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rayg

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I had a successful mating of my giant shields back on Dec.23-24, they were literally coupled for 24 hours. The female looks ready to pop, but there is no ooth yet. I don't have any experience with these mantids, so I was wondering if anyone could give me some kind of general time table from mating to first ooth to time between ooths. I have a S. carolina that produces an ooth every 16 days on the money. She is on seven now. I know there are no exact numbers but it would be nice to hear about some other's experiences with this species.

Ray.

 
Hi Ray,

I think the length of time after molting to adult has more to do with when they will lay oothecae (fertile or not), rather than length of time after mating. But I do not have the knowledge or experience to tell you for sure. Besides being relatively new at raising mantids, I have just started breeding this species also. I can tell you what I have observed so far with mine though...

I have one Giant Shield male who molted to adult, but didn't have any females. I acquired 4 adult females (not sure when they molted to adult) about a week after the New Year (around 1/7/09). I began mating them all in sequence with my one male. During the first "round," I waited about 3 days between each mating with a different female. After all had mated once, I started mating them all again in the same sequence. This time I've been waiting a week or more between mating each female.

Paula - Had laid one unfertilized ooth for her previous owner before I received her. First mated on 1/7/2009. Laid "first" fertilized ooth on 1/14/2009. Laid second ooth on 2/10/09. Will be mating her again soon.

Mika - Unfortunately died after injuries sustained during second round of mating. Was very fat, but had laid no ooths.

Michelle - First mated on 1/13/2009. Mated 2nd time on 1/31/2009. Mated 3rd time 2/11/09. Very fat, but has not yet laid any ooths.

Michaela - Mated on 1/16/2009. Laid one ooth on 1/24/2009 despite abdominal injuries sustained during her first mating. Will be mating her again soon.

PS... That's wonderful news about your S. carolina! ;) :D

 
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When she mated has nothing to do with it. About all I can say is she will lay her ooth when she is ready.

 
She molted to adult around Dec. 7. I don't have my notes with me here to be exact. I know I keep it a bit cold in my house and that slows them down a bit, but I do believe that mantids are fairly predictable in the timing of their lifecycles. Thanks for the input.

 
Yes, a wait of two months seems overly long for an insect with only a seasonal lifespan. I suspect that if you just "wait and see" you stand a good chance of still being in the same position a month from now.

My guess is that she might have been mated too young, though the male's response suggests that she was sending out pheromones. The following strategies might help and cannot harm, even if she is about to lay anyway

Shields tolerate low temps, but an increase in temp may be a trigger for laying, so an increase to 80F or so may help.

Sounds as though she is well fed, but a change/increase in diet might do her good. How about roaches?

The most obvious, if time consuming strategy would be to remate (SpellCheck suggests "cremate", but that sounds too drastic!) her.

Finally, you might consider following Katt's example of giving her a name starting with "M" [no, not Mija!]. :p

Good luck, and let us know when she pops!

 
I keep her around 70 F. I know that is cool for tropical mantids but they have always been active as far as eating well and moving around. They seem to live longer as well. She has great appetite. Here in Wisconsin it has been in the single digits and below for a stretch of almost a month now, so holding a temp of 70 in the house can be a challenge sometimes.

I think I will try to raise the temperature. My mantis rig becomes more complex. I feel confident she was producing pheromones; there were days when the male was yearning for her of the side of his cage. I waited almost a month to give her time to fatten up after she molted to adult.

My wife would kill me if I brought roaches into the house. She almost axed me after the flies.

As far as naming her, I quit naming animals after raising my turkeys. Talk about drastic actions!

Thanks for the numbers Yen, those are helpful to me. I don't know, but I may be performing a temperature/metabolism experiment.

Ray

 
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Just an update

I've warmed her up to around 80 F since the last post. Now she has deposited two false starts, just a small amount of the ooth foam (is there a word for this substance ?) with a stringy tail and then stopped. The only thing I can think to do is raise her temperature and keep the humidity up. I am a bit worried about her now.

 
I insulated her enclosure and got it up to 86 f and the next day she got her ooth out. Feb 13, it is close to 6 or 7 cm long. Thanks for the help.

Ray

 
Ray, I thought you'd like to know... I just had an ooth hatch of this species and the incubation period from date of laying to hatching was 36 days. This was with the ooth being kept in the bug room at approx. 82-86 F. in the day, and 72-78 F. at night.

 
I haven't visited in a while. Thanks for info Kattnapper. I'm keeping my ooths in the water heater closet and misting them daily. The temp is hovers in the upper 70's in there.

Hibiscusmile, a mantis can become egg-bound? What do you do in that situation? To tell the truth she seems more sluggish now that she has laid the ootheca. She is not eating alot and is just hanging around. I'm ready for the winter to end here, so its not so hard to keep them warm at night. As far as turkeys go, I used to have a little homestead in the mountains in New Mexico. I kept rabbits and chickens, and one year I bought two turkeys chicks named Thanksgiving and Christmas. They were really sweet birds and tame as could be. They would follow me around and one of them liked to sit my lap and be petted. Putting them in the freezer was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. If I ever get back to living that way again I think I'll just stick with chickens for their eggs and goats for their milk.

 
:rolleyes: Thanks for the story, I did so love the animals I had, the turkeys I brought in a pair, and he like to tear her up with his claws, so I learned to seperate them, but from her eggs I raised 22 lovely turkeys. Yum! At that time I also hatched my own duck eggs, geese eggs and some guinea hen! The most fun is teaching the geese how to swim :lol:

But to get back to egg bound, there as far as I know nothing that can be done, some say to remate them, but has not as yet worked for me, and if she has laid then she is not. Sometimes after they lay, they may take a little time to get back in form, but sometimes, they do not do well and will die shortly after, just make sure she has drinks and food available, she will either take it and get back to form or she wont. Either way, nothing u can do but wait.

 

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