# Mantis Mystery



## bill krut (Feb 13, 2008)

Hi, I just bought four ghosts and five miomantises 10 days ago, both at l2/l3. They are sprayed twice a day and have fruit flies. container size is a circular container 4 in high and five wide. screen lid for ventilation and good amount of branches.

Ghosts are doing excellent. 3 have molted perfectly and the last should tommorrow.

mY egyptians on the other hand are dying one by one! I only have one left! And both species are in the same conditions!

what do i do!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!.


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## Hypoponera (Feb 13, 2008)

I would advise contacting the person who supplied your mantids! There maybe something you are missing that they could help with. Sounds kinda odd though. While I have never had Miomantis, I have heard it's much less demanding of its environmental conditions then ghosts are.

Do your dead Miomantids show any signs or cause of death? Did they die while molting? Were they eating well or drinking water?


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## yen_saw (Feb 13, 2008)

Unlike ghost mantis, Miomantis doesn't need spraying that often, and they need warm temp of about at least 80F to thrive. Try keep them warmer and dryer. Best of luck.


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## Rob Byatt (Feb 14, 2008)

yen_saw said:


> Unlike ghost mantis, Miomantis doesn't need spraying that often, and they need warm temp of about at least 80F to thrive. Try keep them warmer and dryer. Best of luck.


There are very few mantids that need spraying that often  

Why are you sprying them twice a day ?

As Yen said, spray them less.


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## bill krut (Feb 14, 2008)

they are to small to see what the cause of death is and I do not believe that they all mismolted.

To the second question, I was told to mist them twice a day, but now i will mist him once daily and see how that works.


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## macro junkie (Feb 14, 2008)

krut said:


> they are to small to see what the cause of death is and I do not believe that they all mismolted.To the second question, I was told to mist them twice a day, but now i will mist him once daily and see how that works.


dont even mist him once a day..its to much!!! 2-3 times a week at most..


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## Hypoponera (Feb 14, 2008)

Where are you located and what is the humidity levels in your room like? I mist my mantids ATLEAST twice a day! But I live in a desert and am running a furnace. So the humidity levels in my room are nearly 0! You may need to mist more often then normally recommended if you have very low humidity also.

Do you use a moisture holding substrate? A layer of paper towels will work as will moss.


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## macro junkie (Feb 14, 2008)

my room is 35% humidity..the heat lamps make is very low.


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## Hypoponera (Feb 14, 2008)

I have that problem as well. I use heat lamps and even a couple tank heaters as well. Those combined with the furnace and naturally dry air results in skin crackingly dry air. Hence I have to mist far more then normal for any given species just to avoid molting issues. In the summer when the furnace is off, we run a "swamp cooler" to cool the house. That pumps humidity in and allows me to reduce the number of mistings to one every day.

The point is that species requirements vary from one persons room to another. If you live in a location that is hot and humid, you don't need to add as much as someone who lives where its cold and dry.


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## macro junkie (Feb 14, 2008)

Hypoponera said:


> The point is that species requirements vary from one persons room to another. If you live in a location that is hot and humid, you don't need to add as much as someone who lives where its cold and dry.


very good point


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## bill krut (Feb 14, 2008)

no substrate. water evaporates in one hour


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## Hypoponera (Feb 15, 2008)

If it takes an hour for the water to evaporate, then your problem is probably not a lack of humidity. But I would encourage you to use a substrate of some kind anyway.

Did the nymphs eat after you got them? Were they able to handle what you provided? Maybe they starved to death if they were too timid to catch what was available?

When in doubt, always remember what Rick would say..."sometimes they just die for no reason...".  

When possible, you should try to start with an ooth. That way you will have a large number of nymphs from the beginning. Gives you a cushion numbers wise.


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## bill krut (Feb 15, 2008)

Some wouldn't eat the fruitflies, but she said that they would eat them, so I had faith.

And my one i still doing fine by the way.


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## Hypoponera (Feb 16, 2008)

My guess then is that they starved. No fault of either of you. Some nymphs just seem too reluctante to engage! You might want to start a springtail colony this summer. They require very little in the way of care and populations grow very fast and large. They are extremely tiny and help those nymphs that won't tackle fruit flies.

Another option is to try to always have a depleted colony of fruit flies. When the medium runs low, the resulting fruit flies are smaller then normal. These are also useful for reluctant eaters.


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## bill krut (Feb 16, 2008)

Thanks alot guys.


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