Hello from San Diego - Bought 2 tenodera aridifolia egg sacs

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Qwiggalo

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Bought 2 tenodera aridifolia egg sacs and a 12"x12"x12" terrarium that will have live plants in it (Golden Pothos and Sansevieria). I have gravel on the very bottom, with a moss layer on top of that and coco coir/lime mixture. I currently need a light that will raise the temperature to 75-80 degrees.

I'm curious which species are native to San Diego (If any) and which are invasive?

I've been doing a lot of research, my oothecas are currently unhatched and have been at my home for 1.5 weeks now, but until this moment I hadn't read they needed moisture. Do you think they're alright 1.5 weeks without a mist?

I don't have the correct low heat glue gun to glue them to the top of the terrarium is there another way to accomplish this?

I also have setup a moth/flying insect trap in order to catch them some food. I have a somewhat large pot with a large funnel in it and egg cartons inside. I covered the sides with a wine, molasses and sugar mixture. Do any of you have any experience catching live food, if so what do you do?

 
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You're better off with getting a fruit fly culture since there will be so many nymphs and they will be too small for the larger prey that will be caught in the traps...and you can use a high temp gun, just place glue, let it cool for a couple seconds...then place ootheca...Welcome to the forum!

 
Welcome! Like AndrewNisip said, the nymphs are going to be tiny, so you need fruitflies. and if you keep them all in the same container, they'll cannibalize and you'll be left with only a few mantids.

Welcome Again!

 
Welcome! The oothecae should be alright. You should mist them often though. I would do what Hibiscusmile said or less water. Those two plants (snake plant and pathos) are probably not going to be very good for the mantids because they are slippery so they cannot hold onto the plants well and they cannot molt on them. Rough sticks are good (sticks with lichen are good). I would not use those two kinds of plants. Maybe you can get some grass that does well without a lot of sunlight to have many hiding places for the nymphs and to make the place look good to you. You will need Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies (the common small yellow ones). You can buy wingless ones which are smaller than the flightless ones and the wild type. But the wild ones will be small enough. Put out some rotting fruit and if there are many of those fruit flies catch them. I would buy a culture of wingless fruit flies and some fruit fly media. You can get the media from Repashy's fruit fly media or Josh's Frogs Drosophila melanogaster media. Josh's Frogs fruit fly cultures I got had mites which seemed to kill my roaches and keep the fruit flies from multiplying after the mites multiplied. You can buy fruit flies from Mantispets or from Hibiscusmile (maybe not). You will have to separate the mantids when they are L3 or so because they will eat each other and you will have only a few left. Two Chinese Mantis oothecae have a lot of nymphs. If you can get roaches I would. Not just for feeding but are fun to watch (look at). Shelfordella lateralis are good. Lobster roaches are maybe more interesting than the Shelfordella lateralis because they chase each other around and claim territories. Maybe you can get some cheaply from somebody on Roachforum.com. Chinese Mantids have been moved from the species Tenodera aridifolia to Tenodera sinensis.

 
happy1892 said:
Welcome! The oothecae should be alright. You should mist them often though. I would do what Hibiscusmile said or less water. Those two plants (snake plant and pathos) are probably not going to be very good for the mantids because they are slippery so they cannot hold onto the plants well and they cannot molt on them. Rough sticks are good (sticks with lichen are good). I would not use those two kinds of plants. Maybe you can get some grass that does well without a lot of sunlight to have many hiding places for the nymphs and to make the place look good to you. You will need Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies (the common small yellow ones). You can buy wingless ones which are smaller than the flightless ones and the wild type. But the wild ones will be small enough. Put out some rotting fruit and if there are many of those fruit flies catch them. I would buy a culture of wingless fruit flies and some fruit fly media. You can get the media from Repashy's fruit fly media or Josh's Frogs Drosophila melanogaster media. Josh's Frogs fruit fly cultures I got had mites which seemed to kill my roaches and keep the fruit flies from multiplying after the mites multiplied. You can buy fruit flies from Mantispets or from Hibiscusmile (maybe not). You will have to separate the mantids when they are L3 or so because they will eat each other and you will have only a few left. Two Chinese Mantis oothecae have a lot of nymphs. If you can get roaches I would. Not just for feeding but are fun to watch (look at). Shelfordella lateralis are good. Lobster roaches are maybe more interesting than the Shelfordella lateralis because they chase each other around and claim territories. Maybe you can get some cheaply from somebody on Roachforum.com. Chinese Mantids have been moved from the species Tenodera aridifolia to Tenodera sinensis.
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Great info, I've posted my finished terrarium here http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=28943

I've put a bendy branch that's made of a foam and seems like it'd be easy for the mantis to hold onto.

 
Cool! You should put several more branches in there. lol, you will get around 600 nymphs if both ooths hatch. I have read about people having problems with chinese mantis hatchlings in that a whole bunch die. It might be because they get stressed easily by people moving their containers and stuff like that. So I would leave them alone a lot of the time and when you put fruit flies in there put them in carefully to not scare the mantids. It will be very crowded in there. It might be good to put the other ootheca in another container and leave just one in there. When they are crowded they run into each other and stress each other out a lot. Do you have fruit flies outside, I do here in North Carolina.

 
What the Freak...You're form southern cal TOO?! Just kidding :D welcome to the addictive hobby of mantiskeeping. ;)

 
happy1892 said:
Cool! You should put several more branches in there. lol, you will get around 600 nymphs if both ooths hatch. I have read about people having problems with chinese mantis hatchlings in that a whole bunch die. It might be because they get stressed easily by people moving their containers and stuff like that. So I would leave them alone a lot of the time and when you put fruit flies in there put them in carefully to not scare the mantids. It will be very crowded in there. It might be good to put the other ootheca in another container and leave just one in there. When they are crowded they run into each other and stress each other out a lot. Do you have fruit flies outside, I do here in North Carolina.
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I have a 20watt CFL blacklight that I've sat outside overnight in a trap and caught nothing. I hope this changes in spring. It's been a bit dry here recently, just rained today though finally.

Bought a batch of fruit flies the other day though.

 
Great. Did you get the media for them too? The cultures do not last long so make new cultures before the old ones die. They last maybe 3 weeks or over, sorry not sure.

 
One of the ooths has hatched!

Here's a timelapse

http://youtu.be/TQcQ2myUZyE

mantis01.jpg


 
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