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If it gets cold enough, the freezer would be useful for the last step of sterilizing anything you use with your fruit fly cultures to ensure that they are mite-free.

Aww. Sorry to hear that. :( Often, this can occur because the mantis in on the top of the same enclosure that is being closed. I force my children (as well as myself) to utilize a side entrance. This tends to decrease the likelihood that a mantis will get injured or maimed.

That is great keeping track, Thomas! I figured that I will keep track of the instars once I have my adults produce ooths. I have only kept track of mantids becoming subadult and adult. I have a small group of young adults now, though one of my spiny females seems to already be calling in under 1...

Very nice shot. I'll have to invest in a real camera one day!

Welcome! Spiny flowers are lots of fun as they sometimes do a forearm dance (at least for me) :) They sometimes wait until I look in on their enclosure to do so. Perhaps they are just trying to look cool? B) I hope all goes well with that beta tank and hope you enjoy the hobby!

Wow Thomas - your mantids molt much faster than mine! :D I really enjoyed the video. I hope you are able to rear this species to adult and beyond!

Hello David and welcome!

Wow - that's a huge ooth. From the looks of it, she is trying to make that tripod a little more structurally sound. (=

Hmmm. I have accidently left my flies in the freezer for 3-4 minutes before, then thrown them in the trash can because they looked dead. They never recovered. They were dead.

What temperature is your freezer set at? Mine kills flies WAY before the 2 minute mark.

Dear Denny, The inverted water bottle requires no bait. It is a simple trap. They just fall from the light into the water bottle. (Perhaps I need to post a picture of my incredibly simple setup). The trick is that the container needs to be easy to take apart and re-assemble or have a side hole...

Those are just great pictures, MantisBro!

Nice pics & welcome to the forum! :D

So, while raising different varieties of flies outside, my fly rearing container all of a sudden got filled up with the following larvae. They are definitely different than houseflies or black soldier larvae. Hopefully I can find out what they are... Will anyone help me ID these please?

Yen has always done well with hatching these! If you find out from him, please let us know. I always thought you would have them at 60% humidity and 80 degrees F.

Welcome!

This was how she looked by the fourth day of trying to molt. I couldn't get a picture of her trying because the camera bothered her too much. Her room-mates. If mantids are jealous, I can only imagine she was jealous that another girl molted before her - and on the first try too! (=...

I would not name a girl Marky Mark! (= Nice photo, Mantisman!

I have this problem with my wingless melanogasters but never had this problem with my winged melanogasters. I wonder why... I always thought it was a genetic thing.

I have tried the inverted 2 liter bottle method and it works okay. The problem is that this type of container does not attract enough flies, becomes overly humid and the flies have difficulty finding their way out the side vent that I made, even when pointed towards a strong light source. The...