# Mealworms?



## BugLover (Mar 12, 2013)

okay know a few discussions of dying mantids have been from "bad" mealworms, but i raise my own mealworms. Would the smallest ones be ok for baby mantids? or should they have another food? I am wondering so that i don't need to spend too much money on fruitflies when my oothecae hatch  the Babies will be Chinese mantis. I am getting fruitflies, but i want something else for when I'm out of fruitflies or can't get to the pet store


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## Termite48 (Mar 12, 2013)

Being that we are coming into the Spring months, instead of the early introduction of meal worms into the diet of an L-3 Chinese mantis, perhaps you might try catching some wild insects. There are small moths, small flies, aphids, and perhaps some pin head crickets that are hiding in placed you might not think about outside. I think that the meal worms are something to be reserved for the larger instars of mantids as they gain strength with their raptorials. This is my humble opinion. Perhaps there are others that have experience that is in favor of feeding meal worms early.


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 12, 2013)

cut it in half and offer w/tweezers, they be ok. I never worry about cricks or anything I buy, I do not hold till I think all is well, I have baby to feed and adults, cannot wait and really rarely remember a problem.


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## patrickfraser (Mar 12, 2013)

If they can/will eat it, feed it. They know what they like.


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## Rick (Mar 13, 2013)

They will eat them but they are far from an ideal mantis food. Mantids are often reluctant to catch them since mealworms often don't move much and definitely don't climb up to the top where mantids often sit. Fruit flies are far superior for new hatchling mantids.


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## DETHCHEEZ (Mar 20, 2013)

Not as a sole or main food source but I've fed meal worms to mantids without any problems


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## Tony C (Mar 20, 2013)

Fruit flies are not expensive at all if you maintain your own cultures. If you plan on raising 3 oothecae worth of Chinese you need to get your cultures started ASAP, yesterday would be good.


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## BugLover (Mar 21, 2013)

Ok i will be going to the pet store to pick up some fruitflies but i have another question; Which kind of culture should i get? I usually get the little tubes, but another local store sells them in cups.


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## Tony C (Mar 21, 2013)

BugLover said:


> Ok i will be going to the pet store to pick up some fruitflies but i have another question; Which kind of culture should i get? I usually get the little tubes, but another local store sells them in cups.


I would go for the biggest, most populated cultures you can find and use them to start as many new ones as possible.


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 21, 2013)

this prob wont help, but I can send monday a culture of somthing, if you send shipping.


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## BugLover (Mar 21, 2013)

hibiscusmile said:


> this prob wont help, but I can send monday a culture of somthing, if you send shipping.


No offense to anyone on the forums, but i'd rather not buy online. I just prefer to be able to have more control of what i'm buying (like looking at each tube of flies). Again, no offense to anyone on here


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## Tony C (Mar 21, 2013)

You won't get far in a hobby like this one if you cut yourself off from the resources available online.


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## lancaster1313 (Mar 22, 2013)

I never wanted to buy from online either, but when I have, I got much better quality than I have ever seen in stores. It seems to be the same price if one is only getting 1 culture.

On the other hand, the ones in the stores yield alot less than the 32 oz standard culture that many on the forum use.

If I didn't make some of my own, I would have wasted alot of money trying to make due with pet store cultures.


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