# Limited food source in my country



## Eldur (Aug 24, 2009)

I have some Chinese Mantises but in my country we have very limited amount of live food. Actually, I could only buy mealworms and maby superworms if I am lucky. We used to have crickets but I have not seen them in any store for a long long time nor do I know a breeder, because of the currency we have it is very expensive to import anything and I think we still have import restrictions and that is why the petstores don´t import insects any more. So I have very limited live foods.

What I can get now is:

Mealworms,

Superworms,

Fruitflies (1 kind, not sure which one, only one breeder who has very few of them but will have many soon I hope) and

one breeder of Candyds but he hasn´t had any baby candyds yet.

And in the summer I catch houseflys, BB´s, bees if I find any, slim flies with long legs and one type of fly that looks kind of like a wasp but is not a wasp.

I have to find a better food source than mealworms, I am breeding them and have plenty but I am afraid that it will not be good enough.

So because of poor selection of food I have to breed the feeder animals. I will start to breed the superworms soon but not sure if that is enough.

*What would you reccomend? What do I need to breed to have good enough food for a few mantises?*

Is there any one insect I should try to get to the country or catch outside before the winder comes?

The sound of flies kind of disgust me, so I thought breeding flies was not possible for me??


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## PhilinYuma (Aug 24, 2009)

Sachiko said:


> I have some Chinese Mantises but in my country we have very limited amount of live food. Actually, I could only buy mealworms and maby superworms if I am lucky. We used to have crickets but I have not seen them in any store for a long long time nor do I know a breeder, because of the currency we have it is very expensive to import anything and I think we still have import restrictions and that is why the petstores don´t import insects any more. So I have very limited live foods.What I can get now is:
> 
> Mealworms,
> 
> ...


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## inferno (Aug 24, 2009)

thats crazy is the iceland currency not worth anything?


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## Katnapper (Aug 24, 2009)

Even though it is likely a stinky prospect, I would recommend catching and trying to breed houseflies or the larger blue or green bottle flies. Any type of fly that has a reasonable amount of "meat" would be worthwhile to try to breed. I believe flies are a much better food source than mealworms or superwoms.

You could also try breeding moths; but they there is a much longer turnaround time to breed and get the adult feeder moths.

I'm not sure what else to suggest... but I sympathize with your plight, and wish you the best in finding a reasonable and viable option.


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## PhilinYuma (Aug 24, 2009)

You really do have a problem. Last time I looked the rate was something like $1.00 to 130 krona, so you couldn't really afford to import even if your customs allows it.

What are "candyds"?  

If you have to use fruit flies, try dropping a few in some honey and feeding them on a toothpick, but I would think that your mantids will soon be too big for such tiny food, if they aren't already.

I think that your best bet would be to lay up as much wild live food as you can now, freeze it, and feed it to your mantids with forceps during the winter. You can save the meal worms as an occasional "treat." You might also want to defrost small frozen shrimp (the kind that we eat) and offer them on a piece of thread.

I know that cockroaches don't normally occur in Iceland, but could you get some that are in culture? They would be an excellent food, and if candyds = cockroaches, you're in business.

Maybe someone else will have a better idea....


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## hibiscusmile (Aug 25, 2009)

I would go with a small species that actually could live on hydei ffs. The bobenna or however that Abuggin has is a tiny mantis and the ant and boxers are small and could live off of them I think along with the occassional mealworm and whatever spiders you can find hanging around for the winter.


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## ismart (Aug 25, 2009)

You should really try and get some nice colonies of flies going. Blue bottle, green bottle, and house flies will all due just fine. This may seem digusting to you, but your mantids will really appreciate this.  You can look on the internet on how to keep each species of fly. You can also start a colony of roaches. Surely you can find those as well. There is even a roach forum for any questions you may have. You could also start your own cricket colony as well. Surely Iceland is not void of wild crickets? Or is it?


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## jameslongo (Aug 25, 2009)

Do you live by a lake or pond? I hear that chironomids (non-biting midges) are on the menu in Iceland. In this 'article' (and I can't stress the quotation marks enough), that it has been estimated that there is about 100,000 Chironnomidae islandicus larvae per one m² on Lake Myvatn.

Source: Iceland Insects

Good luck feeding them!


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## massaman (Aug 25, 2009)

or you can order fruit flies online or even regular flies or hissing roaches as feeder insects as there are plenty of sites that offer feeder insects


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## mythal (Aug 26, 2009)

Do you get fly larvae from fishing stores? Those buggers are quite popular as fishing bait and it is easy enough to grow flies out of them.


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## ABbuggin (Aug 27, 2009)

Would you be interested in lobster roaches? They are a great feeder food, and I use them when ever my bluebottle fly supply goes low for everything except my gongylus and empusa. First instar nymphs are about 4mm long, and the adults are about 25mm. I'll send you some free of charge (enough to get you really rolling along), you only need to pay shipping. They are very hardy, and I am very confident that they would survive the trip.


