# Crickets Help!!!!!



## beginner entomologist (Jan 11, 2010)

Hey guys,

I thought I'd pick some crickets up at my LPS to feed to my mantids. Just to make sure that they would be all right I decided to only feed one of my mantids (Native one) a cricket and see how it went. Well, this morning when I checked on it, my mantis was dead and had many little chew marks on him.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? I know that I've made a bad beginner move.


----------



## ZoeRipper (Jan 11, 2010)

Oh wow. How big was the cricket versus mantis?

I myself prefer not to use crickets as feeders, simply because they're mean.

They ate my friend's frog.


----------



## agent A (Jan 11, 2010)

It's happened to me. I had a healthy Hierodula, put a buch of crickets in, few days later they ate her. I'm still suspicious of how she was down long enough to be chewed up and killed :huh: :angry: &lt;_&lt; :mellow:


----------



## beginner entomologist (Jan 11, 2010)

So, should I stop feeding my mantises crickets?


----------



## Katnapper (Jan 11, 2010)

Usually crickets don't attack or eat mantids unless the mantis happens to be in some sort of compromised condition... molting at the time, sick or injured, or smaller than the cricket.

Was your mantis molting perhaps?


----------



## beginner entomologist (Jan 11, 2010)

I don't think he was molting.

I had just moved him to a bigger enclosure. Do you think that could have affected anything?


----------



## ismart (Jan 11, 2010)

beginner entomologist said:


> So, should I stop feeding my mantises crickets?


You don't need to stop feeding our mantids crickets, just when you do feed your mantids crickets if the the cricket is not eaten in 15 to 20 minutes remove it and try again tomorrow. Don't leave it in the mantids enclosure.


----------



## Katnapper (Jan 11, 2010)

beginner entomologist said:


> I don't think he was molting.I had just moved him to a bigger enclosure. Do you think that could have affected anything?


I wouldn't think so. At what instar (if you know, or approximately) was your mantis? Was it a small nymph, medium, adult? Had it not been eating for a few days previous to this happening (can signify an impending molt). Crickets will take advantage of any weakness of a mantis if they can. But there must have been something in the cricket's favor for it to attack and kill a mantis. Another possibility is the mantis died of unknown causes and the cricket then decided to have a free snack.


----------



## Krissim Klaw (Jan 11, 2010)

ismart said:


> You don't need to stop feeding our mantids crickets, just when you do feed your mantids crickets if the the cricket is not eaten in 15 to 20 minutes remove it and try again tomorrow. Don't leave it in the mantids enclosure.


This. I feed crickets to my mantises all the time and have never had a problem with them injuring one of my mantises. Another suggestion would be to make sure the crickets are always well fed and are getting a food with a nice protein source, not just veggies. Like most predators they are far less pesky when they are fat and full little buggars.


----------



## hogosha (Jan 11, 2010)

Krissim Klaw said:


> This. I feed crickets to my mantises all the time and have never had a problem with them injuring one of my mantises. Another suggestion would be to make sure the crickets are always well fed and are getting a food with a nice protein source, not just veggies. Like most predators they are far less pesky when they are fat and full little buggars.


+1

A starving cricket will try and chew on anything. Keep your feeders well fed and they will be less likely to be aggressive to the mantids.


----------



## Katnapper (Jan 11, 2010)

Krissim Klaw said:


> This. I feed crickets to my mantises all the time and have never had a problem with them injuring one of my mantises. Another suggestion would be to make sure the crickets are always well fed and are getting a food with a nice protein source, not just veggies. Like most predators they are far less pesky when they are fat and full little buggars.


+2


----------



## JoeCapricorn (Jan 11, 2010)

I never throw a cricket in and leave it. Not because anything bad happened to me per say, but because I read about these cases where crickets could eat or bite pets.

What I do is I feed a single cricket at a time. If the mantis doesn't even notice it, I'll take the cricket out and try again later. If the mantis hasn't eaten for a while, sometimes I'll hand feed the cricket, but I haven't needed to do this since November when I had the adult Chinese mantises.

This past week I got 6 crickets and fed 4 of them to my L5 African mantises. Since feeding them, the only one that looks like he might need to be fed again soon (with flies, not crickets) is Fortune. I have 2 crickets left as well.

