# MY Ghosts dont like Crickets?



## Mike (May 15, 2006)

My Ghosts dont like eating the crickets that i feed them? They attack it nible a bit off and throw it away? I caught them some flying insects and they eat them.... does this mean i have to catch bugs everytime i feed em? Since i do not have any flys right now?


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## julian camilo (May 15, 2006)

kind of, yeh. p.paradoxa is known for being quite picky, sometimes refusing to eat even stuff which you wouldve thought would be perfect, or which they had been eating regularly. but yeh, crickets are a bit of a no-no (in general in my opinion, but deffinitely for p.paradoxa). you should try finding a fishing bait/tackle shop near you, or get some waxworms and let them pupate and hatch into waxmoths. or use a light trap at night. there are other threads on this board about flies and that, so yeh have a look. but i do think you should feed your p.paradoxa flying things, flies and moths etc and not crickets.


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## Mike (May 15, 2006)

how long does it take the wax worms to pupate? hmm so even if they get starving hungry they wont eat crickets? =\


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## 13ollox (May 15, 2006)

they take a couple of weeks to hatch from there pupated state . if you keep them warm they will hatch a lil bit faster , a good thing might be to get let as many waxworms as you need each week pupate. then the next week, do the same .. then each week you should get some moths . mantids love waxmoths, plus there more nutritional than crickets , you could say a healthy balanced meal .. bad thing about waxmoths is that if you get too many .. they seem to die rather than them being put to use as food !


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## julian camilo (May 15, 2006)

well from my expe3rience with p.paradoxa, they can go for long periods refusing to eat, crickets or not. but its much likely theyll want to eat if its something that isnt crickets (flies and moths etc). ive never had one die of starvation becauses it refuses to eat crickets because ive offered them other things, so i dont know how far theyre willing to pursue their pickyness. also, i may be wrong with this and many would disagree and say its down to the crickets diet, but im just not very trusting of crickets at all. some might say that nutrionally they arent so good for the mantis. so even if it did "cave in" and eat crickets, i dont think itd be the best for the mantis, from a nutritional standing. but then some say crickets are fine nutrionaly, its just what you feed them that matters. so umm yeh i guess its up to you, but i would say avoid them if you can.

im not too sure how long waxmoths take to hatch from the pupa, i think its one or two weeks, im probably wrong, and it depend son temperature too. the most conveninet method of using flying insects as food is to buy lots of maggots from a fishing tackle/bait shops, keep them in the fridge or something. every few days, take a few out and keep them at room temperature. you wont get anything for a week or two but if you keep doing this every few days, eventually the first maggots you took out will have turned into flies, then you get new flies hatching every couple of days. some people find this a pain but i think its pretty useful and eays once you get into that routine. but yeh there are better threads on flies elsewhere. sorry i cant help much.

EDIT: like 13ollox suggests above, this method works well for waxworm/moths too.


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## rlechols (May 15, 2006)

I have ordered house fly pupae from spiderpharm.com before. They arrived quickly and were packed well. You keep them in the fridge and take out as many as you need every day/week. They hatch into flies in a few days. It's convenient because you don't have to deal with the flying adults (which can get away and is very annoying). You just put a few pupae in each mantid's cage every few days and that's it! My ghosts and all my other nymphs are really enjoying the flies. Good luck!


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## Mike (May 15, 2006)

hmmm so the mantids wont like the waxworm itsself? I would imagine u would have to feed alot of wax moths arnt they skinny and stuff? they arnt thoes far jiuvy moths are they?

Yea where i am we dont use fly pupae or whatever for fishing cuz bleh i forget the fish dont eat thoes here or soemthing 0_o????


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## 13ollox (May 16, 2006)

waxworms themselfs are eaten as well ! just as they mostly fat " baby fat " you could call it . i wouldnt like make em there staple diet ! and the moths seem to do a mantis for ages ! i even fed em to my lil nymphs( although i took the wings off the moth as when the mantis attacked it would get batted in the face and ran ! but as they got bigger they took em with the wings no worries ! plus ... with the moths .. always a chance the moths will mate and youll have a new load of waxworms to culture to more moths .. saving money ! ( although time i guess is more important, as they take bloody ages to grow )

Neil


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