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## ABbuggin (Aug 27, 2009)

double post, sorry


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## Eldur (Aug 27, 2009)

ABbuggin said:


> Would you be interested in lobster roaches? They are a great feeder food, and I use them when ever my bluebottle fly supply goes low for everything except my gongylus and empusa. First instar nymphs are about 4mm long, and the adults are about 25mm. I'll send you some free of charge (enough to get you really rolling along), you only need to pay shipping. They are very hardy, and I am very confident that they would survive the trip.


Wow that is so kind of you,  I will send you a pm tomorrow night (see below)

I will post more tomorrow, I did write a very long answer earlier tonight with lot´s of quotes and everything but a moment before I clicked on "add reply" my laptop just turned off and I lost the whole post and my wireless internet stopped working. Now it is 4:30 in the morning and I have been sitting on the floor next to the router connected through a cabale and still can´t fix my internet. I must go to sleep and take the computer to a computer geek tomorrow to fix it but tomorrow night I will post again.


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## Katnapper (Aug 27, 2009)

What about Blue Bottle flies? I'll do the same... send you a box of maggots almost free for the price of shipping, if you're interested. Maybe you can then breed them on your own. PM me if you're interested.  

Becky


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## hibiscusmile (Aug 27, 2009)

The only problem with sending certain things there is the length of time and the customs catching them. Fruit flies probably would not make the trip, maggots will pupae along the way (castors) and will either die and stink, which will make the package suspicious or will be abuzz and will make the package suspicious. The roaches are the best bet, but they make a lot of noise as do beetles and will certainly be stopped also due to the suspicious noise coming from package.


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## Eldur (Aug 28, 2009)

Thank you all for your answers, they really mean alot to me.  



PhilinYuma said:


> You really do have a problem. Last time I looked the rate was something like $1.00 to 130 krona, so you couldn't really afford to import even if your customs allows it.What are "candyds"?
> 
> If you have to use fruit flies, try dropping a few in some honey and feeding them on a toothpick, but I would think that your mantids will soon be too big for such tiny food, if they aren't already.
> 
> ...


Sorry my spelling was all wrong, it is Katydids (Bush Crickets). So I will have them eventually but don´t know when, the first once in Iceland hatched 29.april 2009.



hibiscusmile said:


> I would go with a small species that actually could live on hydei ffs. The bobenna or however that Abuggin has is a tiny mantis and the ant and boxers are small and could live off of them I think along with the occassional mealworm and whatever spiders you can find hanging around for the winter.


Yes, we are interested in getting smaller mantises next time, but would like to keep the chinese one also if we can get some better food (which we will eventually).



ismart said:


> You should really try and get some nice colonies of flies going. Blue bottle, green bottle, and house flies will all due just fine. This may seem digusting to you, but your mantids will really appreciate this.  You can look on the internet on how to keep each species of fly. You can also start a colony of roaches. Surely you can find those as well. There is even a roach forum for any questions you may have. You could also start your own cricket colony as well. Surely Iceland is not void of wild crickets? Or is it?


Yes, my friend put out some old fish and has some maggots now. But I have to find a way to breed them, my better half is not keen either on breeding flies...but we will if we can´t get anything else..houseflies then. But we do not have any Crickets in the wild. Wish we did  



jameslongo said:


> Do you live by a lake or pond? I hear that chironomids (non-biting midges) are on the menu in Iceland. In this 'article' (and I can't stress the quotation marks enough), that it has been estimated that there is about 100,000 Chironnomidae islandicus larvae per one m² on Lake Myvatn.Source: Iceland Insects
> 
> Good luck feeding them!


I first saw this fly this summer here where I live. The place Myvatn is in the other part of the country, it will cost ALOT in gas and take at leas a day to drive to there and back so I do not know when I will be able to go there. Myvatn has the largest colony of flies in all Iceland, My in Myvatn means Midge  

But we don´t have any ponds in my town....but even so, I could not get the flies in the winter which I need.



massaman said:


> or you can order fruit flies online or even regular flies or hissing roaches as feeder insects as there are plenty of sites that offer feeder insects


Yes, but it is difficult to get them through customs, will need the seller to do special things to get them through and I don´t think pestores are willing. And then the animal would need to live the trip...which is not any speacies.



Katnapper said:


> What about Blue Bottle flies? I'll do the same... send you a box of maggots almost free for the price of shipping, if you're interested. Maybe you can then breed them on your own. PM me if you're interested.  Becky


Thank you very much for that but we have blue bottle flies but there is no chance at all that my husband will let me have those in the house....I have already asked.



hibiscusmile said:


> The only problem with sending certain things there is the length of time and the customs catching them. Fruit flies probably would not make the trip, maggots will pupae along the way (castors) and will either die and stink, which will make the package suspicious or will be abuzz and will make the package suspicious. The roaches are the best bet, but they make a lot of noise as do beetles and will certainly be stopped also due to the suspicious noise coming from package.


Yes, I think roaches is the way to go....am talking to ABbuggin about it right now  

We only have one kind of roaches in one remote place in Iceland, in a old military base from american army, but now it is a camp for a collage/universitiy.....and I doubt that the people who live there would let me crawl around their apartments looking for one :lol: besides, my husband would definetly forbid me to bring them home, it´s the kind that lives easily in houses.


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