# mating mantids



## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

does it ever work if you just put the male on her back?


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## hibiscusmile (Dec 17, 2009)

Very Often it does!


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## ismart (Dec 17, 2009)

hibiscusmile said:


> Very Often it does!


+1!


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

wow.

hope it works. im fed up of sitting there for hours waiting for them to mate!

yes.. another mating problem


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

oh my god.

IT WORKED!

i love you!


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## sufistic (Dec 17, 2009)

BeckyL said:


> oh my god.IT WORKED!
> 
> i love you!


What species is it?


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

sufistic said:


> What species is it?


Hestiasula brunneriana  

i'll post a pic soon.


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)




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## sufistic (Dec 17, 2009)

BeckyL said:


>


Awesome and congrats!


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## ismart (Dec 17, 2009)

Cool!  Did you ever try the same method with the ghosts before you traded them?


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

ismart said:


> Cool!  Did you ever try the same method with the ghosts before you traded them?


yeah and the male just walked straight off her.  

is this what method most people use?


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## ismart (Dec 17, 2009)

BeckyL said:


> yeah and the male just walked straight off her.  is this what method most people use?


I cant speak for every one, but i have noticed some species are easier to just place on the females back directly. It really all depends on the mantis as well. I have a male narrow-winged freak out if i placed him on the females back directly. He prefers to slowly creep up on her, and then jump her bones.


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## Ntsees (Dec 17, 2009)

BeckyL said:


> is this what method most people use?


For me it is, when I don't have the time (or when I only have one male to many females) to make sure that the male doesn't get eaten. But sometimes when you do have the time, it's nice to observe the slow natural process at work because that's how they have always mated.


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## batsofchaos (Dec 17, 2009)

What would you suggest is the best way to put the male directly on the female's back? Do you pick the male up by the thorax and put him down, have him crawl off your hand and just position your hand so his direct path is onto her back, or something else entirely?

The reason I ask is because I've been trying the latter, and he always seems to want to change directions and walk off my hand perpendicular to her and by the time I've fussed him into going the right way she's noticed him and isn't facing the right direction anymore. I've thought of trying the former, but I've not seriously considered it because he's way to skittish for me to just grab him without him transforming into a whirling ball of wings and pinches. Is there another way to do this?


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

batsofchaos said:


> What would you suggest is the best way to put the male directly on the female's back? Do you pick the male up by the thorax and put him down, have him crawl off your hand and just position your hand so his direct path is onto her back, or something else entirely?The reason I ask is because I've been trying the latter, and he always seems to want to change directions and walk off my hand perpendicular to her and by the time I've fussed him into going the right way she's noticed him and isn't facing the right direction anymore. I've thought of trying the former, but I've not seriously considered it because he's way to skittish for me to just grab him without him transforming into a whirling ball of wings and pinches. Is there another way to do this?


i just put him on my hand and faced him towards her then prodded him until he walked on her. if he kept walking i put my finger infront of his face and he stopped. he realised he was on the females back and then got down to buisness.

it took me 2 attempts


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## batsofchaos (Dec 17, 2009)

BeckyL said:


> i just put him on my hand and faced him towards her then prodded him until he walked on her. if he kept walking i put my finger infront of his face and he stopped. he realised he was on the females back and then got down to buisness.it took me 2 attempts


Sweet, I'll give that a try.


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

they just disconnected 10 mins ago.

haha the male wouldn't get off her. he was just riding on her back for ages. i took a video  i found it pretty funny. will post soon.

is 6 hours okay do you reckon?


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## batsofchaos (Dec 17, 2009)

Six hours is fine.


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## Katnapper (Dec 17, 2009)

Congrats for your great job in orchestrating mantis sex, Becky! :lol:


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## beckyl92 (Dec 17, 2009)

haha  

heres a vid i made after they disconnected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uiBAkyfONA


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## batsofchaos (Dec 18, 2009)

Tried it out last night. I fed the female a cricket so she'd be nice and distracted and maneuvered him onto her back. he seemed to be getting on okay, until she freaked out, dropped her cricket half eaten and tossed him off (pinching me a little in the process, which to be honest I probably deserved a little  ). This is the second time that exact thing happened, and the seventh or eighth time I've tried to mate them. I'm done trying to coax them at this point. I stuck them in a biggish cage together and I'm going to leave them that way until they either figure it out or one of them dies.


