Mantis questions

[boj3434]

I want to get a mantis ooth so i can get some mantis to feed my chameleons. I just dont have any experience with keeping them. I know a lot about them but I was just wondering if anyone had good ideas for keeps a lot of them alive for awhile. I need ideas for what to keep them in and what to feed them. Do most people who keep them just buy food or catch some bugs in the wild. Thanks I cant wait to get some going im sure my chameleons will love them.

 

[draetish]

I don't know much about it and I just hatched my first ooth. I'm kinda of experimenting and looking online. You get anywhere from 200-300 mantids from one ooth, so if you loose some, oh well. This maybe completely wrong, but I have a bunch of 8 oz plastic water bottles that I put a couple of twigs and fake greenry in. I put 6-8 hatchlings in there and yes, I know they are cannibals. If I can grow 30-50 to 1" for my chams, I'll be happy with that for my first try. The extras I will put in my backyard. Oh yeah, there was a post by Steve, that you don't want to throw out the casing for about a week after they start hatching, there maybe more. Basically, I don't know what I'm doing yet, but you never know till you try!

 

[boj3434]

I dont know im still just trying to find the best way to keep them all with out to much canabilism

 

[FiReBaNaNa]

here's what you want to do, my uncles favorite feeder for his chams are mantids, get 6 24 oz deli cups with lids and fill it with exselsior (spanish moss) but loosly, divide up ur mantids evenly into the cups, u will need fruit flies, feed two hours after hatching. and feed them to ur cham you have 4-6 weeks before adult molt.

 

[xanthoman]

canabalism?

if they have water and plenty of ff available cannabalism shouldnt be an issue at least through the 1st couple of instars (molts). by the time they are an inch long you should probably have no more than 15-20 per one g container. the smaller the container and the more crowded it is, the more canabalism you will have. you will probably lose a few to canabalism but you will probably lose many more to other husbandry issues like watering. just keep an eye on them , if you notice canabalism, it means its time for a larger less crowded container. they dont like to chase after their food so if they are sharing a small container where they are in close proximity to each other, it increases the incidence of canabalism. if they have to walk across the container to eat another mantis they would rather just eat the ff in front of them

 

[boj3434]

Well I have a small like 12x18x20 screen cage that I was going to set up for some of them I think but I was going to either buy some cups of make something out of old bottles or something

 

[radstusky]

I have two ooths that I am waiting to hatch. One I put right in the cage so when they start hatching he'll have mantis smorgasbord! The other one I have in a large cup with some excelsior. You can get some help with mantis care from this site: http://mantisplace.com/hangff.html

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I just bought 3 sacs from gardening zone. Im going to hatch two out using the paper bag method. The other im going to put in my moms backyard. she is only into organic gardening. Im hoping that some will stay in her yard and reproduce. She has tons of aphids and im hoping they will havea constant food source.

 

[buddhacham]

nutrional value?

Hi, does anyone dust their mantis with calcium? I have no idea about the nutritional value. (chinese mantis)

 

[boj3434]

I wasnt planning on it I was going to try and gutload the mantis food so it helps the chameleon some. But I would like to know people who feed mantis do you dust them?

 

[Time420]

I dust em, slows them down makes them easy to deal with, then set them on a branch. They tend to sit where ya put em and try to start cleaning off the dust (for about 2 sec and chomp) I like to dust them b/c Archie loves them and eats em fast and I know he gets his supplements for the day. This was my first time with hatching mantis. Don't know if i will still use them as a staple feeder as they take allot of FF and time to grow. It has been about 2-3 weeks and they are not too big (not to mention the 3 weeks it took them to hatch), but my cham is only 3 months old so they are good for now.
FYI: Mantis will climb anything I have found so far.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

How many ff cultures do i need to have ready for when they hatch?

 

[CNorton]

How many ff cultures do i need to have ready for when they hatch?

One culture should be fine but beware the flies will do quickly once separated from their food source. You can dump 10-15 in with a single mantis and use banana slices, applesauce, or apples to keep the FF alive while the mantis picks them off over time.

Just for others that are interested in mantis...check out this thread.