Chinese ooths

Hi so i have been told many things about how i should be taking care of these guys. I would love some feedback on what to do. I have fruit flies and i am misting their enclosure 2 times a day, what should i do once they hatch? I am scared of canabalism and how long to wait to seperate them please give me any information you know on how to hatch these guys :lol: thanks

Emile said:

Hi so i have been told many things about how i should be taking care of these guys. I would love some feedback on what to do. I have fruit flies and i am misting their enclosure 2 times a day, what should i do once they hatch? I am scared of canabalism and how long to wait to seperate them please give me any information you know on how to hatch these guys :lol: thanks

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Misting the ooths twice a day might be a little much, unless you have them in an extremely dry environment. Every other day or so (up to once a week) should suffice in average conditions.

How many Chinese ooths are you incubating? And are you incubating them in the same enclosure? If they hatch within more than a couple of days of each other, the older ones will likely start eating the younger batch eventually if you don't separate them. Consider the space requirements for the hatchlings also... Each Chinese ooth can yield anywhere between 50 and 400 nymphs.

Separate the ooths, hatch them, then feed and mist the young on a regular basis. You shouldn't be overly concerned about cannibalism until the number of hatchlings is reduced to a number you can manage. If an ooth hatches 300 nymphs and things go well... you can't take care of that many individually anyway. Once the numbers dwindle to what you'd roughly like to keep (maybe a little more for insurance), separate them into individual containers.

You can find lots of threads about Chinese ooth hatching concerns from the "Search" feature on the forum. Click on "Search," and type "+Chinese +ooth +hatch" into the search box. You'll see previews of pages of threads you can browse through that will give you lots of tips and information. To help you out, here is the link to the resulting page that will come up if you use those search terms: http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?ac...2Booth+%2Bhatch Good luck!

I like to mist the ooth itself every couple days, and they are good together until after their 2nd molt at least, many will die during that time, it has nothing much to do with u, it is just the way they are. Do not be to concerned with this, u will end up with a couple dozen that will live and then u can seperate them if u r so inclined to do so. Right now I have a couple dozen together and they are at 3rd instar, and they are doing good together.

First of all you're misting way too much. Nothing is easier than chinense ooths. Put them in the appropriate container, mist every few days and wait. That is it.

Rick said:

First of all you're misting way too much. Nothing is easier than chinense ooths. Put them in the appropriate container, mist every few days and wait. That is it.

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+1

I started this hobby this past december, and have hatched 3 ooths. No misting till the your were born, and I live in AZ where it's dry. I'm not saying you shouldn't mist, but I'm saying I didn't and the ooths did well, and that you may be misting too much.

I do know that my first hatch out was a disaster cause they all dried up cause I didn't mist them at all cause I didn't know to, till I got on here, after the first ooth disaster.

Warmth is a factor

Hanging them so they can drop, though my second successful ooth was on the bottom of a jar when they emerged.

I have 5 mantis' together and they are probably subadults right now, and no killing each other. I assume cause I keep them fed well, and they have space and a plant to hang out on. I have see one mantis run another off at times, but he doesn't chase them or try to kill them, he just kinda throws them away.

I do agree with the statement in the other post that the older one's will kill the younger one's though. I had that happen, and they were less than a week apart, I think, but the larger one's killed several of the newbies.

There's a site called spider pharm where the owner says that his feeders were fed food with a particular ingredient, and the canabalism in his spiders stopped after his feeders ate, and supplied that nutrient to the spiders. The same may apply the canabalism in other insects, so check out his site and read that info. It's at: SpiderPharm.com

Maybe feed some of your babies feeders the special sauce and some not and designate a batch of your babies as a control with no special sauce feeders, and a batch with special sauce eating feeders and observe if there is a difference.

Peter sells a book at bugsincyberspace.com if you are interested in reading up on mantis'. I've found little on mantis' to read on , and that book has much more than any other source I seen.

Enjoy

I've never had a fertile Chinese ooth not hatch. They're so easy to hatch that a lot of the time they end up hatching in people's houses, because they stow away on Christmas trees. I never even knew, early in my mantis raising career, that you even had to mist them. I'd just put them in jars and they always hatched.