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## Katnapper (Dec 18, 2009)

batsofchaos said:


> I stuck them in a biggish cage together and I'm going to leave them that way until they either figure it out or one of them dies.


That's how I usually end up doing it (12x12 net cage)!


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## beckyl92 (Dec 18, 2009)

Katnapper said:


> That's how I usually end up doing it (12x12 net cage)!


does it work?

i once had a pair of creobroters in a net cage for 2 days. they didn't even move once..

lol!


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## Katnapper (Dec 18, 2009)

BeckyL said:


> does it work?i once had a pair of creobroters in a net cage for 2 days. they didn't even move once..
> 
> lol!


Hit and miss, but if they're ready they'll usually get around to it themselves... but unfortunately not always or guaranteed.


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## hierodula (Dec 18, 2009)

Im also having a problem with my hierrodulas. the male doesn't even move once he sees the female. so I tried putting him on the females back, but he wandered off. they are about 3 weeks old each, and i tried to mate him several times.


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## sufistic (Dec 18, 2009)

hierodula said:


> Im also having a problem with my hierrodulas. the male doesn't even move once he sees the female. so I tried putting him on the females back, but he wandered off. they are about 3 weeks old each, and i tried to mate him several times.


Either of them are probably not ready yet. If they're ready, we don't really need to do anything on our part except place the male near the female.


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## hierodula (Dec 19, 2009)

thanks


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## Cosmic (Dec 19, 2009)

Katnapper said:


> That's how I usually end up doing it (12x12 net cage)!





BeckyL said:


> does it work?i once had a pair of creobroters in a net cage for 2 days. they didn't even move once..
> 
> lol!


It's how I mate alot of species, especially small/meduim species, works for most and it's how I mated your Ghosts up Becky  .


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## beckyl92 (Dec 19, 2009)

Cosmicbug said:


> It's how I mate alot of species, especially small/meduim species, works for most and it's how I mated your Ghosts up Becky  .


wow.. i spent about 12 hours in total trying to mate them ghosts!

how long did you leave them together for?


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## Katnapper (Dec 19, 2009)

batsofchaos said:


> until they either figure it out or one of them dies.


I don't know about Cosmic, but I do it like Bats. If I'm short on males, I'll either put several females in the cage with him, or move him around every few days to another female's cage.


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## batsofchaos (Dec 21, 2009)

So, I left them be, witnessed one occasion where the male had climbed on the female's back without connecting saturday morning, but he had moved off less than three hours later with no sign of connection. Yesterday at about 9 PM he died. *grumble*


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## sufistic (Dec 21, 2009)

batsofchaos said:


> So, I left them be, witnessed one occasion where the male had climbed on the female's back without connecting saturday morning, but he had moved off less than three hours later with no sign of connection. Yesterday at about 9 PM he died. *grumble*


So sorry to hear your loss. Don't give up though!


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## batsofchaos (Dec 21, 2009)

I can't be too shaken up over it, he was an old man and lived a good, buggy life. As for giving up, I've already posted a wanted ad. :lol:


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## batsofchaos (Dec 27, 2009)

One of my replacement males did the job. I put them together in a fairly large cage with a handful of crickets last Thursday and let them be. Saturday morning he had climbed on her back and throughout the day he stayed there but did not initiate connection. When I woke up this morning, they had separated and she was gyrating her valves, so they had successfully mated over night. Both mantids survived the connection happy and healthy, if not a little thirsty due to me not spritzing them while mounted for fear of spooking the male into leaving.

So from now on that's going to be my plan for mating mantids (at least for the less aggressive species); stick them together where they have enough room to maneuver, leave them plenty of food, and let them be.


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