I might wait until they are L6 to feed them crickets again, or maybe see if I can find smaller crickets than the ones at Petco. I'm still concerned that even when I make sure the mantis takes the cricket, that the cricket might bite at his raptorial arms and cause an injury of sort. So, even if the mantis catches and successfully starts devouring the cricket, I make sure the cricket is not in a position to be able to bite.

I also have videos of each mantis' first cricket.

Meek:

 - Had the cricket in a locked position and ate it head first. If I ever feel that a cricket might pose some threat to my mantises with its mandibles, I would take the small forceps I have and squeeze its head while the mantis is feeding. I already know that they don't let go of their food very easily, which would help provide a counter force so I don't accidentally pull the cricket away (but sometimes I have to pull remaining food away so they don't over eat, did this with Kit and Angel for their first crickets and when I fed them house flies when they were L2 or L3 and realized that the flies were somewhat too big)


----------



## Rick (Jan 11, 2010)

Never had a cricket eat a mantis that I can recall. If crickets ate your mantis then something wasprobably wrong with the mantis allowing it to become food.


----------



## MantidLord (Jan 11, 2010)

Rick said:


> Never had a cricket eat a mantis that I can recall. If crickets ate your mantis then something wasprobably wrong with the mantis allowing it to become food.


+1. Glad I never experienced this. Though I have had ooths get chewed on. Like everyone said, there was something wrong with the mantis or it was significantly smaller.


----------



## PhilinYuma (Jan 11, 2010)

ismart said:


> You don't need to stop feeding our mantids crickets, just when you do feed your mantids crickets if the the cricket is not eaten in 15 to 20 minutes remove it and try again tomorrow. Don't leave it in the mantids enclosure.


+1

Paul: I am getting really tired of putting "+1" after so many of yr posts. Please try and say something a little more controversial or less correct.. Thank you.


----------



## massaman (Jan 11, 2010)

I have had few deaths from a results of crickets but for the most part I leave some crickets in with the mantis so usually not to have to feed them till the cricket or crickets are all gone and always look at the enclosure with the mantis and cricket in it to make sure all is as it should be!For the most part all my mantids eat the crickets the same day or the next day so I am pretty sure there could of been something wrong with the mantis to have it become a snack and just a little reminder though be careful when you feed those sub adults that I sold you and watch what they eat so they wont suffer the same fate!


----------



## beginner entomologist (Jan 11, 2010)

Thanks for the help everyone.

I think I'm going to play it safe and stick with roaches and flies from now on.


----------



## ismart (Jan 11, 2010)

PhilinYuma said:


> +1Paul: I am getting really tired of putting "+1" after so many of yr posts. Please try and say something a little more controversial or less correct.. Thank you.


Fine Phil! I will try and be controversial.

Never use crickets again! I noticed the always go right for my mantids jugular! :lol: 

Hate crickets! :angry: Speaking of witch, i have to pick some up tomorrow.


----------



## kamakiri (Jan 11, 2010)

beginner entomologist said:


> _...LPS..._


Forgive me, while I take a moment to digest the notion that it is too much trouble to type out, 'local pet store'. :lol:


----------



## more_rayne (May 13, 2010)

Crickets can be vicious. I used to raise crickets and I'd put a knocked out green bottle fly in there. The cricket would grab it and run off with it because other crickets also wanted a bite.


----------



## hibiscusmile (May 13, 2010)

Tsk, tsk, tsk, bad cricks!


----------



## Chief Tom (Jun 1, 2010)

I wouldn't feed it roaches or flies they carry worms. I would stay with crickets, it was just a fluke what happened.


----------



## lancaster1313 (Jun 2, 2010)

Crickets can also carry worms, I have seen a video of a huge one emerging from a crickets abdomen. Mantids can also carry the same kind, I think its called a horsehair worm. I would still feed crickets to my mantid, if they are well cared for.


----------



## LauraMG (Jun 22, 2010)

Crickets are disgusting little creatures, but, if you give them a little something to chew on, like chopping up a fresh baby carrot and throwing it in there, they tend not to go for mantids or cannibalize. I think they're gross and I don't want to feed them to my Chinese, but I have to until I can get some other kind of feeder insect colony going. Sorry you had one become their prey


----------

