# how can I feed my nymphs if fruit flies don't come on time



## Starving Always (Feb 10, 2016)

I'm getting my first wonderful popa spurca nymphs from Yen! (first ever mantis/nymph purchase!!!!!) I JUST CAN'T HOLD IN MY EXCITEMENT AHH.

anyways, so I bought from this website and in my order was a producing D. Hydei fruit fly culture. they ship from CT, (im in CA) and they told me (through email) that it wouldn't come until next week...

so I'm really worried what would happen when the L3/4 nymphs arrive (they will arrive this week) ... I'm scared they might starve cause lack of food. I'm open to any suggestions and/or any method I could try so that my nymphs are well fed when they arrive. 

thanks!


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## hibiscusmile (Feb 10, 2016)

if you order express you can have them tomorrow from me. It is expensive with the new postal hike, but if u need it what can one do?

Not sure what u can feed them until then unless u can find real pinhead crickets at the pet store or a small vial of fruit flies at the pet store. The small vials only have a few flies if any alive, dont know how much u will get out of them.


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## Starving Always (Feb 10, 2016)

I'll check your website! thanks for the info (-:


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## Chungy (Feb 10, 2016)

Petco sells fruit flies, just make sure you pick 1 that is producing and not due to crash anytime soon.


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## Starving Always (Feb 11, 2016)

will definetly check out


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## Sticky (Feb 12, 2016)

If you cant get anything for them you can give them honey. Try to find unfiltered. It will have pollen in it. It is best for them. Dont buy Sue Bee, that is trash honey. It has corn syrup and it really comes from china. You can taste the difference between suebee and local honey.

Suebee is bland, local will have a complex flavor.


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## Starving Always (Feb 12, 2016)

Sticky said:


> If you cant get anything for them you can give them honey. Try to find unfiltered. It will have pollen in it. It is best for them. Dont buy Sue Bee, that is trash honey. It has corn syrup and it really comes from china. You can taste the difference between suebee and local honey.
> 
> Suebee is bland, local will have a complex flavor.


already did this hehe, thanks


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## Starving Always (Feb 12, 2016)

hibiscusmile said:


> if you order express you can have them tomorrow from me. It is expensive with the new postal hike, but if u need it what can one do?
> 
> Not sure what u can feed them until then unless u can find real pinhead crickets at the pet store or a small vial of fruit flies at the pet store. The small vials only have a few flies if any alive, dont know how much u will get out of them.


hey! i checked out your website and recently purchased!! i ordered many enclosures  my order number : 10057


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## Sticky (Feb 13, 2016)

Another option is to cut the head off of a mealworm and take a small blob and try to stick it to your mantids mouth or face if they are really teeny nymphs.


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## Starving Always (Feb 13, 2016)

Sticky said:


> Another option is to cut the head off of a mealworm and take a small blob and try to stick it to your mantids mouth or face if they are really teeny nymphs.


smart!! but I never dealed with mealworms/roaches. are they hard?


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## Sticky (Feb 14, 2016)

Not at all. They are available at any petstore. I keep them in a plastic drawer in oatmeal. They like slices of cucumber, bugburger, lettuce etc. Dont give them carrot as that can kill your mantis!


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## MantisGalore (Feb 14, 2016)

hibiscusmile said:


> if you order express you can have them tomorrow from me. It is expensive with the new postal hike, but if u need it what can one do?
> 
> Not sure what u can feed them until then unless u can find real pinhead crickets at the pet store or a small vial of fruit flies at the pet store. The small vials only have a few flies if any alive, dont know how much u will get out of them.


To the rescue!


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## Starving Always (Feb 14, 2016)

Sticky said:


> Not at all. They are available at any petstore. I keep them in a plastic drawer in oatmeal. They like slices of cucumber, bugburger, lettuce etc. Dont give them carrot as that can kill your mantis!


the ones that are available in _my_ petstore are the dried mealworms; not live.


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## PlayingMantis (Feb 14, 2016)

My local aquarium shop also sells fruit flies and other live insects (for reptile hobbyists, I guess). Last year my rhombo ooth, which I thought was a dud, hatched unexpectedly and I searched all my local Petco's and Petsmart's, but they were all out. Fortunately I decided to check my aquarium shop and they had huge FF cultures brimming to the top with flies.

In some pet stores, you might need to ask the employees since they keep live mealworms in a fridge that's hidden in the back of the store, the "Employees Only" area. 

As a last resort, you could buy live crickets and cut them apart to feed the mantises. I usually avoid pet store crickets since they could be contaminated with illness, but you can keep them for 2-3 days first, feeding them with fresh veggies. I've fed crickets to L1 nymphs before (when I was in a similar situation as yours). I cut the crickets apart and, for example, fed half a cricket leg to one nymph, and the other half to another nymph. Or half a head. It's a bit gross and very time consuming.


