# tips on food for young



## captainmerkin (Mar 29, 2007)

Hi first topic nice to meet you all!

I have just recieved some mantid and am curious about the feeding options for these little buggers.

at the moment I have:

1 orchid mantis

2 african giant

2 chineese

They all seem fairly happy and came with a few flies in with them, mostly eaten..

I can catch small flies and mosquitos in the garden without too much trouble, but would it be possible to feed them ants?

One of the African ones has so far eaten 2 ants, 2 flies and some random jumpy bug I gave to it.

But ants can give a nasty bite (at least some of them), where I work I have never had a chance to feed the very young mantis as they were all fairly large when I started with them..

Also are the cups with mesh over the top good for them to stay in for a while as I have made some large enclosures out of mesh and perspex and wood for these ( 18cm cubed )

The orchid mantis seems a little more bulky than the others so I am assuming its a shed ahead of the others, which are l2/3 from what I have been told (what does the L stand for), but it doesnt seem interested in food, its flies appear dead but whole in the bottom of its cup and the died of boredom. I assume that from the camoflage on these guys that they lay in wait for things (flying things?) to land next to them on flowers and then whack em..

Would clothes moths, mosquitos and ants be ok, or best to go for small flies?

and how long before they start to shed to a larger size so they can deal with things better? Also orchid mantis do they co-habit well or will they pull each other to bits?

thanks so much


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## Rick (Mar 29, 2007)

You can feed them basically any insect they can easily grab. However it will difficult to catch enough food for them. The best option for small nymphs are flightless fruit flies. You can buy them online for rather cheap and culture your own. It's very easy to culture thousands of them for minimal cost and little space. In the meantime you will have to rely on what you can find.


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## captainmerkin (Mar 29, 2007)

Im trying to avoid buying in large numbers of things that can escape and annoy the missus, but as there are only 5 of them its not too much of a problem catching things for them as we have a good natural garden... apart from to the neighbours I must look like a loony running round the garden with a torch in my mouth and a jam jar..

are these flightless flys easy to keep and no chance of escaping? ie. jam jar with mesh over top type affair or something bigger?

thanks Rick


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## OGIGA (Mar 29, 2007)

I look crazy when I go catch stuff for my mantises too. Oh, and I live in an apartment complex too so it's not like I'm lingering around my own yard!

Those flightless fruit flies can be found at pet stores. I get mine from PetCo. They last a lot longer than the 2-3 weeks suggested by the label. Even though they can't fly, they're annoying little things. You'll enjoy watching them get eaten.


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## Rick (Mar 29, 2007)

Fruit fly cultures you buy will eventually bomb and die out. You have to keep making new ones in order to always have flies on hand. They don't escape but you often lose some in the process of feeding the mantids. They can't fly but eventually they will start flying again.

If you want to get serious about keeping mantids you're gonna have to keep fruit fly, cricket, or roach colonies.


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## anthony2001a (Mar 30, 2007)

> Hi first topic nice to meet you all!I have just recieved some mantid and am curious about the feeding options for these little buggers.
> 
> at the moment I have:
> 
> ...


Your best bet for feeding smaller mantids is to use fruit flies. Drosophila melanogaster flightless for the smallest mantids; Drosophila hydrei for small to medium sized mantids. They can escape if you don't exercise some common sense. Since you have an outdoors, one thing you can do is to use a large container to raise your fruitflies and only open it outdoors, so that any which escape will simply stay outside. You can collect the flies into a smaller vial, which you can then add to the mantid cages. A fine mesh on the cages will prevent flies from escaping. You can hot glue the mesh onto the cage; just make sure the glue is dry, cool, and non-sticky before putting your mantid back into the cage.

I would avoid ants. Ants can spray formic acid which can sting or hurt your mantis. Mantids will eat ants, but it's not very often.

Mantids will shed every 2 to 4 weeks, depending upon temperature, species, and how fast they are growing in their current exoskeleton. As your mantids get bigger, they tend to get more interested in larger prey. At that point, flies or crickets tend to be your better bets. You can get housefly or bluebottle pupae online; after a few days of warmth, they will eclose and become adult flies, which your mantids will catch and eat. Or if you live in a nice warm area, you can put out a piece of meat (like shrimp) and catch flies with a plastic bag. When I was little, we'd sneak up on our dog's poop, hold the bag opening over it and wave, and the flies would leap right into the bag. I don't recommend this, as those flies will probably be pretty full of bad germs though. Note that these fly pupae are for flies which are fully capable of flying.

My orchid mantids really like the Drosophila hydrei at their current size. They will eat regular houseflies, but not completely as they get full. Pretty much the orchids like it when flies walk near them; the mantids will walk a little to get into a better position if they want, but they usually just snap the flies right up without moving much at all.

Anthony


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## captainmerkin (Apr 3, 2007)

will have a look out for some fruit flies this week if I find a pet shop!

Also my orchid mantis seems to eat just about anything, has now eaten a moth 3 times its size and a daddy long legs.

The other mantis seem to be doing well with ants and the occasional fruit fly (have set up a trap in garden to catch these, but they are a bugger to put in the cups with the mantis)

Looking forward to seeing them grow up as they look a little fragile right now!


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## luketheluke (Apr 3, 2007)

hello did you get ur 5 mantis of ebay aswell? sounds like you got the same deal as me ^_^ 2 chinese 2 african and an orchid  i feed mine ants aswell i have a fruit fly culture but they are still in cacoons waiting for them to hatch so in the mean time im just finding ants and spiders and flys in the garden


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## captainmerkin (Apr 3, 2007)

> hello did you get ur 5 mantis of ebay aswell? sounds like you got the same deal as me ^_^ 2 chinese 2 african and an orchid  i feed mine ants aswell i have a fruit fly culture but they are still in cacoons waiting for them to hatch so in the mean time im just finding ants and spiders and flys in the garden


hahah yeah exactly the same deal mate, great service if you ask me!

soon as I have internet back up at home will post some pictures of the set up they have..

but yeah they are eating ants, small wasps (stingless) and the orchid mantis is eating hoverflies and moths 4 times its size without difficulty.

just looking forward to getting some more orchids and some deadleaf mantis soon!


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## Peekaboo (Apr 3, 2007)

I really advise against feeding your mantis ants. Approximately how large are your mantises right now? If you're feeding moths to the orchid, perhaps you can find some for your other mantises as well.


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## luketheluke (Apr 3, 2007)

yeah was good service  one of my chinese mantis died during shedding its skin though  yeah i would like some more orchids i love the colours, I want some budwings and widearms too i really like the look of them


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## captainmerkin (Apr 4, 2007)

> I really advise against feeding your mantis ants. Approximately how large are your mantises right now? If you're feeding moths to the orchid, perhaps you can find some for your other mantises as well.


the moths are a real bugger to find, but I have ordered in some flightless fruit flies for them now.. going to hide these in the garage so I dont get butchered by the missus  

none of mine have shed yet but I have only had them a week, hopefully will be smooth sailing as they have nice damp garden moss and plenty of space, also are taking food on a daily basis... though I do need to work out how my heat mat works as its a little chilly right now!

the ants seem to go down really well, but are pretty good at escaping and turning up in my beer.


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