# bees ok for ghosts?



## Crazy4mantis (Jul 6, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I've had a hard time finding flying food for my ghost mantis. there are bees everywhere, so I was wondering if they are ok to feed. My flower took them easily, and all the native mantids eat them, but then again, flowers are MADE to eat bees! Ghosts are a lot more timid, so I was wondering if they could handle bees. Anyone know?!?!

ps. I heard somewhere that ghosts don't know how to catch bees.

pps. I lol-ed when I was rereading this and saw "flowers are made to eat bees"


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## frogparty (Jul 6, 2012)

mY GHOSTS ARE AFRAID OF THEM

Yours may differ


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## happy1892 (Jul 6, 2012)

You mean flower mantids right? I would feed them just honey bees and nothing like a wasp or a hard bee and they should be small enough.


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## Crazy4mantis (Jul 6, 2012)

But could a ghost eat them?


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## mantidsaresweet (Jul 6, 2012)

Yeah sure they could eat them if they wanted to. Just remember to be careful and make sure its smaller than the mantis and to not put anything really dangerous in there like a wasp.

I would agree with happy1892 and say that honey bees only but really it's your choice just know the risks involved.


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## guapoalto049 (Jul 6, 2012)

My adult females eat honey bees, they are gravid though. I try to keep this to a treat only, and besides, ghosts are Hymenopodidae (the family all flower mantids are in) if I remember correctly.


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## happy1892 (Jul 6, 2012)

guapoalto049 said:


> My adult females eat honey bees, they are gravid though. I try to keep this to a treat only, and besides, ghosts are Hymenopodidae (the order all flower mantids are in) if I remember correctly.


They are in the family Hymenopodidae but people do not call them a flower mantis. All of the flower mantids are in the family Hymenopodidae. People call these flower mantids.Acromantis formosana, Blepharopsis mendica, Chloroharpax modesta, Creobroter species, Hymenopus coronatus, Idolomantis diabolica, Pseudoharpax virescens and Theopropus elegans.


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## guapoalto049 (Jul 6, 2012)

I think you may have them a bit mixed up. Hymenopodidae contains 'flower' mantids (many of the kinds you named) and kin (ghosts, a few smaller bark/leafy looking species). Idolomantis diabolica and Blepharopsis mendica are of the family Empusidae.


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## happy1892 (Jul 6, 2012)

guapoalto049 said:


> I think you may have them a bit mixed up. Hymenopodidae contains 'flower' mantids (many of the kinds you named) and kin (ghosts, a few smaller bark/leafy looking species). Idolomantis diabolica and Blepharopsis mendica are of the family Empusidae.


Oops I missed that! I was not very careful.


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## happy1892 (Jul 6, 2012)

guapoalto049 said:


> I think you may have them a bit mixed up. Hymenopodidae contains 'flower' mantids (many of the kinds you named) and kin (ghosts, a few smaller bark/leafy looking species). Idolomantis diabolica and Blepharopsis mendica are of the family Empusidae.


Oops I missed that! I was not very careful. Oh, I thought you said Ghost Mantids were a flower mantis.


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## Rick (Jul 7, 2012)

Please do not feed honeybees to your mantids. Honeybees are having problems in many areas and are responsible for pollination of many food crops and other plants. Not to mention the bees you take may be from someones hive.


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## Crazy4mantis (Jul 7, 2012)

I have too MANY honeybees! I can't walk in my garden anymore!!!!!


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## Rick (Jul 7, 2012)

Crazy4mantis said:


> I have too MANY honeybees! I can't walk in my garden anymore!!!!!


Honeybees should not be a concern. They will no sting you unless you pick them up, step on them, or disturb their hive. There is no such thing as too many honeybees. I have a small backyard with two hives each containing at least 100,000 honeybees and I don't have any problems enjoying my garden or my yard. Honeybees are far more beneficial than mantids and with recent issues the honeybee species is in a serious decline which is bad news for all of us. It is in bad form to kill honeybees indiscriminately. Any person with knowledge of beneficial insects, pollination, etc should be able to easily understand that.


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## happy1892 (Jul 7, 2012)

Rick said:


> Please do not feed honeybees to your mantids. Honeybees are having problems in many areas and are responsible for pollination of many food crops and other plants. Not to mention the bees you take may be from someones hive.


But it is just a few bees. Do you think it is not alright?


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## Rick (Jul 7, 2012)

happy1892 said:


> But it is just a few bees. Do you think it is not alright?


Absolutely not. Feeding mantids full time with honeybees will amount to more than a few. Will it affect the hive they come from? Maybe not. But why kill off a truly beneficial insect when there other, better choices for feeding? I guess most people don't understand the issues facing honeybees right now. Being a beekeeper I can appreciate the issues faced by the bees which is the main reason I decided to get into keeping honeybees.


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## happy1892 (Jul 7, 2012)

Rick said:


> Absolutely not. Feeding mantids full time with honeybees will amount to more than a few. Will it affect the hive they come from? Maybe not. But why kill off a truly beneficial insect when there other, better choices for feeding? I guess most people don't understand the issues facing honeybees right now. Being a beekeeper I can appreciate the issues faced by the bees which is the main reason I decided to get into keeping honeybees.


How could a few make a difference? If there are many other good insects then I would feed them them then. I would love to keep honey bees (well I would love to keep just about any animal LOL!) and feed some to my mantids because they are very good for mantids.


