Mantis hatched

[Texas Panther Man]

Well my mantis hatched last nite. I wasnt ready of course. lol I had ordered a few cultures of ff and one of our fellow members hasnt shipped them and Ive been waiting for a month. So Im going to petco to try and find some grub for these guys today.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

You could try putting out a few slices of fruit. I like banana's to attract wild fruit flies. I use wire mesh lids, on 32oz. deli cups. Flies can get into the cups, Mantis stay in the cups. This is a outdoor or garage project of course. Not recommended for indoor use.

 

[draetish]

That's what happened to me, they hatched and I wasn't ready. I got online with snailtail flys and got some PDQ. You may lose a few but you should have 200 or more. Remember, don't drown them like I did.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Thank you Steve. I might just try that for some of them. I have so friggin many! Im gonna try and raise between 50-100 and then release the rest into my moms tropical backyard. Shes got whiteflies and aphids eatting her azaleas so they should have a very plentiful food supply. And she doesnt use any pesticides at all so no worries there.

 

[draetish]

Thank you Steve. I might just try that for some of them. I have so friggin many! Im gonna try and raise between 50-100 and then release the rest into my moms tropical backyard. Shes got whiteflies and aphids eatting her azaleas so they should have a very plentiful food supply. And she doesnt use any pesticides at all so no worries there.

Anyway you can trap the whiteflies and aphids for now or rig up an enclosure with the mantids around the azaleas?

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I hadnt thought of that idea. Thanks Donna, I have some screen lying around. I could make a temp cylinder type cage around a plant for some of them. That would make catching them later alot easier.

 

[Vega1974]

Where did you pick up the Mantis eggs?

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Actually its called an ooth sac. I got them online. I bought three of them but one of them was abducted by birds or something. I put it outside to hatch and the birds or squirrels got it. The other two I used the paper bag method. And I think only one has hatched out so far. I havent really opened it all the way to see if both hatched simultaneously. You can find them at gardening supply stores online, or on ebay also i think.

 

[buddhacham]

Same thing happened to me. If you have houseflies, the hatchlings will easily eat those.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Yeah Im more than a little pissed. I was supposed to have ff cultures three weeks ago. Colorcham427/Brian has my money and he never shipped my cultures. I've been waiting on him for a month! I wasnt going to post his name but he wont respond to my pm's or my emails. So where are you Brian you promised to mail my ff's three different times? Whats the issue now? I gave you my shipping address three times also so no more excuses bro.

 

[Jerm]

That sucks. Do you know what type of mantis that they are? The egg case is actually called an ootheca. I have raised cryptic and orchid mantids in the past. That are amazing little creatures. It is entertaining to watch them hunt. I get my flies from www.joshsfrogs.com. He has pretty good deals and ships pretty quickly. I also raise dartfrogs besides my panther chameleons so i always have flies on hand. I would recommend posting on a dartfrog forum and checking to see if there are any dartfrog keepers in your area that would be willing to sell you some of their flies to hold you over. If they are anything like me, I always keep way more than i need on hand just to be on the safe side. www.dendroboard.com www.dartden.com

 

[buddhacham]

Yeah Im more than a little pissed. I was supposed to have ff cultures three weeks ago. Colorcham427/Brian has my money and he never shipped my cultures. I've been waiting on him for a month! I wasnt going to post his name but he wont respond to my pm's or my emails. So where are you Brian you promised to mail my ff's three different times? Whats the issue now? I gave you my shipping address three times also so no more excuses bro.

Sorry Panther Man, I'd be upset too. I was going to raise the mantis to at least 2-3 inches as feeders, but decided to just keep some as pets instead. I wouldn't feel bad feeding them to my cham it's just too much work(in my opinion) to keep a good supply on hand.

By the way, I ordered my ff cultures from him as well, and he shipped them just fine. So I don't know what's going on. Hopefully, you'll get them soon.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Thanks everyone.

Yeah, I was not trying to "bug" him about the cultures because it was only about 20 bux for the ff's. But then my mantis hatched and the few cultures I had on hand werent producing many flies and were about used up.