# Yay! Babies hatched



## Schloaty (Feb 9, 2010)

I collected some Chinese ooths this fall from my garden, and decided that I wanted to hatch them inside for a winter crop. Well, I had all but given up on them...I came home from work today, and BOTH had hatched!  

So I'm pretty psyched.

Chinese 1st instar nymphs are HUGE, comparitively....these guys are 1cm right out of the cannon! My l2 border mantids aren't as big...close, but not quite (and l2's are much more robust, I find, than the 1's).

But it's a good day in the Schloat house!


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## kamakiri (Feb 10, 2010)

Congrats!


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## Katnapper (Feb 10, 2010)

Congrats, Schloaty!  I have 2 T. sinensis ooths I've been incubating for a couple of months now, and have lately started wondering if maybe I should give up on them. But the mothers were fertile, as evidenced by earlier ooth hatchings from the same females. Hmmm.... maybe I better go up and check on them right now! :lol:


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## hibiscusmile (Feb 10, 2010)

Goody for you! the Chinese are such a beautiful mantis! well, Kat, did they hatch?


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## ismart (Feb 10, 2010)

Great news!  Enjoy your new babies.


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## Katnapper (Feb 10, 2010)

hibiscusmile said:


> Goody for you! the Chinese are such a beautiful mantis! well, Kat, did they hatch?


Well, the Schloat house is full up with little prancing Chinese nymphs...




but the Heacox house is still waiting on 2 stubbornly silent ooths.


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## Matticus (Feb 10, 2010)

I just had two Carolina ooths hatch after 5 months. I gave up on them about 6 weeks ago. I swear they do it to mess with us.


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## yen_saw (Feb 11, 2010)

Schloaty said:


> I collected some Chinese ooths this fall from my garden, and decided that I wanted to hatch them inside for a winter crop. Well, I had all but given up on them...I came home from work today, and BOTH had hatched!  So I'm pretty psyched.
> 
> Chinese 1st instar nymphs are HUGE, comparitively....these guys are 1cm right out of the cannon! My l2 border mantids aren't as big...close, but not quite (and l2's are much more robust, I find, than the 1's).
> 
> But it's a good day in the Schloat house!


Oh happy happy  

Yes they are quite big even at L1. Have plenty of furit flies ready, they are also infamous little cannibals! :blink:


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## hibiscusmile (Feb 11, 2010)

yea I was thinking today about how to tell if a ooth was any good or not. Instead of waiting to see , I thought to myself..."myself, I said, wouldn't it be nice if before they hatched, like a week before, u could hear them inside scratching around, and I then said to self, " no! then instead of just having to look at them, u would have to pick up all those containers and try to hear too, and u can't hear as it is!" Touchy, I said!


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## Schloaty (Feb 12, 2010)

Yen,

For sure, I have fruit flies! I know about their canibalistic tenencies....kind of counting on it to thin the ranks a bit.

It's amazing to me how, even in the first day, so many nymphs are just die. Such a large percentage of weak babies....the bottom of the hatching chamber is littered with little bodies.

The remaining ones seem strong, though....and there are MORE than enough, for certain!


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## ZoeRipper (Feb 12, 2010)

Lucky turd..

I mean, congratulations!


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## Ghozt (Feb 12, 2010)

If you lick the ooth, you will know when it will hatch...


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## PhilinYuma (Feb 13, 2010)

hibiscusmile said:


> yea I was thinking today about how to tell if a ooth was any good or not. Instead of waiting to see , I thought to myself..."myself, I said, wouldn't it be nice if before they hatched, like a week before, u could hear them inside scratching around, and I then said to self, " no! then instead of just having to look at them, u would have to pick up all those containers and try to hear too, and u can't hear as it is!" Touchy, I said!


Once again, Rebecca, one of your jests hides a Deep Scientific Truth. Things trying to get out of other things, frequently make some kind of noise. A case in point: Have you ever walked past a graveyard at night? If you listen closely, you will sometimes hear a faint scrabbly noise. This is someone who went into a coma, was pronounced dead and buried and has now come to and is trying to get out. This is why I always carry a shovel with me, not to dig them out, but to hit them over the head if they get though the coffin lid. Let the dead bury the dead, that's what I say.

My phone has only two ring tones, one for Jean Anne and one for Every One Else (I remember that you phoned me once when I was Seriously Brand New to reassure me about something or other!), so I was a bit surprised to hear it make a couple of tiny gurgling sounds when it was sitting on the computer desk this afternoon. I later discovered that it was the battery, on its last gasp and trying to get to an electrical output, poor dear. Sometimes, you don't even need good hearing (thank God!). Sometimes you can tell that an ooth is fertile about a week before hatching because it doesn't change color. Unfortunately, at other times of the month , the failure to change color means something else entirely. If it does change color, especially if it is a bright pink , blue or green, it usually means that a kid or grandkid mistook it for an Easter egg.

We have a brand new member, John, who is rightly concerned about the possibility of getting an infertile ooth. Perhaps our combined wisdom will help him.


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## PhilinYuma (Feb 13, 2010)

hibiscusmile said:


> yea I was thinking today about how to tell if a ooth was any good or not. Instead of waiting to see , I thought to myself..."myself, I said, wouldn't it be nice if before they hatched, like a week before, u could hear them inside scratching around, and I then said to self, " no! then instead of just having to look at them, u would have to pick up all those containers and try to hear too, and u can't hear as it is!" Touchy, I said!


Once again, Rebecca, one of your jests hides a Deep Scientific Truth. Things trying to get out of other things, frequently make some kind of noise. A case in point: Have you ever walked past a graveyard at night? If you listen closely, you will sometimes hear a faint scrabbly noise. This is someone who went into a coma, was pronounced dead and buried and has now come to and is trying to get out. This is why I always carry a shovel with me, not to dig them out, but to hit them over the head if they get though the coffin lid. Let the dead bury the dead, that's what I say.

My phone has only two ring tones, one for Jean Anne and one for Every One Else (I remember that you phoned me once when I was Seriously Brand New to reassure me about something or other!), so I was a bit surprised to hear it make a couple of tiny gurgling sounds when it was sitting on the computer desk this afternoon. I later discovered that it was the battery, on its last gasp and trying to get to an electrical output, poor dear. Sometimes, you don't even need good hearing (thank God!). Sometimes you can tell that an ooth is fertile about a week before hatching because it doesn't change color. Unfortunately, at other times of the month , the failure to change color means something else entirely. If it does change color, especially if it is a bright pink , blue or green, it usually means that a kid or grandkid mistook it for an Easter egg.

We have a brand new member, John, who is rightly concerned about the possibility of getting an infertile ooth. Perhaps our combined wisdom will help him.


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## Schloaty (Feb 16, 2010)

And once again, Phil, you made me chuckle!


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