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## Rick (Jul 8, 2012)

happy1892 said:


> How could a few make a difference? If there are many other good insects then I would feed them them then. I would love to keep honey bees (well I would love to keep just about any animal LOL!) and feed some to my mantids because they are very good for mantids.


I am not sure a few would make much of a difference. But feeding mantids honeybees often is going to be more than a few. Do a little research on colony collapse disease and honeybees and then decide for yourself. Honeybees are important to us humans and our crops. They are having problems currently. So why take an insect that is having enough problems already and killing them selfishly? We have been raising mantids on flies and other insects that are commercially available for many years, you don't have to use beneficial insects as feeders. Not sure how I can make it any more clear.


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## Sneaky123 (Jul 8, 2012)

If honeybees weren't in a decline, I would say do it. However, their numbers are dropping, and if all the bees died that would definitely lead to starvation. I know a few bees will cause nothing major, but we shouldn't encourage killing bees.

I just realized that was completely off-topic and overly dramatic. Oh well.


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## Crazy4mantis (Jul 8, 2012)

oh no! he threw up after eating a bad fly! It's bees or nothing!


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## happy1892 (Jul 8, 2012)

Rick said:


> I am not sure a few would make much of a difference. But feeding mantids honeybees often is going to be more than a few. Do a little research on colony collapse disease and honeybees and then decide for yourself. Honeybees are important to us humans and our crops. They are having problems currently. So why take an insect that is having enough problems already and killing them selfishly? We have been raising mantids on flies and other insects that are commercially available for many years, you don't have to use beneficial insects as feeders. Not sure how I can make it any more clear.


But humans breed honeybees. He has only a few mantids. I will read. I am getting mixed up because there is too much! I did not know it was this serious. :blush: There are many bees around here that I believe are honey bees.


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## frogparty (Jul 8, 2012)

actually, your native bees like mason bees and carpenter bees do more pollinating of native vegetation than youd think, they are actually more efficient pollinators of many things, they just have a much smaller home range (100yards or so)


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## happy1892 (Jul 8, 2012)

Oh, my it is a big problem. I cannot find what percentage have been lost from what time. Rick will you tell me please?



frogparty said:


> actually, your native bees like mason bees and carpenter bees do more pollinating of native vegetation than youd think, they are actually more efficient pollinators of many things, they just have a much smaller home range (100yards or so)


Oh, that is good. But still mostly honeybees do it right?


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## frogparty (Jul 8, 2012)

you just notice them more. Honeybees are notorious for pollinating just one sex of flower, and as such are actually ineffective at pollinating species of angiosperm with dual sex flowers


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## Rick (Jul 8, 2012)

frogparty said:


> actually, your native bees like mason bees and carpenter bees do more pollinating of native vegetation than youd think, they are actually more efficient pollinators of many things, they just have a much smaller home range (100yards or so)


True.

Not all honeybees are kept by beekeepers either. Plenty of wild hives out there. I can't make anyone here listen to reason so I am done trying.


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## frogparty (Jul 8, 2012)

I know what youre getting at Rick, and I agree that its better not to rob the environment of such a bebeficial insect.


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## mantidsaresweet (Jul 8, 2012)

Yes I agree with Rick too. There are plenty of other insects that can make for a good mantis meal. We as humans need pollinators like the honeybee. They populations are in decline so killing more is adding to the problem.

Perhaps if you started a colony in your yard that produced thousands of bees then taking a few for your mantis would not be a huge deal becuase overall you would be helping to increase the population. Although that seems much harder than finding an alternative food source.

Have you tried catching moths as night? They are a great food source and easy to find and catch.


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## happy1892 (Jul 9, 2012)

Rick said:


> True.
> 
> Not all honeybees are kept by beekeepers either. Plenty of wild hives out there. I can't make anyone here listen to reason so I am done trying.


Sorry, I was rude. The thing that really harms them are other things and Crazy4mantis feeding them to his few mantids are not many but maybe there could be too many people feeding too many honey bees but there are not a whole lot of people who keep mantids but maybe there are enough to actually harm them. Do you think so?


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## happy1892 (Jul 9, 2012)

happy1892 said:


> Sorry, I was rude. The thing that really harms them are other things and Crazy4mantis feeding them to his few mantids are not many but maybe there could be too many people feeding too many honey bees but there are not a whole lot of people who keep mantids but maybe there are enough to actually harm them. Do you think so?


I will stop. I am hyper.


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## patrickfraser (Jul 9, 2012)

SCREW THE FLIES...I WANT BEES!


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## happy1892 (Jul 9, 2012)

Hahahaha funny!


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## Crazy4mantis (Jul 9, 2012)

lol-ed at the pic!



mantidsaresweet said:


> Have you tried catching moths as night? They are a great food source and easy to find and catch.


You know I never really thought of moths! I have a swarm of moths around my porch light at night!


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## Mvalenz (Jul 9, 2012)

If I wasn't moving soon I would start beekeeping.


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## eyes (Jul 9, 2012)

This is the first year in probably a decade that I have seen honey bees in any significant numbers and even now there aren't that many compared to 20 years ago. My grandfather used to keep bees but that was decades ago. Man, I can't count how many times I have been stung by them. One time we dropped several hives off the back of a truck while loading them and I had no protection on. Ouchy.

With that in mind I hate to kill them but to be honest I have been thinking about grabbing a couple as "treats" to mix things up. I don't think 2 or 3 will affect the hive


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## mantidsaresweet (Jul 9, 2012)

Crazy4mantis said:


> You know I never really thought of moths! I have a swarm of moths around my porch light at night!


The best and cheapest food source IMO lol.


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