In Australia, laboratory bioassays with subterranean termites typically contain groups of workers and soldiers in a substrate of moist mound material. This termite substrate may affect termite consumption, and the test materials create a favorable termite condition for the test. The main purpose of this test is to examine the effect of a melamine formaldehyde treatment of wood panels to evaluate the resistance against subterranean termites compared to untreated wood panels in the test. The orphaned termite populations were exposed to treated and untreated wood panels for over eight weeks. All the different treatments of wood panels were placed into 1 lt glass jar containers half filled with moistened mound material and five grams of foraging C. acinaciformis (~ 8% soldiers). The results were very conclusive with significant mass loss of the treated and untreated wood panels. Untreated panels and water treated panels showed high mass losses (40 – 60 %), whereas MF treated panels were barely attacked (5-7 % mass loss).

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