# Newbie question ... Petco & Petsmart



## markdneck (May 26, 2007)

At the big petstores, do they carry the fly larvae and fruitflies, etc I will need when my babies hatch? I know they do have crickets. I see fly growing and supplying machine looking things I can order on-line but to tell the truth, it was enough of a battle to get my wife to allow a terrrium with a mantid in the house. If I have to go to Petco every day for goodies for my Mantid, it is worth it.

"What is that thing. Honey?" Oh that is where I grow my wingless fruitfly larvae." No way Jose!

I convinced her I am going to find ways to grow gillions of mantids in captivity, to release them to help take pesticide out of the environment ... worked so far but no fly larvae in the house, not more than my mantids will eat in a day or two anyway!


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## JT (May 26, 2007)

petsmart carries ff cultures , but these produce flies over the course of a month or less depending on what shape the culture is in when you get it.

you're not gonna find a place where you can just buy a couple of flies a day.housefly or blue bottle fly larvae (maggots) can usually be purchased at a bait shop. and you'll probably only get like a 50count cup for a buck or 2. but not less than that.


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## Rick (May 26, 2007)

THey sell cultures of flies. But to be honest going to the store everytime you need flies is a huge waste of money. Culturing fruit flies is very easy. I go to www.carolina.com for my fly supplies. I buy a large bag of the medium which last for months. I culture in 32 oz clear deli cups with the mesh lids which also work well for small mantids. I simply throw in a half inch of the medium, a pinch of yeast, and water. Throw in some flies and in a couple weeks I have thousands. I keep ten cultures going at a time and after a few weeks they die out. When one dies out I start a new one. So with my process I always have fruit flies on hand. You won't need ten cultures but a couple will keep you going with a few small mantids.


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## markdneck (May 26, 2007)

But when my guys get bigger, I switch to crickets, right? You don't grow them at home I bet so once or twice a week I go to Petsmart (block or two from home) and I buy a few crickets. right?

My cousin is a geneticist (look up wendy neckameyer on Google) she is the or at least one of the top world experts on fruit flies. I think I will give her a call today.


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## Rick (May 26, 2007)

> But when my guys get bigger, I switch to crickets, right? You don't grow them at home I bet so once or twice a week I go to Petsmart (block or two from home) and I buy a few crickets. right?My cousin is a geneticist (look up wendy neckameyer on Google) she is the or at least one of the top world experts on fruit flies. I think I will give her a call today.


Yeah but in my case I always have mantids of all sizes so I always keep both kinds of food around. I buy crickets online as it is much cheaper to buy in bulk then to get at a pet store. Not to mention I get healthier crickets that way. Or you can get roaches. Also can supplement their food with insects you find outside in the warm months.


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## markdneck (May 26, 2007)

Hey this is SoCal! We only have "WARM" months but we also have lots of pesticide everywhere. I'd be afraid to feed locally wild caught bugs. It is like the snails here, they are everywhere in the garden. Story is around goldrush time French settlers brough them in for escargot. Everybody uses snail poison so if you catch snails (easy to do!) you can't eat them lest you die from arsenic poisoninig!

After I hatch and get my first nymphs started I don't think I will be a "breeder" so I will feed the larvae and hope to get to cricket stage soon.

Mantids die off when the weather gets cold. Is the lifespan hard programmed in or here in warm SoCal, can they live through the "winter", live more than a year?


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## Rick (May 26, 2007)

> Hey this is SoCal! We only have "WARM" months but we also have lots of pesticide everywhere. I'd be afraid to feed locally wild caught bugs. It is like the snails here, they are everywhere in the garden. Story is around goldrush time French settlers brough them in for escargot. Everybody uses snail poison so if you catch snails (easy to do!) you can't eat them lest you die from arsenic poisoninig!After I hatch and get my first nymphs started I don't think I will be a "breeder" so I will feed the larvae and hope to get to cricket stage soon.
> 
> Mantids die off when the weather gets cold. Is the lifespan hard programmed in or here in warm SoCal, can they live through the "winter", live more than a year?


Some of the "exotics" can live a year. Chinese and other US may live 7 months or so in the wild and a bit longer indoors.


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## OGIGA (May 26, 2007)

Umm, don't let a mantis try to eat snails or slugs. I tried that before and almost killed my mantis. When attacked, they release some really sticky stuff and I think it would have glued my mantis stiff if I didn't do something about it.