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## Starving Always (Feb 15, 2016)

PlayingMantis said:


> My local aquarium shop also sells fruit flies and other live insects (for reptile hobbyists, I guess). Last year my rhombo ooth, which I thought was a dud, hatched unexpectedly and I searched all my local Petco's and Petsmart's, but they were all out. Fortunately I decided to check my aquarium shop and they had huge FF cultures brimming to the top with flies.
> 
> In some pet stores, you might need to ask the employees since they keep live mealworms in a fridge that's hidden in the back of the store, the "Employees Only" area.
> 
> As a last resort, you could buy live crickets and cut them apart to feed the mantises. I usually avoid pet store crickets since they could be contaminated with illness, but you can keep them for 2-3 days first, feeding them with fresh veggies. I've fed crickets to L1 nymphs before (when I was in a similar situation as yours). I cut the crickets apart and, for example, fed half a cricket leg to one nymph, and the other half to another nymph. Or half a head. It's a bit gross and very time consuming.


yes i do agree. its is really time consuming. its what i exactly did just today haha. 

yes i heard… the crickets from pet stores aren't trusted, but there wasn't any other choice.

i will try to ask if they have any live mealworms the next time i go there, thank you.

we dont have too many aquarium shops here, and i doubt they do have FF cultures but if anything, they will be my second choice to look at, thank you. 

oooh, i will definitely try feeding my crickets with fresh veggies as i still have some!! (many of them escaped throughout my house due to not careful actions…) ill have to check again with you on that 

also, where do you recommend me getting crickets from if not from the pet store? thanks for everything!!!


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## Gekkonidae (Feb 17, 2016)

You can look around your yard for small insects,  check out a pet store for their smallest feeder insects or try a little honey in an emergency. I personally bought a vial of melanogasters and let them produce for a while. When the vial ran out a month later, I took about 12 flies and made a DIY culture out of a 32oz cup, and now I have a freaking TON of flies. Enough to raise my 12 nymphs of various species for quite some time.

What I used as media - 1 banana, an equal amount of apple sauce, 1 cup of instant oatmeal (or a couple of packets). Mash all together really well. Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, add a few pinches of dry active yeast, mix up, sprinkle a little yeast on top. Let it sit for 24 hours to release all noxious gasses (flies will die if you don't wait). Then, put in a little shredded paper, or whatever else to help them climb on. Make sure you ventilate the lid. I just cut a circle then taped a paper towel over the hole.Then, just wait a week or 2 and you should have a pretty decent FF population.


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## Starving Always (Feb 17, 2016)

thanks for the recipe! will definetly try this out as these ingredients are much more simpler (-: btw, how does a FF culture run out? and only 12 fruit flies? wow!!


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## Extrememantid (Feb 17, 2016)

Starving Always said:


> thanks for the recipe! will definetly try this out as these ingredients are much more simpler (-: btw, how does a FF culture run out? and only 12 fruit flies? wow!!


The medium gets eaten or dries out after a while..


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## Starving Always (Feb 17, 2016)

can't you spray water and it'll moisten it? isn't the media supposed to get eaten?


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## Gekkonidae (Feb 17, 2016)

That may work. Or you can just start another culture. Pretty easy once you have so many, plus it's always good to have a backup culture in case one crashes on you.


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## PlayingMantis (Feb 17, 2016)

Starving Always said:


> yes i do agree. its is really time consuming. its what i exactly did just today haha.
> 
> yes i heard… the crickets from pet stores aren't trusted, but there wasn't any other choice.
> 
> ...


I order my crickets online from cricket farms - you get a big box of 500 for $15 with free shipping. Each box lasts me around 1 month. The downside...you need to do a lot of work to maintain the crickets (feeding, cleaning, etc) and it makes more sense to order bulk crickets if you have a lot of adult mantises to eat all the crickets.

As to FF cultures, a fresh culture starts with lots of media and a couple dozen or couple hundred adult flies, depending on how many was used to "seed" the culture. As the flies multiply and the population booms, you'll get tons of flies that will slowly deplete the media as the larvae consume the media and mature into more flies. When the media runs out, or the culture dries out, depending on which comes first, the culture dies. Usually before that happens, you need to take some adult flies to "seed" a brand new culture with freshly prepared media. And the cycle goes on.


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## Starving Always (Feb 18, 2016)

Do you know if the crickets you're buying is safe for the mantids? Also, how do you take care of them? I know that I can feed them lettuce.


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## Extrememantid (Feb 18, 2016)

Starving Always said:


> can't you spray water and it'll moisten it? isn't the media supposed to get eaten?


You can spray it, but after a while that just doesn't work any more lol. And huh? Media, medium I've heard and used both lol, same thing.


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## SpaceWolf (Feb 19, 2016)

I've also heard from some folks that they like to eat raw meat from a toothpick


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