# feeding MANY mantids



## chrisboy101 (Apr 3, 2008)

wen u have a shelf full of hundreds of mantids how do feed them all? do u do it individualy, or have a certain way of making it easier?

christian


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## Moosashi (Apr 3, 2008)

I have 20 in individual cups I made from water bottles with pieces of sponge stoppering the bottles, so I remove the cork of each bottle one at a time and pour food in. I poured multiples of fruit fly in when the mantids were still like L3 back when I separated them, and now that I'm feeding them little crickets, I use a plastic funnel to pour crickets into a big prescription medicine bottle I have left over and cap the bottle. Then one at a time I remove the cork on each water bottle cup and put the funnel in the top of the cup, and tilt the prescription bottle containing crickets into the funnel trying to get 1 cricket into each mantis cup bottle. takes a few minutes.


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## chrisboy101 (Apr 3, 2008)

Moosashi said:


> I have 20 in individual cups I made from water bottles with pieces of sponge stoppering the bottles, so I remove the cork of each bottle one at a time and pour food in. I poured multiples of fruit fly in when the mantids were still like L3 back when I separated them, and now that I'm feeding them little crickets, I use a plastic funnel to pour crickets into a big prescription medicine bottle I have left over and cap the bottle. Then one at a time I remove the cork on each water bottle cup and put the funnel in the top of the cup, and tilt the prescription bottle containing crickets into the funnel trying to get 1 cricket into each mantis cup bottle. takes a few minutes.


thats good way


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## macro junkie (Apr 3, 2008)

chrisboy101 said:


> wen u have a shelf full of hundreds of mantids how do feed them all? do u do it individualy, or have a certain way of making it easier?christian


a right pain in my butt!i fill up a tube with about 500 fruit flies..thats a site seeing the tube full and all u see is lots and lots of red eyes. :lol: i then open each cup and tap a few flys in,this is why i dont separate any of my nymphs untill at least L2 or L3..


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 3, 2008)

It's hard, I have thousands and it takes 5 hrs to feed em, I hired help, but i do it better alone, I like to see each one and not how they are doing and with help you can't do that. Got to learn to deligate and let go, I can't  help..... Sorry i digress. I still feed each one by hand, I pour in fruit flies with the help of the lids I made for my fruit fly cultures (see Bugatorium posts) , without the lids I would be in trouble, and I like to make sure the teens and adults get the cricket or worm. If feeding flies or moths, I don't worry about it, but crickets and worms are by hand, thats why it takes so long, there are no shortcuts in this game, it's dog eat dog or in our case, mantis eat cricket, cricket eat mantis!


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## macro junkie (Apr 3, 2008)

hibiscusmile said:


> It's hard, I have thousands and it takes 5 hrs to feed em, I hired help, but i do it better alone, I like to see each one and not how they are doing and with help you can't do that. Got to learn to deligate and let go, I can't  help..... Sorry i digress. I still feed each one by hand, I pour in fruit flies with the help of the lids I made for my fruit fly cultures (see Bugatorium posts) , without the lids I would be in trouble, and I like to make sure the teens and adults get the cricket or worm. If feeding flies or moths, I don't worry about it, but crickets and worms are by hand, thats why it takes so long, there are no shortcuts in this game, it's dog eat dog or in our case, mantis eat cricket, cricket eat mantis!


my god..and theres me thinking i have a job on my hands feeding 25 cups and a few net cages...1000s is just like,how do u cope?.takes u 5 hours..thats crazy.sounds like your very dedicated.how ofetn are u feeding the mantids..every day?


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## Rick (Apr 3, 2008)

I feed them every other day and depending on how many I have it can take awhile.


