# Warm Weather = Insects



## Mvalenz (Feb 26, 2012)

It was 50 degrees outside Chicago today. That means BOXELDER BUGS!!! My Budwings favorite snack.

http://youtu.be/qBT5kV_7Ri0


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## patrickfraser (Feb 26, 2012)

50 degrees! WOOT WOOT. Break out the shorts and tank top. It was a nice 65 at my house today. Gave me a chance to let my chams out for some natural sun. :cool2:


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## Bryce08 (Feb 26, 2012)

Yeah it was about 68 outside today, I let the idolos out  

...hes a messy eater


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## brancsikia339 (Feb 26, 2012)

Lucky you it was only 33 degrees today


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## gripen (Feb 26, 2012)

Shut-up it was 30ish today with wind chill. I hate you SoCal people so much some times.


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## dlemmings (Feb 26, 2012)

I would offer a tissue...but we dont get as many colds with all this warm weather.... :shifty:


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## CoolMantid (Feb 26, 2012)

This last week it was getting in the 70s around noon!


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## agent A (Feb 26, 2012)

It was 40 here today


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## Mvalenz (Feb 26, 2012)

This is very unusual weather for northern Illinois. I'm back in school and going to transfer to Southern Illinois, Southern California or Tampa Florida next semester. I can't stand the cold. The farther from norhtern winters the better.


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## happy1892 (Feb 26, 2012)

It is warm where I am too. But there are not many bugs. There are a few crickets, flies and wolf spiders. We have many plants outside.


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## warpdrive (Feb 26, 2012)

I loved that video. feed him again. come on, he's starving.

Harry


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## sporeworld (Feb 26, 2012)

I have a new level of respect for those Budwings. You can here the shell on that thing snap!


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## angelofdeathzz (Feb 26, 2012)

Yeah, once I got some budwings long ago I had to keep them going, so I keep breeding them just to have some around, the mini Hulk's of the mantis world(mine are extra green to boot).


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## twolfe (Feb 26, 2012)

It's 28 degrees right now. I just got back with dinner with friends and drove home with snow falling. It's hard to complain about the weather though as we had quite a mild winter here in Minnesota with very little snow. It's been so mild that my photo opportunity with the swans that overwinter nearby ended about a month earlier than previous years.

Mvalenz, I've been seeing boxelder bugs in the house for about a week now. You are welcome to come and collect them all if you want....


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## Mvalenz (Feb 26, 2012)

Thanks Tammy, but I'll have plenty as soon as it stays warm for more than a few days. My garage door gets over run with them. Have you tried to feed them to your matids? Not every mantis likes them though.


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## Rick (Feb 27, 2012)

Couple days last week it was near 80 here.


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## twolfe (Feb 27, 2012)

Mvalenz said:


> Thanks Tammy, but I'll have plenty as soon as it stays warm for more than a few days. My garage door gets over run with them. Have you tried to feed them to your matids? Not every mantis likes them though.


No, I haven't tried to feed them to my mantids. Someone gave me a couple of adult female budwings once, and when I had them, I remember they ate almost anything. I raise darkling beetles (mealworms) and find that the majority of my mantids will not eat them in the adult (beetle) stage. A couple of my Texas Unicorns will eat them. A few others will eat them if I feed them before they harden. So that's why I have tried feeding them to my mantids.


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## meaganelise9 (Feb 27, 2012)

Man.. I haven't seen a single but outside. It's still in the 30's in Madison, WI and snow on the ground.


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## Chivalry (Mar 1, 2012)

I've been doing the crazy lady on the porch with the chair and the cup catching moths thing again.... man do my bugs LOVE moths!

Here in TN we're seeing 70s this week, the daffodils have been up for a month, and today I noticed redbuds, magnolias, pears and plums blooming, and the spring peepers are singing. I love spring.


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## Krissim Klaw (Mar 2, 2012)

Winter completely skipped Florida this year. It was T-shirt and shorts weather all but maybe one or two days. You can easily find insects year round, in fact, seems like a number come out more during the winter months than summers. So many of the plants seem to like to bloom down here during the winter months =p


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 2, 2012)

I thought those were the assasin bugs? I am confused! aw, shut up u guys, :gun_bandana:


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## Mvalenz (Mar 3, 2012)

This is an assasin bug.







This is a boxelder bug. They are harmless. They eat plant matter.


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## Termite48 (Mar 3, 2012)

Today on my covered porch it is well into the low seventies, and all the critters are outside soaking up the free therms and sunlight. It is so good for the Chameleon, Ivan. He loves to bask in natural light. Mvalenz: How long is that huge Budwing of yours? Is it close the the adult female Aussie Giant I just got from Yen? She is 3-1/4" in length but not so far a voracious eater. I offered her a honey coated and pollen dusted Dubia roach nymph and she almost jumped out of her exoskeleton trying to distance herself from it.


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## Mvalenz (Mar 3, 2012)

I think she is a little shy of 3 inches. not sure if she is presub or sub, but she molted not too long ago and she has little black wings now.


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## ScienceGirl (Feb 1, 2013)

We see lots of boxelder bugs in the summer! They come in giant masses and a large portion of the air and yard is red. (Now that's "take-out" dining. Just swing your little bug net and - WHOA! There's dinner! . . . for.... EVERYONE!) haha!  

A whole mass of them covered our giant tree in our backyard and went dormant there. To get at them, all you had to do was lift off some bark, or poke a stick at them, and they fell right out! If I had mantids then, I would have been set! . . . But then we had to cut down the tree. (There was an ant colony living in it.)

I didn't know that boxelder bugs were safe for mantids. So they are?


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## Mvalenz (Feb 3, 2013)

I remember this thread  I moved since I posted this, so I hope I see them down where I'm at now. I think my budwing was the only one who would eat boxelder bugs.


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## Sticky (Feb 9, 2013)

Do they live in Maine? I don't remember if I've seen them here.


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## sally (Feb 9, 2013)

Mvalenz said:


> I remember this thread  I moved since I posted this, so I hope I see them down where I'm at now. I think my budwing was the only one who would eat boxelder bugs.


none of my mantids will touch boxelder bugs. of course. that would be too easy lol


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## brancsikia339 (Feb 10, 2013)

I've fed my mantids boxelder bugs once or twice. WOuldnt do it again though


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