# My OSH mantids hatched yesterday!!



## aminah

A few weeks ago, I posted regarding a couple of Chinese Mantid oothecae I picked up from Orchard Supply Hardware. After a few replies, I got a little discouraged and didn't really think they would hatch.

Well, after I put the two ooths in a small Ficus tree on my kitchen table and basically forgot they were there unless watering the little tree... lo and behold! Yesterday, my husband says to me, "Honey, what's that crawling all over the table?"  "Hunh?" I'm always nervous when he says this cuz who knows who could be out wandering around... he still doesn't know about the *whispers..tarantulas..whispers*  Thank goodness.. um, yeah.. sort of ...it was just the little "alien" kids making a run for it after emerging from the one ooth.

I rounded up about 50 or more from the table, the chairs, the floor, the curtains, the ceiling and so on.. they were hiding in my African Violets and the various condiments sitting on the table. :lol: Most of them went into the screened enclosure when I moved the whole Ficus tree in there, fortunately.

So now, I'm waiting for the other ooth to hatch. I'm feeding them flightless fruitflies... and will be ordering up some supplementary "pinheads" here shortly. (My cricket colony will not be able to keep up with all these little aliens, I'm sure.)


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## OGIGA

Congratulations!


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## lloydapalooza

congratulations. i bought ooths from OSH too and they hatched yesterday. good thing i had the ooths inside jars. i don't know what i'd do with 300 nymphs running around my room.


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## aminah

Thanks!  

I have 2 large cultures for flightless fruitflies. Do you think this will be enough for them? How long will it be before they can take on tiny Lobster roach nymphs or pin head crickets?

Is there another food item I can try with them?

I'm not trying to save them all... unless more people show an interest in them.. and I know they will cannibalize if I don't separate them all out. I just want some to populate my gardens, a few to breed and a few for my friends and so on... not a lot!


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## OGIGA

Hmm, you may need to hatch more ooths if you want to have adults everywhere.

I think you have enough fruitflies. It'll be maybe a month an a half before they'll take pinhead crickets. However, it seems like a lot of other mantis keepers don't like crickets. I like to give mine house flies.


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## aminah

Do you culture your own house flies? Is it gross? :shock: Sorry, but all I can think of is decaying meat and maggots....... coming from the woman with more than one roach colony.  

Is there an online source for them? Eww...


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## OGIGA

I don't culture my own houseflies. I heard that it's extremely difficult. And I also heard that culturing your own fruit flies is very easy. Anyway, I have been buying and catching my house flies.

Just on a side note, it's not a good idea to use meat (decaying or not) to deal with flies. Not only does it smell, but it may introduce unwanted bacteria to the mantises who eventually eat the flies.


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## aminah

> Just on a side note, it's not a good idea to use meat (decaying or not) to deal with flies. Not only does it smell, but it may introduce unwanted bacteria to the mantises who eventually eat the flies.


This is precisely why I thought... Ewwww! ..when I read "I use house flies" :lol: 

Where do you buy your house flies and how long do they last? I think I've seen them online at "wormman" or something like that, but can't remember now. I think buying a culture or just feeders would be healthier for the Mantids than catching "wild" ones, right?

Btw, how do you catch them without harming them? I have sooo many questions.. sorry.


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## OGIGA

> Where do you buy your house flies and how long do they last? I think I've seen them online at "wormman" or something like that, but can't remember now. I think buying a culture or just feeders would be healthier for the Mantids than catching "wild" ones, right?


I got houseflies from Spiderpharm before. I think they're pretty good. I also ordered bluebottle (another kind of larger house flies) larvae from Grubco. It's a lot more expensive for how many you get, and be careful with their shipping because it'll cost a fortune to ship if you aren't in the Eastern half of the US. It's been a week and they still aren't flies yet so we'll have to see.

I only get flies from the wild when I really have to. Yes, I think the ones I buy are better for my mantises.

Supposedly, the larvae/pupae will last in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. After becoming flies, they'll last maybe a month. I'm actually not speaking from experience, only from what others on this forum have said.

To catch them, I use a net that I made myself. Before then, I carefully put an empty water bottle over each one and they get trapped when they fly up. Oh, and if you have a little honey in there, they'll stop trying to escape when they find the honey.


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## aminah

Thanks so much! I googled and found SpiderPharm. I may try an order from them since you had an okay experience with them.