Don't overthink it.

After reviewing Orin's book I noted that he does say to mist everyday, but to let the ooth dry out between mistings or the ooth will mold and die, so I would think that the ooth should dry, even if it takes days to do so.

nasty bugger said:

After reviewing Orin's book I noted that he does say to mist everyday, but to let the ooth dry out between mistings or the ooth will mold and die, so I would think that the ooth should dry, even if it takes days to do so.

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The book is a good guide for the beginner but I have never had an ooth mold. Mist it every few days and you will be fine. No reason to mist daily.

nasty bugger said:

After reviewing Orin's book I noted that he does say to mist everyday, but to let the ooth dry out between mistings or the ooth will mold and die, so I would think that the ooth should dry, even if it takes days to do so.

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Yeah, they'll hatch, pretty much, regardless of what you do to them. Orin, in Praying Mantids: Keeping Aliens, also gives a care free, "no-maintenance, tested and copyright" way of hatching ooths (p.12). I'd tell you what it is, but that "copyright" mention and Peter's recent "copyright infringement" topic scare me, so go to: http://bugsincyberspace.com/detail.htm?ProductID=bic2, and you'll be a few clicks and a few days away from success!

nasty bugger said:

After reviewing Orin's book I noted that he does say to mist everyday, but to let the ooth dry out between mistings or the ooth will mold and die, so I would think that the ooth should dry, even if it takes days to do so.

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Are there any websites that sell the book?

PhilinYuma said:

Yeah, they'll hatch, pretty much, regardless of what you do to them. Orin, in Praying Mantids: Keeping Aliens, also gives a care free, "no-maintenance, tested and copyright" way of hatching ooths (p.12). I'd tell you what it is, but that "copyright" mention and Peter's recent "copyright infringement" topic scare me, so go to: http://bugsincyberspace.com/detail.htm?ProductID=bic2, and you'll be a few clicks and a few days away from success!

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Ooops did not see your comment thanks Philin

I've had twelve T. sinensis ootheca since late November and they still haven't hatched. I mist at least once a week, sometimes several times a week, and sometimes I'll forget all together. I was beginning to worry that they would never hatch, but after reading the posts in this thread, I am beginning to feel a bit better about them. If nasty bugger didn't mist them once in Arizona, I should be fine. The only thing about them that still makes me worry is that I have no clue if they were fertile or not since I bought them from a gardening center. I only ordered two to begin with and they sent me twelve to insure fertility. I don't know how they were taken care of before I had them, so hopefully I will get at least one successful hatching. I am really hoping I don't get more than two to hatch successfully as I would have my hands more than full! It already takes me over an hour to take care of the mantids I have.

Good luck hatching your ooths, Emile, I really don't think you have anything to worry about. I'd perhaps mist only once every other day to prevent mold if I were you. Also, don't worry about cannibalism! You will never be able to care for the fifty to four-hundred nymphs that will emerge.

I had a wild-caught Chinese mantis lay an ooth for me in late November which just hatched last week. I had given up on it and went to scrape it off the lid of the cage one day only to see that it was hatching that very moment! Hang in there and they will probably hatch if they were fertile in the first place.

Headspace said:

I've never had a fertile Chinese ooth not hatch. They're so easy to hatch that a lot of the time they end up hatching in people's houses, because they stow away on Christmas trees. I never even knew, early in my mantis raising career, that you even had to mist them. I'd just put them in jars and they always hatched.Don't overthink it.

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Lol yeah, I'd stick them in anything and leave them until they hatched...

I just keep them in a gallon glass jar, like a pickle or sun tea jar.

I wrote ealier that my 5 mantis' got along great, well not a week after that I had to seperate two of them and put them in seperate jars cause one was biting the other arm, in a clench.

A couple days later I notices one eying another one in that jar, and the next day I found him with half that mantis in his clutches, and the other half obviously in his guts. They were probably close to two inches long when this happened.

I am more cautious to house them seperately now that I'm down to 18 I want to get ooths before I kick them loose.

First time I ever hatched a chinese ooth,

I did not mist it once.

My mother actually had it as a "science experiment"

for her class.

And it hatched over 300 nymphs.

Just goes to show how easy they actually are.