# Who says Bees/wasps are dangerous?



## Jolt (Mar 12, 2006)

I read A lot of things always saying how its dangerous to feed your mantis stinging insects..blah...blah...blah.

I just fed my H. Grandis a rather large wasp.......and he ate the stinger right off of the thing.....pointy end first....as it was trying to sting him in the eye....It didnt seem to affect him in the least bit. Has anyone ever lost a mantis to a wasp or bee or anything with a stinger before?


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## Mike (Mar 13, 2006)

Its just more on the safe side not to feed them bees or wasps. It could potentially harm your mantids if it does get a bite or a sting on it. Its totally up to you though if you want to feed it bees or wasps. In my opinion i would disarm the wasp or bee of its stinger before i feed it to my mantid.


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## nympho (Mar 13, 2006)

not sure if this is relevant but its worth mentioning here. be warned

i once bought a beautiful adult budwing mantis and was stupid enough to feed it a big adult house spider.

the spider sunk its fangs into one of its front legs, paralizing that arm so it was limp and useless.

saying that, i have fed mantises SMALL spiders which they deal with no problem ! they seem aware of the fangs and nibble them more carefully than normal prey :wink:

i would never feed a mantis a big spider again though, they have evolved to bite insects after all! Bees and wasps on the other hand, have evolved more to sting big 'soft' vertibrates that attack their nests and probably find the exoskeleton of the mantis hard to sting though. Mantises would be feeding on bees and wasps commonly in the wild and the way the mantis holds its victim up and away from its body is quite good defense against getting stung - there isnt alot of soft vulnerable bits the wasp can sting; the exoskeleton on the front legs and head is tough to penetrate even if they can get the angle to curve round to sting whilst being held in the way mantises usually grab things. Most of the time its stinging 'air'.

But theres always the possibility and im sure they do get stung sometimes.

is it worth the risk to your mantis?


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## Exotic-Mantis (Mar 13, 2006)

Hey,

Well i normally catch bees in a container, put them in the freezer until they pass out, then i cut their stinger off, then whent hey wake up they are in the mantis tank. The mantis has strong raptorial arms, with armor, however if the wasp does get it's stinger in a soft spot such as the abdomen, it would be over for the mantis. Also, the people who have lost mantids to wasps normally loose smaller mantids such as #9, creobroter, or ghosts. Just be careful


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## Christian (Mar 13, 2006)

Hi.

I often feed bees and wasps and do not cut off any part of them. Usually the mantis is handling them properly, the few stings I saw did not affect the mantis besides strong grooming. I've never heard of a mantis dying after a bee or wasp sting (exception may be large sand and spider wasps). I once even fed a hornet to an adult _Idolomantis _male, he got stung but was not affected very much. My female _Idolomamtis_ may successfully seize hornets.

Regards,

Christian


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## Rick (Mar 13, 2006)

The wild mantids around here sit on these flowers to catch all the bees that land there. I personally don't collect bees for my mantids only because I don't want to get stung. The mantids never seem to have a problem eating the bees:


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## yen_saw (Mar 13, 2006)

Mantis have no problem catching and eating the bees and wasps in the wild. But i have seen wasp biting mantis legs and i guess it imposed such a painful bite that the mantis quickly release the wasp, but i have not seen any mantis being stung by either wasps or bees. So the bite is probably the reason for mantis to let the prey go rather than the sting. I have been biten by wasp before and believed it is strong enoguh to cut the leg of mantis. I have also seen cricket chewing on mantis forearm that cause the mantis to let the crix go, but most of them will just re-adjust the forearm and grab on to other part of crickets.


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## Isis (Mar 15, 2006)

http://terrarium.com.pl/galeria/viewphoto....amp;userid=9130

Check these out  Vasps aren't bad food, but if you can avoid unnesesary risk for your pet, don't feed them like that :0.

Well... I cheated, because my mantis in the picture had a sting-less insect in it's paws


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## julian camilo (Mar 20, 2006)

a few summers back i fed my mantids (p. wahlbergii at the time) pretty much solely on wild caught bees and wasps and flies. most of the time the bees and wasps posed no problem to the mantids, but sometimes the mantids would seem to get stung, as theyd suddenly throw the wasp/bee away and let it go. they would then be very lethargic and not as alert as before. i assumed they had been stung. this was only temporary though (they were soon more alert and back to normal), and like i say, it was only a few occasions, for the most part the mantids handled the bees and wasps very well, and there seemed to be no lasting serious damage from what i saw.

x


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## Joe (Mar 20, 2006)

during the summers, i always put a few mantids out side on flowers and watch them hunt, theyve eaten averything from butterflies to large bumble bees and i havent had one get injured yet. i usualy see them adjust their arms to grab the bee's head and thorax and they seem to be smarter than i first thought lol.

Joe


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## Johnald Chaffinch (Jul 13, 2006)

i left a very tiny wasp in with one of my p.paradoxa, i came back to find the wasp had bitten the ghosts leg off.

the wasp was so small too, not the common type


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## infinity (Aug 24, 2006)

Thought i'd put this here even though it's an old-ish post...

I fed a bumblebee to one of my s.limbatas and it stung her right between its first and second legs... It now has a distinct darkening in her eye but survived the night... Do you think the darkening will go down? do you think this will affect ooth production (she's already layed two)...


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## Macano (Aug 24, 2006)

I used to feed my mantids scorpions. We have many small (2" or less) scorpions in the desert foothills here, so they were an easy source of food. I had many months of no problems, but one did manage to sting an adult lineola I had, and and it seemed to have a paralyzing effect. Within about 10 days it was dead. So it can happen.


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## wuwu (Aug 24, 2006)

honeybees are as harmless as flies, but i would caution against using hornets, wasps, spiders, or scorpions. the stingers of bees,wasps, hornets, can't seem to penetrate the mantids arms. since honeybees can't bite, they have no other dangerous defense while hornets and wasps can bite. spiders can bite a mantid easily and a scorpion, with it's long tail, can easily sting a soft part of the mantid.


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## mantidman (Aug 28, 2006)

male bees and wasps dont have stingers.


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