# Incubating ghost and spiny flower Ooths for the first time



## omar morsy (Dec 17, 2018)

Hey folks,

I just received a shipment of Ooths!!!!

I had them express shipped to my home. It’s sub zero weather where I live. I have no idea how the shipping was handled but upon receiving them I did feel that the viles they were in were a bit cold to the touch.

..... God I hope it wasn’t too cold...anyways... 

This is the first time that I incubate an Ootheca. They are two Spiny flower Mantis Ootheca and a Ghost ootheca. 

I hotglued the sticks they are attached to to the vented lids of my 32 ounce cups. I then misted my substrate and placed that in my 32 ounce cups.

im keeping the room at 77 degrees farenheit.

i also am culturing flightless fruit flies. 4 jars to be exact.

Does this all sound good? I’m confident they did not freeze since it was door to door but it was not overnight shipping dispite the expensive express shipping.

 Any advice is more than welcome!!!


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## hysteresis (Dec 17, 2018)

Wow. Youre going all-in!

That's a LOT of flies tho. LoL. I bought one hydei culture and it has hundreds in it.

I have a european ooth in diapause and have never before seen a hatching.

When the spinys hatch and if you're sellin', I'm buying...


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## omar morsy (Dec 17, 2018)

Lol is it too much flies?!

Would rather have too much thn not enough  

ill keep you all posted

so much fun!


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## hysteresis (Dec 17, 2018)

Dude, you'll have THOUSANDS with four cultures. I almost bought two for my three Mio nymphs. Glad I didn't.  I have the two Rhombos now too, and they can't eat off one to exhaust it. The culture will die off full of Hydei.

Mind you, an ooth hatch is a lot of mouths to feed. You're in for HOURS of work per day with three ooths.


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## omar morsy (Dec 17, 2018)

Well I guess I’ve just put my ignorance on display. LOL!!!

aaaaaaaand this is how we learn.

Lets just hope they do hatch! I’m just worried they won’t. It was cold out there


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## hysteresis (Dec 17, 2018)

Dude, ive heard that ooths are hit and miss. Say youre buying from someone on here that is known to post about their mantid couplings, any ooths from that coupling will be fertile. If kept correctly etc. you should have a hatch.

Same applies for online outfits that _rely _on their rep.

If youre buyimg ooths from someone without a forum rep, how do you know?

Unmated females still produce ooths. I wont know my M. religiosa ooth is fertile until I try to incubate. LoL. My Lola was wild caught. Maybe she was chaste. LoL.


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## omar morsy (Dec 17, 2018)

I purchased the Ooth from someone very reputable, im confident they are fertile. What I'm not so confident about is how the shipping was handled. I dont know how cold these ooths were on Saturday and Sunday. Again Im confident they are fertile. If Ooth were exposed to temperatures between 50 to 60 Fahrenheit for a few days, will they die? These temperatures are a guess, I would assume they were kept in storage in Montreal. 

That right now is my only concern, not worried about its fertility or how many flies I'm cultivating.


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## hysteresis (Dec 17, 2018)

omar morsy said:


> I purchased the Ooth from someone very reputable, im confident they are fertile.


That's perfect. That's exactly how I'd want it.



omar morsy said:


> What I'm not so confident about is how the shipping was handled. I dont know how cold these ooths were on Saturday and Sunday. Again Im confident they are fertile. If Ooth were exposed to temperatures between 50 to 60 Fahrenheit for a few days, will they die?


Dont guess. Look up some care sheets. Google your genus and species and add the term diapause.

If they dont require diapause, then they probably wont like a deep freeze. Temps in the GTA are currently fairly good.

Did they ship with a heat pack?


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## omar morsy (Dec 18, 2018)

No heat pack, we did not want it detected at the border. 

A gamble we had to take.