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## hibiscusmile (May 27, 2007)

I can just see his wife letting him have roaches... I cannot abide with em myself. But look there is a site that will tell u how to make fly catcher so u can have big ums without buying, seems pretty easy to me...try it http://insected.arizona.edu/flyrear.htm


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## Hypoponera (May 28, 2007)

Mark,

I have a single fruit fly culture in a 32 oz cup. It is feeding 23 nymphs and has been for 3 weeks. 1 culture can go a long way if your not wasteful.

You can keep crickets in an aquarium. Give em some dry dog food, water, and a piece of fruit or veggie. A card board egg carton for a house is a nice touch. They will do just fine and grow larger. This will give you a larger food source when needed. Buy some tiny crickets and put them in the tank. They will be there when you need them.

Roaches are a good choice as they are also easy to keep. They will survive in the same type of set up for the crickets. To keep your wife happy, I recommend one of the "non-scented" roach species!


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## markdneck (May 29, 2007)

Keeping maggots and flies and stuff in the refrigerator? No way! We met years ago in college and I remember how squeamish she was with the rat she had to care for as part of her Operant Conditioning class. She hasn't changed. Then I bought a gorgeous 20 acre place in Riverside County on a mountain top with a pool with a view, stable for horses and wonderful landscaping but she made me sell it 'cause I couldn't stop lizards from getting into the house. And she has not changed.

I felt a tinge of kinship when I saw the orchid Mantid mating picture. I identified a bit with the poor male. You non native English speakers and Brits may not get this Idiom but my tattoo that reads "PW" ... It does not stand for "Prisoner of War!


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## OGIGA (May 29, 2007)

That's sad... I kept my container of blue bottle maggots in the refrigerator inside a little box. Seems less scary I guess.


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## Peekaboo (Jun 1, 2007)

Unfortunately Mark, you are going to have to keep at least one fly culture going at all times, in order to feed your mantids(at least in the early stages). I get mine from Ed's Fly Meat. They have some easy starter kits for new hobbyists. I don't recommend using the fly cultures from big lot petstores such as Petco. They're a pain in the butt to feed with, and in the long run, culturing your own fruitflies will be cheaper.

Your mantid hobby may need to be something you leave set up in your garage from the sounds of it.


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## Asa (Jun 2, 2007)

> Umm, don't let a mantis try to eat snails or slugs. I tried that before and almost killed my mantis. When attacked, they release some really sticky stuff and I think it would have glued my mantis stiff if I didn't do something about it.


Oh yeah. A few years ago, my two year old sister found a huge slug (4 and a 1/2 inches) on our patio. What else was she to do, but feed it to my adult Chinese mantis? I was gone. When I got back, the lid was off my cage, so I rushed to it and found... A huge gutty gray mess. My mantid had bit right through the very middle of the slug, leaving a gaping hole the mantid was stuck in. The mantis was still feebly striking the dead slug. I managed to pull the mantis out and kind of pull off the slug guts that were trapping it. Unbelievably the mantid lived, although part of its forearm was snapped and it lost a leg. It lived to be 13 months.


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## jmac27 (Jun 11, 2007)

> petsmart carries ff cultures , but these produce flies over the course of a month or less depending on what shape the culture is in when you get it.


When I was younger I had to go to PetCo for a FF culture because my mother wasn't too happy about the hobby I was getting into. She wouldn't order me a culture online. It's an hour drive to the nearest PetCo and the FF culture I bought ended up producing zero fruit flies. I opened the container and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dead wingless fruit flies. Thankfully, I'm 19 and on my own now and can order whatever I need for the hobby.


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## Asa (Jun 12, 2007)

> > petsmart carries ff cultures , but these produce flies over the course of a month or less depending on what shape the culture is in when you get it.
> 
> 
> When I was younger I had to go to PetCo for a FF culture because my mother wasn't too happy about the hobby I was getting into. She wouldn't order me a culture online. It's an hour drive to the nearest PetCo and the FF culture I bought ended up producing zero fruit flies. I opened the container and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dead wingless fruit flies. Thankfully, I'm 19 and on my own now and can order whatever I need for the hobby.


You could have tried to feed it the dead fruitflies, but I doubt it would work. I'm no fan of Pet.co or Petsmart either. They never carry what I need, the crickets I got from them made my mantids sick, and the fruit fly cultures almost never lasted two weeks, there were so few. I now also order them online.


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