# does feeding wasps/hornets/honey bees put mantis at risk?



## vafan13 (Sep 24, 2008)

Wasps, hornets and honey bees are in large supply around my home and the (fully grown Chinese) mantis seems to love them. Is there any real chance of them stinging and killing the mantis? I'd rather find something else than have him killed by his food.


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## Birdfly (Sep 24, 2008)

In 30 years of mantid keeping/breeding i've never had a wasp or bee come even close to hurting a mantis, i've watched wasps eaten abdomen first, their stings just stabbing away and bouncing/sliding to one side of the mantids face until it is grabbed and munched. Hornets are protected in the uk and bees (bumble and honey) are on the decline. It might be ok to feed the odd one if you are low on food for them but you are probably best of sticking to the foods you can rear/buy/keep/breed yourself.

Most mantids specialize in pollinating insects and have fed on them for millions of years, they know how to deal with large, potentially dangerous prey


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## Rick (Sep 24, 2008)

Doubtful. I have fed many a bee or wasp to mantids and have seen them eating them in the wild. If I were you I would not catch honeybees for food though. The honeybee population is in enough trouble.


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## vafan13 (Sep 24, 2008)

Rick said:


> Doubtful. I have fed many a bee or wasp to mantids and have seen them eating them in the wild. If I were you I would not catch honeybees for food though. The honeybee population is in enough trouble.


Alright, good to know. I usually stick to the hornets, he seems to have the most interest in those. Plus they build their nests all over our house and it's either feed them to the mantis or spray them.

Thanks for the info.


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## joossa (Sep 25, 2008)

Rick said:


> If I were you I would not catch honeybees for food though. The honeybee population is in enough trouble.


Amen!

I have never used hornets as mantid food. As long as the food item is not too big for the mantid, all will be well.


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## idolomantis (Sep 25, 2008)

No they aren't really dangerous.. My _ameles decolor_ ate one once.


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## yeatzee (Sep 26, 2008)

Naw, I feed wasps and bees when ever I can catch them, and have never had an issue. Infact my mantids love them so much they share....


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## hibiscusmile (Sep 26, 2008)

YUM


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## mr nick (Sep 26, 2008)

23yroldkid said:


> Wasps, hornets and honey bees are in large supply around my home and the (fully grown Chinese) mantis seems to love them. Is there any real chance of them stinging and killing the mantis? I'd rather find something else than have him killed by his food.


Ive used bee's and other pollen feeding insects for years with no problems,although now with the decline of the bee's i wouldnt bother..however,i once fed a huge bee to one of my large mantids (a rhombodera sp..) and it stung the mantid directly in the mouth! There was a lot of mouth cleaning and mouthpart moving,but then she just got on with it,ha,ha!


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## acerbity (Sep 26, 2008)

This post motivated me to grab my bug net and knock down that huge wasp nest at my front door!

I put gloves on and grabbed some tweezers and transferred them to a collapsible butterfly net thing.

The nest itself I had a lot of fun with. I pulled all the larvae out and have them in a tupperware. My only large mantis at the moment is about to shed, and the smaller ones are too small for the larvae even (Adult P. vicerens and Otomantis sp.)

I'm wondering if the wasp larvae are safe to feed to my crested geckos? I'm about 90% sure they'd be harmless, but I wont take risks with those like I might with a mantis.

It looked sort of like these guys.


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## Rick (Sep 26, 2008)

A month or so ago I caught a very large cicada killer and my female shield mantis enjoyed it.


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## revmdn (Nov 30, 2008)

So, I assume that the venem from other insects / spiders is safe for mantids to injest. Is there any insect that is not safe as food, as long as we are not talking about correct size or being too soon after molting?


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## The_Asa (Dec 1, 2008)

Something of an old topic but...the only food item I can really see as being problematic would be hornets (they can bite) and anything larger than the mantis itself.


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