# Mantis auto feeder



## gadunka888 (May 8, 2009)

Here is a mantis feeder that feeds mantis nymphs mosquiotes. Zoom in if you can't read the notes.( if there r any fatal errors, tell me.)i think i wrote carbon dioxide wrongly.


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## jameslongo (May 8, 2009)

Would you mind explaining your design, Gadunka? Is the yeast used to attract the mosquitoes? How will you retain the warmth of the water?

Also, I think the nymphs may be able to fit through the gauze if the holes are big enough for mozzies to crawl through &amp; they themselves are small enough. They shouldn't be able to get out of the container should they do this, but they may fall into the cup.

Vinegar flies (_Drosophila sp._) are probably the way to go if you wanna create an auto-feeder for your mantids but you should check out previous posts for more info on that.

James.

P.S. Write the '2' of carbon dioxide in subscript. Superscript indicates charge.


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## PhilinYuma (May 8, 2009)

Cool idea, presumably based on the fact that mosquitos are attracted to mammals by the carbon dioxide that they exhale. It's also a very smart idea to let a little time go by before building something that is completely new, and to ask for other's opinions.

Let's suppose that there are enough mosquitos in the air in your 8th floor apartment in Singapore, to provide a steady supply of food for the mantids and that your yeast solution creates CO2 (sorry, James!) for 12 - 24 hours.

1)The mosquitos will fly into the enclosure where they will be killed in the CO2 rich atmosphere (that's how mosquito traps in places like Florida work).

2)Those, if any, that survive won't go into the mantis side of the enclosure because the CO2 concentration is lower there.

3)There is a good chance that there will be enough CO2 in the enclosure to kill your nymphs.

So back to the drawing board, but don't give up!


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## gadunka888 (May 8, 2009)

Ok thanks for the feedback.  I m working on a fedder that feeds an adult hierodula spp. with cockroaches. blueprint coming soon!


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## jameslongo (May 8, 2009)

Give me a bit more credit than that Phil! I use yeast in experiments all the time! But mosquitoes attraction to CO2 is new to me.


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## PhilinYuma (May 8, 2009)

jameslongo said:


> Give me a bit more credit than that Phil! I use yeast in experiments all the time! But mosquitoes attraction to CO2 is new to me.


No, no James! I added the _pace _because I didn't add the "2" as a subscript! lol!

As you probably do know, expired air contains about 4% CO2 and that's what attracts the little buggers. In Florida, which boasts around 75 species of mosquito, half of which like to bite, you can waste hundreds of dollars on carbon dioxide traps which attract and kill with the gas. They work perfectly well, but they just don't attract over a sufficiently large area to be very useful.

SWAT!


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## gadunka888 (May 8, 2009)

Here is a feeder for a large mantis( hierodula spp.) It feeds the mantis cockroaches.


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## mantidian (May 9, 2009)

I think it'll attract ants and fruit flies/flies though.

I'm not sure about cockroachs as they usually come out at night and the mantis wouldn't be able to see them.

and where are you gonna put the set-up?( next to a garbage dump?)


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## The_Asa (May 9, 2009)

All these self feeder ideas have never really worked...presumably even if they did, it really takes just as much effort. Very creative though! Love the Co2 idea


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## jameslongo (May 9, 2009)

Probably not the best idea for an auto-feeder. Maybe you should think about making a culture of flies/crickets/roaches &amp; linking the mantid enclosure to the breeder via a plastic tube during feeding time, then you put a foam-stopper in the holes of each enclosure when you're done to prevent escapees.

The two-in-one idea, like Mantidian &amp; Asa said, is a lot of work &amp; not really rewarding.

Forgive me, Phil. It's very rare that I can unleash my chem knowledge onto someone, since Olga wants to hear nothing of it &lt;_&lt; 

Also: Gadunka, why didn't you draw the mantis?