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## MantisGirl13 (Dec 18, 2018)

You are doing a great job! Mist the ooth directly once every day or every other day and keep it at the temp you have it at. I have to agree with @hysteresis, you did go a little bit overboard on the flies... One or two cultures would have done the job!!

- MantisGirl13


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## omar morsy (Dec 18, 2018)

Ah I didn’t know I should mist the ooth directly. I was worried about it growing fungus or something.

i will do that now actually

i think with the flies I was just terrified of having hungry babies I can’t feed.

Have I bitten more than I can chew? 

.......probably!


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## hysteresis (Dec 18, 2018)

@omar morsy

Good reptile stores carry D. melanogaster and D. hydei cultures.

Ten to fifteen bucks ea. in the GTA.

They also carry all sizes of crickets (be careful and google the perils of crickets and freshly molted mantids, as well as poor cricket health), larger fly pupae, springtails, etc.

Ive found GTA dubia roach breeders on kijiji.ca. I'm sure you'll have no issues with feeders in MTL.


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## omar morsy (Dec 18, 2018)

Yeah but here’s the problem.

i live in Montreal!

of all the pet shops we have here, there was only 1 place that sells fruit flies. Just one place. Everywhere else is crickets and mealworms. We all know nymphs can’t do crickets and mealworms. And that 1 place only had 1 fruit fly culture left. So I purchased that culture and seeded as many jars as I could. So that in 4 to 6 weeks when/if my Ooths hatch I have enough food for all the babies.

if I hve way too many fruit flies, I’ll just place a few jars in the fridge.


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## hysteresis (Dec 18, 2018)

omar morsy said:


> Yeah but here’s the problem.
> 
> i live in Montreal!


Check Kijiji, brother.


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## omar morsy (Dec 18, 2018)

I just did for greater are of Montreal. The only hit I found was some guy selling dart frogs. 

If he has dart frogs thn he’s got fruit flies.

Good to know.


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## hysteresis (Dec 18, 2018)

omar morsy said:


> I just did for greater are of Montreal. The only hit I found was some guy selling dart frogs.
> 
> If he has dart frogs thn he’s got fruit flies.
> 
> Good to know.


Integrated exotics,

Look for small privately owned reptile stores.


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## omar morsy (Dec 18, 2018)

I freakin love this forum!

Thank you


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## MantisGirl13 (Dec 19, 2018)

omar morsy said:


> I freakin love this forum


We all do!!

- MantisGirl13


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## Graceface (Dec 19, 2018)

MantisGirl13 said:


> We all do!!
> 
> - MantisGirl13


Fact!


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## Cole 78 (Dec 19, 2018)

MantisGirl13 said:


> You are doing a great job! Mist the ooth directly once every day or every other day and keep it at the temp you have it at. I have to agree with @hysteresis, you did go a little bit overboard on the flies... One or two cultures would have done the job!!
> 
> - MantisGirl13


Really? I’ve read multiple caresheets on this forum by very experienced members who directly state not to most directly. But you have hatched multiple ooths, so I will take your advice


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## MantisGirl13 (Dec 22, 2018)

Cole 78 said:


> Really? I’ve read multiple caresheets on this forum by very experienced members who directly state not to most directly. But you have hatched multiple ooths, so I will take your advice


I have found that misting the ooth directly softens it a bit so that it is more likely to hatch. 

- MantisGirl13


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## omar morsy (Dec 22, 2018)

Maybe mist the substrate whenever it’s completely dry (almost every day) and every 2nd or 3rd day mist the ooth itself?

should I be misting both the substrate AND the ooth? Won’t it be too much? I worry about rot.


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## MantisGirl13 (Dec 22, 2018)

omar morsy said:


> Maybe mist the substrate whenever it’s completely dry (almost every day) and every 2nd or 3rd day mist the ooth itself?
> 
> should I be misting both the substrate AND the ooth? Won’t it be too much? I worry about rot.


Good idea. You don't want to have too much moisture so don't mist the substrate too often.

- MantisGirl12


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