# Ethics?



## enlightenment

When we feed our Mantids, we pay little regard to the crickets, locusts, etc, that we place in their home.

So, here is a question that I asked on another forum, would it be unethical to let one type of Mantid go into the home of _another_ species? Or, if like me, you keep various types of insects, for example, *Assasin Bugs*, would that be 'unethical'? Or a tailess whip scorpion?

Most might answer 'yes', however, how do you square that, given that the cricket cannot really defend itself efficiently, whereas, something like an assasin bug can?

Discuss..?


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## Rick

Never even think about it. Sometimes I do feed mantids to other mantids.


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## enlightenment

> Never even think about it. Sometimes I do feed mantids to other mantids.


Why? Not judging you, just wonder why?

I presently have a Bud Wing Mantid and a Giant Asian, neither are adult yet, and approx the same size, what do you think would happen there, mate?


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## Rick

Crickets and other insects make up a mantids diet. So I don't feel bad about tossing them in. In the case of other mantids I have fed little nymphs of which I had too many of to other larger mantids. In these cases the ones becoming food are a very common species of which I simply have too much of.


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## sean

In a way, all is unethical as it is an enclosed space and whatever ends up as the prey item does not have a chance of escaping (like it could in the wild)... but it has to be done in order to keep all predatory insects fed and healthy in captivity. In the end the prey item dies in the same way as it would if caught in the wild by a mantis.... eaten alive!!! Not sure id like to be a cricket in my mantids tanks. :shock:


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## enlightenment

What is the largest of most unusal creature that you have fed to your mantids?


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## Rick

> What is the largest of most unusal creature that you have fed to your mantids?


Bird grasshoppers, black widow spider, lizards, etc. I have pics of some of those.


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## enlightenment

> What is the largest of most unusal creature that you have fed to your mantids?
> 
> 
> 
> Bird grasshoppers, black widow spider, lizards, etc. I have pics of some of those.
Click to expand...

Any that ou can place on?

How did it cope against a BWS? I guess if you just dropped the spider into a hungry enough mantis, and it was hanging in a handy way, it would have killed the spider, because the spider would be unaware of the attack, right?

Have you ever tried it on any of these?

1) Scorprion of any sort

2) Snake of any sort

3) ants

4) Wheel Bug

5) Woodlice

6) Rhino Beetle..?

Just more bugs to catch, were you live.


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## Rick

I've tried ants and mantids eat them just like any other insect. Same goes for black widow spider. Ate em like they were nothing. Tried a very large black beetle but the mantis couldn't get a bite due to the tough exoskeleton.


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## Shelbycsx

Nice pics there Rick:!:


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## Butterfly

oh ewww, it took a coworker and I a few minutes to figure out the last pic was a baby something or other, ewwww!! I bet thats one healthy Mantis though. lol.


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## Rick

Its a pinkie mouse. At the time they were for my snake, they were frozen so it was dead long before I got it. That mantis is long gone but she did lay huge ooths. Keep in mind I don't feed things like that all the time. Stuff like the cicada and spider though I will feed them to mantids when I find them.


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## Butterfly

I had thought of feeeding spiders to my Mantid's before because we've had to kill over 25 Black Widows in our yard and house this year alone. But we've been too worried to feed them to her because of the venom. It wont hurt them at all? How do you make sure the spider doesnt bite the Mantis or is that not an issue?


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## Rick

> I had thought of feeeding spiders to my Mantid's before because we've had to kill over 25 Black Widows in our yard and house this year alone. But we've been too worried to feed them to her because of the venom. It wont hurt them at all? How do you make sure the spider doesnt bite the Mantis or is that not an issue?


That first pic is a black widow. I wouldn't go out collecting them for food because I don't want to get bit. For the mantids its not a problem.


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## MantisDude15

i will be adding picstures of my mantids slaughtering an adult orb weever soon  stay tuned


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## enlightenment

> I had thought of feeeding spiders to my Mantid's before because we've had to kill over 25 Black Widows in our yard and house this year alone. But we've been too worried to feed them to her because of the venom. It wont hurt them at all? How do you make sure the spider doesnt bite the Mantis or is that not an issue?


The truth is that you cannot guard against it, not anything that can sting or bite.

I once put an assasin bug in with a large Mantis.

Because the Mantis was upside down, it had the advantage, and killed the Assasin Bug, however, AB's are full of nerve toxins that they can spray.

A few days after eating it, the poor Mantis eye literally melted as if it had gone black, and it was DRIPPING!

It stopped eating altogher, then soon died.

Large Mantis v Centipede?

Thoughts?


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## enlightenment

Rick, awesome pics, did you have to dangle the dead pinky to get the Mantid to take it, I assume?


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## padkison

If a mantid has a bad molt, I will toss it to one of my Ts. Waste not.


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## Chrome

None of those images are loading for me.. broken links... whats up?


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