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## gadunka888 (May 9, 2009)

Im not good at drawing mantises  I also don't have any mantises


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## jameslongo (May 9, 2009)

Nightlurker said:


> Im not good at drawing mantises  I also don't have any mantises


He's a witch! Heretic! Burn him at the stake!  Jokes man

Are you going to get one soon? You're making an auto-feeder for an imaginary mantis?


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## mantidian (May 9, 2009)

jameslongo said:


> He's a witch! Heretic! Burn him at the stake!  Jokes manAre you going to get one soon? You're making an auto-feeder for an imaginary mantis?


LOL

I think he's getting one from the wild


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## Zephyr (May 9, 2009)

I think dumping the feeders into the mantid's environment with a source of food is really all you need to do... lol


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## jameslongo (May 9, 2009)

Zephyr said:


> I think dumping the feeders into the mantid's environment with a source of food is really all you need to do... lol


once again, ants are going to overrun that thing if you leave it outside. N ants aren't too nutritional (formic = ants). You have to control the environment so that it doesn't go to waste.


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## gadunka888 (May 9, 2009)

jameslongo said:


> He's a witch! Heretic! Burn him at the stake!  Jokes manAre you going to get one soon? You're making an auto-feeder for an imaginary mantis?


yeah i probably will get a mantis soon. ( argghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! pet shops in singapore never seem to sell non- feeder insects. )


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## Katnapper (May 9, 2009)

Nightlurker said:


> yeah i probably will get a mantis soon. ( argghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! pet shops in singapore never seem to sell non- feeder insects. )


Some people here sell ooths and will send overseas.  Just look in the Classifieds section.


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## Rick (May 10, 2009)

I like your ideas but I am not sure about how practical they are going to be. One of the biggest chores about mantids is feeding and I can see why people want to try to find a way to make it easier. You're going to attract fruit flies over mosquitos I believe. They are attracted to CO2 but that is when breathed out of another animal.


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## massaman (May 10, 2009)

I have a easier solution maybe take 2 of those 32 oz or such cups or tubs and some rubber tubing or surgical tubing and stick one end into the tub with fruit flies and the other into the mantid container and maybe that could work and can always clip off the tubing from the mantids side when refilling fruit flies!


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## PhilinYuma (May 10, 2009)

Rick said:


> I like your ideas but I am not sure about how practical they are going to be. One of the biggest chores about mantids is feeding and I can see why people want to try to find a way to make it easier. You're going to attract fruit flies over mosquitos I believe. They are attracted to CO2 but that is when breathed out of another animal.


O.K. Nightlurker. It must be hard to be fascinated by mantids and read about other's pets and not have any of your own!

Have you contacted any other mambers on the forum who are from Singapore? There are a number. I think that I posted some in another thread. Search "Singapore" in the search engine and P.M. some, and see about getting you a mantis, or eight!

I think that your ingenious plans gained traction from the fact that many of us did the same sort of thing when we were kids. Providing food for your mantids is perhaps the most important part of mantis care. Even if you invent a really effective trap it won't provide you with a guaranteed supply of food. Nymphs, for example should be getting more fruit flies than they can eat every day.

Start learning how to raise fruit flies now, before you get any mantids! Ther's a "sticky" in the subject, and that will get you in business, quite aside from the hundreds of posts on the subject on this forum. If you don't have access to cultured ones, attract them with a pice of bread sprinked with vinegar, placed them in a jar. Wild fruit flies are much "tougher" than the mutated kinds, and more "fecund" as Mija says.

If you can't crickets, get roaches, one of the small "household pest" kinds, and start keeping them in a shoe box. Again, there is a Lot of information here on the forum.

Good luck to you! And let us know how you succeed!


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## gadunka888 (May 10, 2009)

um......

I m below the age limit 4 the ''meeting up with online friends'' thing so i guess i have to catch the mantids myself  

my parents won't alow me to provide my adress .


