in the field of biodindicators.
I'm pondering with an idea to use termites to wood bio-conversion. Most of the laboratory experiments I have found have been with colonies ranging from 100 to 3000 individuals. Though in wild some species have been estimated to have colonies of over 100 000 individuals.
I bet that there is active laboratory colonies and maybe even attempts to mass produce termites and would like to have some clues to find them or at least gather information about sizes of successful laboratory colonies/strains.
Termites would probably be some subterranean species, maybe even invasive ones for efficiency.
Dear colleagues
In my company (Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency in Korea), one project is started to protect invasion of termites to Korea. I read ‘Biology of Invasive Termites: A Worldwide Review’ published in ‘Annual review of entomology’ and know dangerous 28 termite species in the world.
To protect these species into Korea, I would like to make figures and COII sequences about the 28 species. This information will be used to identify termite species in progress of Quarantine.
Until now, I secured five species, Reticulitermes flavipes (collected in Gorgia), Coptotermes acinaciformis, C. curvignathus, C. formosanus, C. gestroi (received from foreign researchers)
To secure the rest 23 species samples, I need your helps. Could you give some idea about this work? I really sorry to bother you. But, I think that this work is really important in my country.
thank you very much.
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"the list of 28 invasive species in the world"
Mastotermes darwiniensis
Porotermes adamsoni
Zootermopsis angusticollis
Zootermopsis nevadensis
Glyptotermes brevicornis
Incisitermes immigrans
Incisitermes minor
Kalotermes banksiae
Cryptotermes brevis
Cryptotermes cynocephalus
Cryptotermes domesticus
Cryptotermes dudleyi
Cryptotermes havilandi
Nasutitermes corniger
Heterotermes convexinotatus
Heterotermes perfidus
Heterotermes philippinensis
Heterotermes tenuis
Reticulitermes flavipes
Reticulitermes grassei
Coptotermes acinaciformis
Coptotermes curvignathus
Coptotermes formosanus
Coptotermes frenchi
Coptotermes gestroi
Coptotermes sjostedti
Coptotermes truncatus
Odontotermes formosanus
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i need to examine the DNA assembly before administrating a botanical extract in it.
I am looking for published papers that discuss this, however, the only closest thing I could find talked very little about the size related to the mineral composition of the mound. I'd like to know if there is extensive research on the structural differences.
I’m studying termite taxonomy in the Republic of Korea. Unfortunately, only one species, Reticulitermes speratus, is distributed in my country. I would like to examine other termite species, especially, which are known as wood pests.
Could you provide specimens for study wood pest termites? In addition, please contact me if you need Korean samples (R. speratus).
Thanks.
the biggest challenge for me to rear this termite is keeping the relative humidity between 90 to 95%. I was wondering if there is a method/substance to maintain this condition. I'll be glade if some one gives his/ her ideas about raising termite colony in Lab conditions.
I am looking for papers showing that the moon cycle (mainly through the light available at night) is having, or not, an impact on insect activities. I am especially interested on termites.
Thanks
I am dissecting termites to finally do protein analysis. What should is the most suitable buffer system that I should place the dissected guts into so that I could do protein analysis in future.
Termite colony is high protected community which doesn't allow microbes to grow and affect their ordered life. However, in some cases there are some bacterial pollution in the colony due to several reasons such as humidity, temperature, intentional infection by human etc.
I'm wondering if there are any documented examples which show that termites immunity is affected by any external bacteria?
The termites of isoptera order are very good eaters. The potential of this behavior in alleviating waste problem cannot be ignored. Some research papers revealed some interesting facts of termites and use of mites for the same. What is the practical utility and feasibility of exploiting this behaviour of termites from farmer's point of view?
The late Prof. Dr. Antonio de Barros Machado, Director of the Dundo Museum of Zoology and Anthropology in Angola (1947-1974) studied during more than 30 years of intense work (until 2003 in Portugal, Oeiras) a great number of laterite and bauxite rock samples, in his opinion molded by termite activity in geologic times. He analyzed laterite and bauxite rocks from many places on Earth. His results were only partially recognized because they put into question the "sedimentary origin" of theses formations. I have been dealing with his heritage and am ready to bridge important data for interested colleagues. Grasset mentions in his double volumed encyclopedia part, dedicated to termites, that he never had met more convincing arguments as to the origin of these rocks then those of Barros Machado, though in his first approach, documented in the earlier Zoology encyclopedia, he was not yet convinced, but then surrendered to the smashing amount of proof, proposed by Barros Machado.
