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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2016 13:53:33 GMT
This year Northern Thailand and many Asian countries have experienced an extreme cold spell. Temperatures have been much lower than previously recorded and it has been the coldest I have known in the 20 plus years I have been living in Thailand. The night temperatures fell to 9-10 C for several nights in succession and more interestingly the day temps did not rise much above 11-12 C. Although by European standards this it not overly cold in Thailand it resulted in several deaths as the people are not used to these temperatures. It also resulted in the death of many creatures that were not adapted to the lower temperatures. Dead fish were seen in many ponds as they could not survive the low temperatures and many house geckos also died. It also resulted in the death of most of my captive tropical ant colonies. The wild species can survive the cold by going deeper into the ground which holds residual warmth and acts as an insulating material but the captive colonies could not do this. P. diversus was particularly susceptible and I lost seven out of nine large multi queen colonies. Many other species also suffered badly and total death rate was about 90% of my stock. Due to the prediction that these cold spells may become more frequent I may have to install heaters next year - something I would have never contemplated before!
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Post by occultus on Feb 1, 2016 21:14:27 GMT
I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. 90% death rate is a shocking figure. I've never heard of temperatures being so low in Southeast Asia.
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