I'm on the West Coast, so Grubco may not be a good option for me. However, SpiderPharm is in AZ.. that's much closer.

Thanks again,

~Aminah


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## anthony2001a

> Thanks so much! I googled and found SpiderPharm. I may try an order from them since you had an okay experience with them.I'm on the West Coast, so Grubco may not be a good option for me. However, SpiderPharm is in AZ.. that's much closer.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> ~Aminah


If you're on the West Coast, try www.oregonfeederinsects.com and get some housefly pupae. Call them using the phone number on the website to order. It's just under $11 for a thousand or so pupae, and they will eventually produce houseflies that can fly. Keep the pupae in your fridge and dump a few from the bag into a sealed container. In a few days, you'll have real flies buzzing in the container. Stick the container into the freezer for about 2 minutes, which will make the flies torpid, and you can then dump them into the mantis container for feeding.

However, brand new mantis nymphs are far too small for houseflies. Initially, Drosophila melanogaster fruitflies are the perfect fly to feed them. After the first shed or two, switch to Drosophila hydrei, which are bigger than Drosophila melanogaster. Finally, when they're big enough to catch houseflies, switch to housefly pupae. The Chinese mantids will be about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2" at this point.

Chinese mantids seem to do okay with crickets when they're bigger, but initially, even small crickets from the store are way too big for a Chinese mantid.

Anthony


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## OGIGA

If you're looking for bluebottle larvae/pupae, I'm offering my excess here: http://mantidforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5552 . The first ones have just eclosed and became flies when I got back so now I know they're good. I'm still trying different suppliers.


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## robo mantis

i'm glad to hear it hatched


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## aminah

Thanks so much for the links and added info. I'm feeding fruit flies now, but preparing ahead of time for when they are big enough to eat house flies, etc. I just don't want to be without food stock when the time comes


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## aminah

Where did they all go? Only a very few survived, I guess.

I have them in a screened enclosure with 3 live plants (Dracaena, "Nerve plant" and a small Ficus tree), quite a few branches... misting daily and feeding "FF's" daily.

What happened?

..btw, the other ooth has not hatched.


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## OGIGA

They ate each other?


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## aminah

Wow... umm.. there are only 5 left or so.. lol ..and they don't look that "fat" from devouring each other. I put a whole container of "FF's" in there, too... wouldn't that kind of hold them off cannibalizing to this extent?

Please don't think I'm an idiot... I'm just a nOoB at this and learning the hard way, apparently.


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## Peekaboo

Chinese Mantids are extremely aggressive and cannibalistic towards each other. I'd suggest separateing them if you want to keep the 5 you have alive.


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## aminah

Thanks!  

We live and we learn....


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## aminah

The other ooth hatched today!! Yeyyy!

So now that I have what appears to be a 2nd chance, anything else I should do or know about? I'm going to put them in 32oz. deli cups this time, and see if that cuts back on the cannibalism.

When I searched for lone survivors from the first ooth today, I found quite a few dead nymphs at the bottom, so they didn't just eat each other... some died for some reason.

How can I avoid this?


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## Peekaboo

You can't really. The thing about nymphs is that they often die for no reason, one of the reasons why there can be hundreds to an ootheca.

Don't try to raise each mantis separately, you won't be able to take care of every single one of them. I'd suggest seperating a few dozen at a time into separate cups. When they get a little older, and are reduced to more manageable numbers, you can then house them individually.


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## aminah

Okay, so expect some random deaths... good to know.

I was actually planning on putting 4-6 in each cup and working with that. I'll still have quite a few cups, but I'm used to feeding multiple "folks" around here... I breed geckos and can have quite a few little hatchlings to look after, all at once. (When I bred Betta splendens, I had to separate at 4 weeks and deal with 100s of feedings and water changes. Heh! I'm trained well.  )

Thanks again for the info. I'm feeling much more confident about this.


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## Rick

With these and some others you will lose most of them. Keep them all together until you only have five or so. Its a waste of time to seperate hundreds of nymphs. It's much more practical to only care for a few anyways. Regardless of how much you feed them they will still eat each other.


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## aminah

Update:

I have 2 survivors that I can see. There may be a couple more, but not likely. The 2 are eating well and it's getting time to separate them out, I believe.

So much for protecting my garden!!


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## OGIGA

I guess it's good for about two weeks.


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## aminah

I don't understand...

You guess what is good for 2 weeks?


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## OGIGA

Pest control is good for two weeks.


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