In the collection of private letters, there were more geology scientists to accept this innovating idea, but it still remains controverse.
I got few thousands of termites shipped to me, and I kept them in an incubator at 28 C and sprinkled water whenever there was less moisture, they were doing fine for the first 10 days, now in one of the boxes, which was plastic made, I found yellowish greenish fungi growing, and some termites were dead, I separated the dead ones from the live to avoid any damage to living ones and found after 2 days that the new box (this time it was airtight box, this was the one available to me that moment) had fungi again and almost 70% termites died, they were kept on moist paper towels all the time, I am not able to figure out the probable reasons for this damage, though the other 2 boxes are quite fine. Eventually my goal is to feed the termites for sometime on softwood and then do my studies.
Please help me with your suggestions, so that I can try to keep them alive
There is so much mining, building activities in Zambia. Wont these activities not result in the loss of biodiversity on termite mounds?
As individuals of drywood termite colony are distributed on different position inside nest-gallery, how do they "attract" nest-mate or inform their presence in certain chambers?
Hi all,
We have been working with a termite species from the genus Odontotermes. We'd like to permanently remove termites from some mounds to observe their potential cascading ecosystem effects. Has anyone tried to do this?
It seems like one option to remove termites would be with insecticides, but we're worried this effect would only be temporary and termites may recolonize. One thing we've seen is people using plaster of Paris as a way to study mound architecture. Do you think we might be able to use plaster to permanently "plug" termite mounds? Anyone have any experience with these methods?
I'm looking for research papers on urban forensic entomology. Of course, I understand that this sub-discipline is not as well-studied as the medico-legal aspect but I am interested in this and will be writing a short review soon on current topics in FE. Are there any cases of termite infestations and the litigation associated with it?
Higher termites like Odontotermes are difficult to rear in laboratory in the absence of fungal garden. How do you manipulate this hard task?
Can someone suggest me an easy protocol of DNA extraction from termites preserved in ethanol.
I ask this question because I am wondering if termites secrete specialized enzymes, a cocktail of lignolytic chemicals, or there is another way they do it. Is it specific (stereo-, chemo-, etc.)?
I found several papers discussed about food availability induces the emergence of secondary reproductive in Cryptotermes secundurs. However, it seems that other species of drywood termites are showing different response with that of C. secundus. Thank you very much!!
In the paper of Amy Mertl and Co. at page 8 in the results, they suggested an unidentified environmental factor that ants and termites have similar reactions to, any ideas as to what this factor could be?
The Isoptera are true social insects. Usually termite colonies comprise of 1 queen + 1 king + workers + nymphs + soldiers (some species are soldierless) + secondary reproductives and sometimes winged alates are encountered. However, I have come across many colonies of the Termitidae which exhibit polygyny (polygamy) in Botswana. Thus two or more queens and two or more kings in one royal chamber. Anyone with good references and/or explanation?
I am interested on woody debris decomposition in tropical environments. Are there any techniques or approaches to control termite effect during the decomposition process? Any articles out there?
I just carried out a sampling of termites in Lagos, Nigeria. I have their pictures. Can someone help with keys to identify African termites to species level.
Looking for data about the presence of exactly species Reticulitermes lucifugus
Termites being very advanced social insects, are able to avoid any changes in their surroundings, yet some methods are there to lure them. If anyone has tested any method successfully, it would be useful to me.
I had run so many laboratory test against termites and the result is 100% mortality on control samples with the weight loss. Is my test valid? Is it compulsory that the termite on control samples should live after 28 days?
I am trying to see the development of the termite eye and I need to be able to see the pigment cells of the eye. I have tried Durcupan and currently going to try LR White and Spurs Resin.
For studying associations with Termitomyces and Termites