praying mantis?

snitz427 said:
I have a whitefly outbreak in one of my vivs and cant wait for my mantid army to knock them out!
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I’ve never had such a problem with soil gnats like I do now. It’s crazy. The cursed things are all over. I have a big bag of mosquito bits as back up if the mantids can’t kill them all.
 
I guess Lucky figured out that he has tasty little treats in his enclosure. 😕
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Oh no! I have another ooth that sprouted some babies this morning, but they aren’t mantises. A little bit of googling tells me that they are a parasitic wasp, but not which one. One will feed on the baby mantids before they can hatch and another just lays its eggs in the mantis’ ooth. There’s only three of them so far. Not sure what I should do with them now. @snitz427 have you ever run into these? Are they good or bad bugs?
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MissSkittles said:
Oh no! I have another ooth that sprouted some babies this morning, but they aren’t mantises. A little bit of googling tells me that they are a parasitic wasp, but not which one. One will feed on the baby mantids before they can hatch and another just lays its eggs in the mantis’ ooth. There’s only three of them so far. Not sure what I should do with them now. @snitz427 have you ever run into these? Are they good or bad bugs?
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that’s is fascinating!! how long have you had your ooths so far?! none of mine have hatched 🫤 but i know it can take up to 6 weeks
 
yungzerk said:
that’s is fascinating!! how long have you had your ooths so far?! none of mine have hatched 🫤 but i know it can take up to 6 weeks
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I’ve had them for two weeks. I’m keeping at room temp, which for me is around 74-75. The easiest/best place for me to hatch them out was in mason jars, with fabric over the tops that I can spray with water for humidity. The one hatched out the other day and those are all in with Lucky and I’m waiting on the other five.
 
MissSkittles said:
Oh no! I have another ooth that sprouted some babies this morning, but they aren’t mantises. A little bit of googling tells me that they are a parasitic wasp, but not which one. One will feed on the baby mantids before they can hatch and another just lays its eggs in the mantis’ ooth. There’s only three of them so far. Not sure what I should do with them now. @snitz427 have you ever run into these? Are they good or bad bugs?
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I have not had one emerge to my knowledge, unless it was eaten! I have had them show up (just one or two) when adding new bark or plants. Free chameleon food!
 
Just wondering how everyone’s ooths are doing? So far out of the six I bought, only the one has hatched babies and two hatched out only parasitic wasps. I suspect they are the type that eat the mantis eggs. I grabbed some of the baby mantids before Lucky could eat them and have them in a bin. I’m keeping them well supplied with fruit flies so hopefully they won’t resort to eating each other. No idea how many there are or even what I plan on doing with them. I just think they’re cool little animals.
 
MissSkittles said:
Just wondering how everyone’s ooths are doing? So far out of the six I bought, only the one has hatched babies and two hatched out only parasitic wasps. I suspect they are the type that eat the mantis eggs. I grabbed some of the baby mantids before Lucky could eat them and have them in a bin. I’m keeping them well supplied with fruit flies so hopefully they won’t resort to eating each other. No idea how many there are or even what I plan on doing with them. I just think they’re cool little animals.
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i ordered 3 and non have hatched so far:( i know it can take up to 8 weeks and i’ve only had them for 2 so far so fingers crossed something works out
 
MissSkittles said:
Just wondering how everyone’s ooths are doing? So far out of the six I bought, only the one has hatched babies and two hatched out only parasitic wasps. I suspect they are the type that eat the mantis eggs. I grabbed some of the baby mantids before Lucky could eat them and have them in a bin. I’m keeping them well supplied with fruit flies so hopefully they won’t resort to eating each other. No idea how many there are or even what I plan on doing with them. I just think they’re cool little animals.
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I put mine in the fridge after reading what @snitz427 about refrigerating for a couple weeks so I’ll probably take them out next week and see what happens…
 
MissSkittles said:
Just wondering how everyone’s ooths are doing? So far out of the six I bought, only the one has hatched babies and two hatched out only parasitic wasps. I suspect they are the type that eat the mantis eggs. I grabbed some of the baby mantids before Lucky could eat them and have them in a bin. I’m keeping them well supplied with fruit flies so hopefully they won’t resort to eating each other. No idea how many there are or even what I plan on doing with them. I just think they’re cool little animals.
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MINE FINALLY HATCHED! i feel like a father 😂😂
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Yay! Congrats! That’s a lot of babies! Aren’t they cute? You’ll want to lightly mist the side of their enclosure for them to drink and lots of fruit flies. I think mine just went thru their first molt. Lucky has several just living in his enclosure. He isn’t able to shoot his tongue far and can’t reach where they are hanging out. I am curious how big they’ll get living in there. Then I have some in a bin. I wish my other ooths would hatch. I finally gave in and watered some of the plants around the house and in some enclosures with mosquito bits, which has worked. I had soil gnats everywhere. When they start swimming in my coffee, they’ve gone too far.
 
MissSkittles said:
Yay! Congrats! That’s a lot of babies! Aren’t they cute? You’ll want to lightly mist the side of their enclosure for them to drink and lots of fruit flies. I think mine just went thru their first molt. Lucky has several just living in his enclosure. He isn’t able to shoot his tongue far and can’t reach where they are hanging out. I am curious how big they’ll get living in there. Then I have some in a bin. I wish my other ooths would hatch. I finally gave in and watered some of the plants around the house and in some enclosures with mosquito bits, which has worked. I had soil gnats everywhere. When they start swimming in my coffee, they’ve gone too far.
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yes, i didn’t think you’d be so right but i almost feel guilty for feeding these cuties to my boy🥲, but i moved them into a 20 gallon tub so i hope that’ll help with the cannibalism. You think they’ll be okay for a couple days without food right? I have fruit flies otw, but i tried putting newborn roaches in there and they didn’t seem to like it. Also i was surprised how many came out! i think i have like 150-200
 
yungzerk said:
yes, i didn’t think you’d be so right but i almost feel guilty for feeding these cuties to my boy🥲, but i moved them into a 20 gallon tub so i hope that’ll help with the cannibalism. You think they’ll be okay for a couple days without food right? I have fruit flies otw, but i tried putting newborn roaches in there and they didn’t seem to like it. Also i was surprised how many came out! i think i have like 150-200
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I don’t know for sure how they’ll take to not having food for a couple of days. I’d guess that you’ll be having a big decrease in how many of them you have. They do have healthy appetites. Maybe pick up a fruit fly culture from a pet store? Those usually don’t last more than a week or so and then you’ll have your better cultures.
 
MissSkittles said:
I don’t know for sure how they’ll take to not having food for a couple of days. I’d guess that you’ll be having a big decrease in how many of them you have. They do have healthy appetites. Maybe pick up a fruit fly culture from a pet store? Those usually don’t last more than a week or so and then you’ll have your better cultures.
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i don’t have any local pet stores that sell fruit flies :/, i tried putting in honey and i tore up some mealworms so they can attempt to eat the guts maybe. hopefully the fruit flies get here by monday :(
 
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