# How many houseflies for L4 Ghost?



## brytewolf (Apr 22, 2022)

I just recently got my first set of mantids from mantidkingdom, 3 little ghosts. My leaf friends are a female L3 and 2 what I believe are males at L4 (they are both the same size, bigger than my little girl). The female, Demona, is getting fruit flies cause she's got a damaged raptorial and can't quite grip very well at the moment (and I need to do something with the rest of the fruit fly culture I got xD). Demona is pretty easy, I just keep offering her tweezer fruit flies until she starts pushing them away xD (she actually caught one by herself last feeding, I'm so proud of her!!!). The boys got several fruit flies for their first couple feedings, and this last one they got a single house fly each. 

My question is, is one house fly every two-three days enough for the boys? Or should I be giving them a couple at once? As I said, these are my first, so I've not got a real sense of "their abdomens are plump enough, time to finish feeding". I also need to know ahead of time how many pupae to hatch out for them. I have them both in the Exo Terra Nano Tall (8x8x12), so the enclosure is too big to just toss some flies in and let them keep themselves plump. I've been moving them to the deli containers they shipped in for feeding time, which so far has worked really well.

Pictures of the boys in their feeding tubs for your pleasure (also confirmation they are indeed L4s, and, you know, boys, would be appreciated xD)


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## The Wolven (Apr 22, 2022)

For males yeah one housefly every few days is enough. As the females get to L4, they’ll probably want 1 1/2-2. Depends on how full they are. Typically my females just throw their food on the floor when they’re full.


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## brytewolf (Apr 22, 2022)

The Wolven said:


> For males yeah one housefly every few days is enough. As the females get to L4, they’ll probably want 1 1/2-2. Depends on how full they are. Typically my females just throw their food on the floor when they’re full.



Thank you! I'll keep going as is for the boys then. And yeah, Demona definitely let's you know she's done lol. I'll probably hatch out a couple for her when she finishes her next molt. Hopefully her arm will be fixed then, and I won't have to hand feed her at that point.


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## agent A (Apr 29, 2022)

I generally give each nymph 2-3 houseflies every 4 days. Sometimes they eat more than other times. I wouldn't worry as much about how little to feed males. This species sometimes have 1 fewer molts as males, sometimes 7 like the females. It's odd


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## The Wolven (Apr 29, 2022)

agent A said:


> I generally give each nymph 2-3 houseflies every 4 days. Sometimes they eat more than other times. I wouldn't worry as much about how little to feed males. This species sometimes have 1 fewer molts as males, sometimes 7 like the females. It's odd


Mantises are weird in general. You learn not to question it.


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## brytewolf (Apr 29, 2022)

agent A said:


> I generally give each nymph 2-3 houseflies every 4 days. Sometimes they eat more than other times. I wouldn't worry as much about how little to feed males. This species sometimes have 1 fewer molts as males, sometimes 7 like the females. It's odd


At the rate the fly pupae are hatching, they're getting fed about every 4 days at this point. I put 4/5 in the hatching tub just so I make sure at least two hatch. I can definitely just toss two in for each boyo with no issues. Thank you!

I'm always one to prefer odd, though I do wish they'd be a bit more sensible until I get the hang of things lol!


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