# orchid l3 feeding



## awesomebillfromdawsonvill (Feb 12, 2007)

My orchids just molted to l3(i think) and the fruit flys i was cultering for them are looking a little small for them, should i continue feeding them a large amount of these suckers are they big enough for them to catch, or do i need to move on to real flys? rlly dont wont to have to raise flys in the fridge is there a large fruit fly i can culture or are there any other possiblities?

thanks fo the help!


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## Ian (Feb 13, 2007)

The best thing you can do is introduce some house flies. The Hymenopus are usually a fairly ferocious species, and I would think they would happily catch a housefly, with no problems.

If this fails, you could try them on slightly smaller houseflies.


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## Rob Byatt (Feb 13, 2007)

3rd instar _H. coronatus _are more than capable of preying upon large flies. Once mine hit 3rd instar I move them onto greenbottles but they are more than capable of taking larger flies, eg. _Calliphora_ sp.

Here,s a the link to a picture of exactly that....

Okay can't find it so here's the pic instead !!!....







and another one.....


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## Rick (Feb 13, 2007)

I fed bluebottle flies at that stage up until adult. You don't have to culture flies in order to keep them. I buy 1000 maggots at a time. I take out a bunch and put them in a container. In several days they turn into flies. Keep the maggots in the fridge until you are ready to let them pupate into flies. They are inactive in the fridge and you keep them in the containers they are shipped in. Don't have to feed the maggots or anything.


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## OGIGA (Feb 13, 2007)

Wow! How much of the fly do they eat before getting full and dropping it?


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## awesomebillfromdawsonvill (Feb 13, 2007)

Thanks for the input fellas, nice pics btw do they really eat the whole thing? :shock: . I live with a room mate who does not take too kindly to having some maggots in his fridge. Does 1 fly make up one meal, could i make up for the fly with 8 or 10 fruit flys? I really just need somthing temp. to get em through to the summer.


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## OGIGA (Feb 13, 2007)

Yeah, sometimes I have to feed my mantis like 5 fruit flies if they don't take a house fly or a cricket. They have been eating fruit flies all along anyway.


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## yen_saw (Feb 13, 2007)

Orchid mantis nymph will ignore prey that is too small, so you cannot use smaller food to substitue a proper size food, regardless of the quantity for smaller food.


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## OGIGA (Feb 13, 2007)

I just posted about how I caught some houseflies. Check it out.

http://mantidforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=24393


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## wuwu (Feb 13, 2007)

> Orchid mantis nymph will ignore prey that is too small, so you cannot use smaller food to substitue a proper size food, regardless of the quantity for smaller food.


yes, i noticed that too. i remember i tried feeding my sub sub adult females fruit flies and they totally ignored them. on the other hand, adult violin mantids will still go for fruit flies.


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