# Ants vs Mantis



## MandaKitsune (Jul 11, 2008)

Why are ants bad? ?_?

my nymth seems to like them but i will stop and buy something smaller online like aphids? or fruit flys.

do nymths need to by tweezer fed?

cause the last time i has to help it out a little do to him having a broken back leg


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## darkspeed (Jul 11, 2008)

If an ant actually manages to bite your nymph in self defense it will get sick and most likely die. Also since mantids tend to sonsume all of their prey, that includes the venom that the ant uses in its bite, which can also make your nymph sick. I would steer clear of feeding any bug that uses venom as a defense. That includes bees, wasps, spiders and ants. There is just too much chance for the mantis to be injured or killed by its own food.


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## MandaKitsune (Jul 12, 2008)

DARKSPEED said:


> If an ant actually manages to bite your nymph in self defense it will get sick and most likely die. Also since mantids tend to sonsume all of their prey, that includes the venom that the ant uses in its bite, which can also make your nymph sick. I would steer clear of feeding any bug that uses venom as a defense. That includes bees, wasps, spiders and ants. There is just too much chance for the mantis to be injured or killed by its own food.


even the tiny black ants?

yeah im scared of feeding it a spider but how healthy are house flys? dont they carry like eggs in them?


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## OGIGA (Jul 12, 2008)

But eating venom and having venom injected is completely different.


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## Christian (Jul 12, 2008)

Indeed. Mantids can well eat all kind of wasps and bees without any injury or illness. I once even fed some of the very poisonous _Heliconius_ butterflies to mantids just to try it out and they either ate it or rejected the untasty parts. A mantis can eat virtually every arthropod prey by discriminating between "good" and "bad" parts - depending on hunger level. A hungry mantis eats almost everything.

Ants may be dangerous though, because several of them can cooperate to kill one mantis. Furthermore, most mantids don't really like them, although there are some exceptions.


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## The_Asa (Jul 12, 2008)

People are able to eat venomous snakes. Mantids can eat venomous insects.


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## Birdfly (Jul 13, 2008)

In the uk when all the new kings and queen ants swarm i find it very easy to collect them in numbers, i feed them nearly every year and they all seem to like them and will bulk up on them, even medium sized nymphs of larger species take them  

Edit: the smaller workers are taken but very very rarely in my experience


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## Thorska (Jul 25, 2008)

ant's are basically wasps without wings, and as such still have a rather nasty sting, nearly all mantids are smart enough to know a poisinous insect when they see it and usually hold the pray so its unable to sting, however there is always the chance that something could happen, you wouldn't want to try feeding your mantid a scorpion because mantids usually do ok, its always best to take the safe option and stick with harmless little flys


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## The_Asa (Jul 25, 2008)

Besides that, I find flies more convenient.


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## Dwaink (Jul 25, 2008)

The_Asa said:


> Besides that, I find flies more convenient.


Hi,

Last week i saw an ant in the 32oz container that i kept my az unicorn in, it was carrying off a dead fly from the bottom. The containers are kept on the old back porch with a wood floor. I didn't think much of it because i thought it was doing me a favor by carrying off the dead flys. Big mistake!!, i had to leave for awhile and when i came back there where a zillion ants on the mantis. As you may have guest it was to late. The container next to it housed a Chinese, when i looked in their there was nothing, not even a husk. From what i could surmise they chopped it up and carried it off in little peaces. They consumed everything. Both containers had screen on the top but the smallest ants got thu making way for the others. Ants leave a trail wherever they go for others to follow. I learned my lesson the hard way about ants. Moral of the story. STAY AWAY FROM ANTS!!!!.

Regards


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## idolomantis (Jul 25, 2008)

ant are army creatures, better organized the humans. the african siafu ants ate a child once. nasty creeps.

i never tought about feeding them i know what kind of damga they can do, sorry to hear that happy mantis, such a terrible thing to happen.


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## collinchang635 (Aug 15, 2008)

That nearly happened to me. I came back after I visited a friend and a found arond maybe twenty ants in my mantid cage. I think the were after the several aphids and mosquitoe legs and wing on the floor of the cage. When I saw that, I took my mantid out of her cage and I rinsed the cage, getting rid of the trail the ants had left. After that, I took a precaution of putting my mantids cage in the middle of a 'moat'. After awhile, I didn't see anymore ant, so I took away the moat and the ants never came back


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## muleyyy (Aug 15, 2008)

technically ants do not have a venomous "bite" as they have no fangs like arachnids, the venom, if any is located in the abdomen, usually formic acid, which they swing around and basically coat the wound with poisen, i think some species actually have a stinger? whether the small black ones you get in the U.K. can spray formic acid is debatable

anyways i've fed an ant to my creobroter nymph before, no problems, the only danger with feeding them ants is that when an ant bites it never lets go, even when its dead, so if it got hold of one of the mantis's legs that could be bad, although not fatal and you could remove it yourself

ants generally arnt tasty insects though, thats how they survive so well, they work together to team up on their would be predators, plus they dont taste nice and have a nasty bite

so not the most ideal regular food for your mantis, like bee's and wasps, their not very dangerous, but you just wouldn't normally feed them it, thats all  

maybe if desperate for livefood?


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