My Mantids Hatched!

[Citizen Snips]

Three weeks passed since I put them into this bin and left it on the back porch. I checked on them yesterday and this is what I saw.

They are Chinese Mantis from some online garden shop and in the picture there are two Oothecas. I feed them flightless fruit flys and lightly mist them in the morning for water. I plan on keeping a few as pets and a couple more for breeding. What a great treat they are for my cham. I fed him one this morning and it rushed my chameleon like it was trying to scare it away. And... he's dead now.

 

[sdheli420]

ya..they can be aggresive towards larger animals to "scare" them off..usually ends like it did, lol..i love mantids, my fave insect by far!! hard to feed them off, but you get soo many from an ooth (did you let some go in the bushes in the back yard??)..my violin mantid just molted again two days ago..i almost forgot how they quadruple in size everytime the molt!! lol

 

[laurie]

Congrats on the hatching. I have 6 ooth's waiting to hatch. I also have 11 mantids growing from my last hatching. Some of those guys are over an inch long already. I am hoping to grow them to adults and have them reproduce. Let me know how you do with the ones you are trying to grow. BTW chinese mantids will happily eat each other. You will need to put them in individual "houses", or you you will have less, and less .....

 

[suzi]

Cool I think this is definitely going to be my next project

 

[Citizen Snips]

A lot of them escaped the bin by peeling back the duct tape 0.o
They are the coolest insect and after I saw them yesterday I spent
like an hour online just looking at different species.

 

[Shrilly]

A lot of them escaped the bin by peeling back the duct tape 0.o
They are the coolest insect and after I saw them yesterday I spent
like an hour online just looking at different species.

hmm seems chameleons eat EVERYTHIING
very ool congrats snips

 

[suzi]

Did you have the duct tape lined around the top of the bin? Do you not need to put a top on?

 

[jrh3]

Did you have the duct tape lined around the top of the bin? Do you not need to put a top on?

They can climb anything at that age and jump!,LOL!. without a top they will get out.

 

[suzi]

They can climb anything at that age and jump!,LOL!. without a top they will get out.

That's what I thought so what is the duct tape for?

 

[Citizen Snips]

Thanks Shrills!

Here's what the cover looks like. I will use a glue gun next time, lol.
You can just barely see an escapee who is sitting on the back right
side of the bin at the top of the photo. Very tiny right now. And yes they hop all over the place!

 

[suzi]

Oh lol ok

 

[SSimsswiSS]

I'd be worried about little feet getting stuck to tape.

 

[sdheli420]

i could have told you they would and will get all over the place..haha when i was 16, i hatched my first ooth in my room ..lets just say i had no spiders walking around anymore after that..i had to take the screens off my windows and then collect all that i could..i swear there where more than 200..haha

 

[suzi]

i could have told you they would and will get all over the place..haha when i was 16, i hatched my first ooth in my room ..lets just say i had no spiders walking around anymore after that..i had to take the screens off my windows and then collect all that i could..i swear there where more than 200..haha

Lmao

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Yeah I did the same thing first time I hatched an ooth. I dont know how they find those little seams in between the tape and get out. Hell cricks and dubia arent half the ecape artists these guys are.

Im waiting on a 3 pack of ooths right now. Pssh is supposed to be sending me a few. I want to feed some off to my clutch of falys. I dont have the time or patience to grow em up. I wish I had the time and room though they are def a cool insect to watch & feed.

 

[warpdrive]

I'd be worried about little feet getting stuck to tape.

I agree.
one of the best enclosures to use if not housed indiviualy is a butterfly cage.
also, while Laurie is correct, I've grown plenty of agressive mantids together in 12x12 or larger buterfly net cages. the trick is to have plenty of food at all times with them.
(yet be aware, that as most grow they become more likely to eat one another.)

chinese are cool, but be aware that they eat food almost as large as them, so get some houseflys started now. may as well get some bluebottles going also.

Harry

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I used crickets to feed my bigger chinese mantids. Have tons of them anyway and they're cheap so it worked well for me.

 

[Citizen Snips]

I plan on separating them into deli cups with mesh lids when they get a little bigger or until i notice a big decline in population, lol. There's a video on Youtube where a guy feeds his mantis a goldfish and it was really brutal, but awesome at the same time. They are like aliens and zombies combined!

 

[Aminah Undone]

I recently had 2 ooths hatch in my living room because I forgot about them sitting in Sela's old cage ..with the door open. d'oh! They were all over the curtains and walls, in that corner, so I just opened a window and shoo'd them out. I held back about 50 and fed off half to my Pyg girls. They LOVED them! I kept 20 or so in a large enough tub, thinking they'd be okay for a week or so.. as long as I kept plenty of food. Uh.. NO. Let's just say, I have 2. I hope these 2 are a pair, at least.