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## Malnra (Apr 3, 2008)

in addition to individual cups .. i have 2 large cups that have 3 in them and 2 of the large cricket keepers that have 5 in them. i overload with flys and crickets and hope. so far none has eaten the other and it has been this way for weeks .... i imagine all will have to be seperated soon ...

i wont ever feed them all by hand and i will always toss in more than 1 fly/cricket so that i can skip a day of feeding. i still look them over, but can skip the catch a meal and toss it in the container .... ;- )


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## chrisboy101 (Apr 4, 2008)

whoa :blink: , hibiscusmile u put a load of time into ure mantids


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 11, 2008)

Sorry for the late reply, I always go to "view new posts" but for some reason I miss a lot of them, I feed the teenagers every other day and most adults, unless there are mama's lurking. Babies get water and food every day. Mama's get most extras at night, when hubby sleeps off his dinner, and I finish the dinner dishes, I sneak in to listen to "Tony Evans from the Urban Alternative" on the radio and I usually give the moms something to tide them over till morning, I am partial to them, cause they are carrying a load :lol: . With the purchase of Mantis Place.com this is a full time job for me. Of course it was before, but now I gotta work whether I wanna or not. Take today, Today I had to do shipping, late cause the house flies wern't in yesterday like they were supposed to be,.... oh wait... cramp in right shoulder blade... :angry: i'm ok! So had to ship today what was waiting on flies, and one new customer wanted overnight with ups, so I had to feed babies, which takes over an hour just to water and throw in ffs, then run to post office for to see if flies are in, yep... back to Bugatorium, then to packing flies, look for quote online just to make sure all is well, then into Medina to UPS. Ups wants to charge 20.00 over the price I got online, run to drug store for brown craft paper and tape, repack flies in back of trunk, take back to UPS, and still ended up paying 20.00 more than the quote. So Paid that and came back to work. Had to go to the shop to drill holes in the cloth lids for some orders, and the drill press's drill got to hot and the inserts melted onto drill. Oh bother.... :angry: , Finally got it off and drilled 100 lids and for every 6 lids had to stop and pull the inserts off. Ouch, a lot of cussing could be going on, but I am a lady so I just strap my tool belt back on and go for it. Run back to Bugatorium and start packing at 1:45 pm. Got to post offic just as they were closing, good thing the young girl was there, the Postmistress would of threw me out if she was in today. Came back home and threw in some frozen something and some refried beans I made yesterday and a salad, had dinner, did dishes and went back in to feed. Also the wax worms are really taking off, had to rehouse some of them tonight, and hope the screen I put on holds them in. The wax worms are laying babies or I should say the moths are, it is really neat watching them...  but I digress. Just got done feeding them at 10:30. Now for the emails and to see what my friends are doing at the forum. wheee...wheezzz... had to catch my breath in my fingers, cause they are cramping :lol: . Ok, I'm done! Opps forgot I got clothes in the washer, must go dry them now, a lot of changes from working with stinky flies...must change clothes again, three different shirts today alone! Don't ask! &lt;_&lt;


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## MantidLord (Apr 11, 2008)

hibiscusmile said:


> Sorry for the late reply, I always go to "view new posts" but for some reason I miss a lot of them, I feed the teenagers every other day and most adults, unless there are mama's lurking. Babies get water and food every day. Mama's get most extras at night, when hubby sleeps off his dinner, and I finish the dinner dishes, I sneak in to listen to "Tony Evans from the Urban Alternative" on the radio and I usually give the moms something to tide them over till morning, I am partial to them, cause they are carrying a load :lol: . With the purchase of Mantis Place.com this is a full time job for me. Of course it was before, but now I gotta work whether I wanna or not. Take today, Today I had to do shipping, late cause the house flies wern't in yesterday like they were supposed to be,.... oh wait... cramp in right shoulder blade... :angry: i'm ok! So had to ship today what was waiting on flies, and one new customer wanted overnight with ups, so I had to feed babies, which takes over an hour just to water and throw in ffs, then run to post office for to see if flies are in, yep... back to Bugatorium, then to packing flies, look for quote online just to make sure all is well, then into Medina to UPS. Ups wants to charge 20.00 over the price I got online, run to drug store for brown craft paper and tape, repack flies in back of trunk, take back to UPS, and still ended up paying 20.00 more than the quote. So Paid that and came back to work. Had to go to the shop to drill holes in the cloth lids for some orders, and the drill press's drill got to hot and the inserts melted onto drill. Oh bother.... :angry: , Finally got it off and drilled 100 lids and for every 6 lids had to stop and pull the inserts off. Ouch, a lot of cussing could be going on, but I am a lady so I just strap my tool belt back on and go for it. Run back to Bugatorium and start packing at 1:45 pm. Got to post offic just as they were closing, good thing the young girl was there, the Postmistress would of threw me out if she was in today. Came back home and threw in some frozen something and some refried beans I made yesterday and a salad, had dinner, did dishes and went back in to feed. Also the wax worms are really taking off, had to rehouse some of them tonight, and hope the screen I put on holds them in. The wax worms are laying babies or I should say the moths are, it is really neat watching them...  but I digress. Just got done feeding them at 10:30. Now for the emails and to see what my friends are doing at the forum. wheee...wheezzz... had to catch my breath in my fingers, cause they are cramping :lol: . Ok, I'm done! Opps forgot I got clothes in the washer, must go dry them now, a lot of changes from working with stinky flies...must change clothes again, three different shirts today alone! Don't ask! &lt;_&lt;


 :blink: :blink: My goodness. I don't know what to say...


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## darkspeed (Apr 11, 2008)

hibiscusmile said:


> Sorry for the late reply, I always go to "view new posts" but for some reason I miss a lot of them, I feed the teenagers every other day and most adults, unless there are mama's lurking. Babies get water and food every day. Mama's get most extras at night, when hubby sleeps off his dinner, and I finish the dinner dishes, I sneak in to listen to "Tony Evans from the Urban Alternative" on the radio and I usually give the moms something to tide them over till morning, I am partial to them, cause they are carrying a load :lol: . With the purchase of Mantis Place.com this is a full time job for me. Of course it was before, but now I gotta work whether I wanna or not. Take today, Today I had to do shipping, late cause the house flies wern't in yesterday like they were supposed to be,.... oh wait... cramp in right shoulder blade... :angry: i'm ok! So had to ship today what was waiting on flies, and one new customer wanted overnight with ups, so I had to feed babies, which takes over an hour just to water and throw in ffs, then run to post office for to see if flies are in, yep... back to Bugatorium, then to packing flies, look for quote online just to make sure all is well, then into Medina to UPS. Ups wants to charge 20.00 over the price I got online, run to drug store for brown craft paper and tape, repack flies in back of trunk, take back to UPS, and still ended up paying 20.00 more than the quote. So Paid that and came back to work. Had to go to the shop to drill holes in the cloth lids for some orders, and the drill press's drill got to hot and the inserts melted onto drill. Oh bother.... :angry: , Finally got it off and drilled 100 lids and for every 6 lids had to stop and pull the inserts off. Ouch, a lot of cussing could be going on, but I am a lady so I just strap my tool belt back on and go for it. Run back to Bugatorium and start packing at 1:45 pm. Got to post offic just as they were closing, good thing the young girl was there, the Postmistress would of threw me out if she was in today. Came back home and threw in some frozen something and some refried beans I made yesterday and a salad, had dinner, did dishes and went back in to feed. Also the wax worms are really taking off, had to rehouse some of them tonight, and hope the screen I put on holds them in. The wax worms are laying babies or I should say the moths are, it is really neat watching them...  but I digress. Just got done feeding them at 10:30. Now for the emails and to see what my friends are doing at the forum. wheee...wheezzz... had to catch my breath in my fingers, cause they are cramping :lol: . Ok, I'm done! Opps forgot I got clothes in the washer, must go dry them now, a lot of changes from working with stinky flies...must change clothes again, three different shirts today alone! Don't ask! &lt;_&lt;


WOW... just wow


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