Babies! We have babies!

[shermanator]

i thought it was a bit of an odd statement, but what do I know....i'm not an entomologist

 

[laurie]

OMG I have like a thousand + mantis right now! They're a ton of work. I bought a couple butterfly cages and have been dumping newly hatched ooths in these. So far it has been working great. It gives them some room and good ventilation. The only drawback so far is the mantis spew out some stuff that stains the fabric.

If you want adults you'll have to keep them separate. I use 32 oz deli cups with screen lids. I have problems with the last molt in these though. There's not enough room for them to get a good molt and they get jacked up. I bought some screen cages last weekend that I'm going to try and put the mantis in when they're nearing the last molt.

I need a lot of adults so I'm going to have to get the kinks out of my mantis raising techniques.

You have a 1,000??? How about selling me a bunch for my 3 babies?? I have 5 ooths but nothing hatching.

I have 8 mantis - chinese - in a 16 x16 x 24 butterfly cage. I started with about 30 they keep going down. Mine are about 1 body size. Guess I better give in a split them. Trust me, these things are very cannibalistic.

 

[camimom]

THEY EAT... EACH OTHER!

Lol.
action jackson- so glad you said they spew stuff that stains the fabric, the random orange spots on the bottom of my cage was not helping.

I have about 20 mantids in a middle sized screen cage wtih a pothos in it.

I dump food regularly. but so far, only really see about 10 at a time. not sure i fthe others are still there. but not risking searching.


I fed some off. and seem to have gotten some through several instars.

now my biggest one is about 2 inches long. its awesome.

 

[maxttu]

Well, 5 days later I'm down to about 50-60 out of 200! Man, these mantids do have a serious die-off rate! Jeez...