if you have a mating pair of mantids can one wait like a month or two to try to breed them as I am thinking now I am trying to have my chinese mantids breed as soon as i get the female but am going to hold off mating them till september or maybe late august is this something that would put a strain on them?
with hold breeding
- Thread starter massaman
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well i want to collect their ooths but dont want them hatching out as i want to diapause them for at least two months myself and put them outside to continue slowing down their development till next year without having to try to keep a ooth in the fridge for 6 months or more!
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PhilinYuma
Well-known member
Yeah, I wondered about that, too, but from another thread I guess that you want to have the ooths hatch in the spring so that you can release them into yr garden?
Don't hold off on mating your pair, you just risk losing one or both before they mate, and the ooths would still have to over winter.
I suggest that you breed them ASAP, and then put them outside somewhere safe from birds, storms and parasites (like in a net cage) where they can catch the light, because it is the shortening of the day that brings on diapause in the wild.
Then just leave them out all winter. If Chinese occur locally in yr area, then it will not be too cold for them, and they need the cold, of course to break diapause.
Hope this helps!
ismart
Well-known member
You should mate them as soon as there ready. Do not hold off on breeding them. It's not worth the risk of one of them dying before they can mate, or becoming to old. I guarantee you, if you leave those ooths out now, they will hatch before winter. Tenodera sinensis ooths do not require a diapause. I can honestly say i have hatched chinese ooths every month of the year. It made no difference what time of year or how much light there is. If the temp is right they will hatch! If this was Mantis religiosa or Stagmomantis carolina I would say photoperiod plays an important role in development time.
PhilinYuma
Well-known member
Agree with everything you say, Paul, but I think that he wants to release them in his yard next spring. Is that right, Massaman?
If the ooths are laid in the next month or so, and kept indoors the nymphs will grow to adults before next spring, though, and he could put their ooths out.
kamakiri
Well-known member
Totally agree with ismart. Stick the ooths in the fridge, maybe after leaving them out for a few weeks. They should hatch in about a month after you take them out. Use something like a yogurt cup or styro with a few small holes punched in the top. Put the ooths on some excelsior or in a paper towel. Add a couple of drops of water before you close it up.
ismart
Well-known member
If he plans on releasing nymphs in his yard for next spring. Then he should just mate what he has now and use those ooths to populate his yard, not buy two ooths that have already been laid. If you put those two ooths in diapause now you run a higher risk of them not hatching next spring. Like you said phil, i would hatch those two ooths now and by the time there life cycle it done you could possibly have a bunch more new ooths for this coming spring.
superfreak
Well-known member
what? where is he buying two ooths? now im confused.
ismart
Well-known member
oh i am not getting any ooths LOL i thought i was getting two from mantis place but they are out till the fall season so just going to raise my own its alot cheaper for me now. All i need is to get the female from abuggin and see them breed and all that and see if i can avoid the dreaded female eatus the maleitus.As it seems the smaller species are easier to breed and all of my males had 0 deaths so i got the breeding down pretty good and so its not bad for my first year of breeding a creobroter gemmatus and then bred my gambian spotted eye flower mantis and soon my chinese mantis and beyond!
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just wondering which native species require a diapause or a photoperiod? I know around here like i would think in september or october the mantids around here would lay their ooths but those are the european ones as i never seen a chinese mantis anywhere around and i am in Michigan!