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## nasty bugger (May 10, 2009)

I am building a 'planted aquarium tank' that is mainly comprised of plants, and fish secondly. I well supplement the plants with CO2 for plant feeding. I suppose if one were to build a bamboo enclosure that would also serve as a lid/top for the aquarium, the the CO2 could come through the bamboo enclosure and lure skeeters into or around it.

I dont' know how available bamboo is where you are, but it's an idea.

A tube from you fermenter that goes into a diffuser, through a screen to break it into fine bubbles and disperse into the water, may be the biggest obstacle. Maybe even keep some kind of water fauna in the aquarium, under the mantis enclosure. If you had an air bubbler in the aquarium, under the mantis enclosure, you may even get enough water splashing up in fine bubbles to water the mantis sufficiently, maybe even efficiently... If one could get a solar panel or something that powered the pump for aeration. I would imagine that since mosquitos enjoy moist areas, that if one kept a plant around the enclosure that it would also benefit from the carbon dioxide, and provide a moist area for the skeeters to hang and, oh joy, breed new skeeters to bite and eat your neighbors alive.

I think fruit flies are probably your best bet also, but you seem to have a supply of mosquitos, and want to put them to good use. You could make a small fish pond, where they'll go to breed, but doubtful your neighbors or family will have the same joy from it as you will  but you never know...


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## PhilinYuma (May 10, 2009)

Nightlurker said:


> um......I m below the age limit 4 the ''meeting up with online friends'' thing so i guess i have to catch the mantids myself
> 
> my parents won't alow me to provide my adress .


What a bummer! But don't give up yet! Can yr mom or dad receive mail where they work? Perhaps a seller could send them there! If not, and you have a neighbor whose parents would be prepared to receive it, you could try that. You might also want to find out how much it would cost to rent a P.O. box (if Singapore has such a thing), for just long enough to receive yr package. Or how about..well that's enough to get you started.  

And of course, if you trust the seller, you can always pay by cash in an envelope, A number of sellers do that here to avoid PayPal fees.


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## PhilinYuma (May 10, 2009)

"I dont' know how available bamboo is where you are, but it's an idea."

Lots of bamboo in Singapore, NB! It's like saguaro around here! When I was last in Singapore (long ago), American , Japanese and European interests had started pushing for the change from bamboo scaffolding to steel. The bamboo is lighter, stronger , cheaper and much more wind resistant, but let's not stand in the path of progress!

Here you go; that's bamboo!

http://www.boonebaxter.com/photogallery/as...06/DSC00034.JPG


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## mantidian (May 11, 2009)

nightlurker, I can send you a budwing ooth (when it is ready) for free.

but the problem is how will I pass it to you?


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## d17oug18 (May 24, 2009)

i dont know if you look at this thread but i have an idea change for your mosiquito auto feeder idea... ill try my best to type it instead of draw it:

Say you have an aquarium, now on the left is covered only by mesh big enough to let the insects threw, so well say that theres a hole on top and then maybe 1/2" of room, that way we dont take up alot of room.

Now the mass of the tank will be the center, for the nymph mantis', the mesh from the center to the middle has to be small enough so the nymph cant escape.

Ok, a third enclosure at the end, only open with like cheese clothe or something that will let air through but no bug, this hides the third area with your CO2 containment, with a very VERY small air tube for a little bit of ventilation coming out the right side of your aquarium, now you have a trap that almost gauratees that the bugs have to come threw the first hole to get to the CO2 in which they will be forced to pass by the hungry nymphs as a dead end.

what do you guys think? will that idea work? if you MUST see a picture i can make one if you cant visualize my explaination.


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## agent A (May 30, 2009)

I think mosquitos are great mantis food.


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## MingMing (May 30, 2009)

jameslongo said:


> He's a witch! Heretic! Burn him at the stake!  Jokes manAre you going to get one soon? You're making an auto-feeder for an imaginary mantis?


HAHAHA, hey im also trying to build and automatic feeder :S ill post pics if it ever gets to work lol



agent A said:


> I think mosquitos are great mantis food.


Like normal blood drinker mosquitos?...


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