This 6 X 6 inch farm has two pieces of balsa wood and was only inhabited for about a week. Notice the tunnelling has started on the right. The termites have no place to put the sand but on the surface between the plexiglass and the wood. This farm used steel wool on the top. →

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

← Close-up of termites on balsa wood. Notice the extensive mounds of sand they have moved.

 

 

 

 

 

The farm shown above now several weeks later. Notice the more extensive tunneling system and mounds of sand on the wood. →

 

 

 

 

← This is a 3 X 3 inch farm that used batting at the top. This farm is too dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 4 X 4 inch farm that has Kraft paper on the left and balsa wood on the right. Obviously the termites like the paper better. They did not touch the wood until most of the paper was gone. The termites had all died when this photo was taken a few months after it had been going. →

 

 

 

 

 

 

← This piece of balsa wood had been in a 3 X 3 inch farm with 10 termites for about a month. The termites eat the wood by scraping on the face starting at the softest light colored wood. They do not eat it from the ends. The wood darkened from the dampness. The sand was at the bottom of this piece of wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This piece of dampened tissue was used to keep termites in a screw-cap test tube for a week and these holes were made in it during that time. There were dozens of termites in the tube. →