a few questions..

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nicks75

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Hello all, I was hoping to populate my back yard next year with Tenodera Sinensis for both insect control and just hoping to see my favorite insect since it's been years since i've had the pleasure of seeing one in the wild.

I live just outside of Pittsburgh and have lots of woods surrounding my backyard. I was planning on buying some ooths and either hatching them indoors or outside.

Some questions I have are, could I buy the ooths now and keep them in the refrigerator or would it be best to buy them early next year for best success?

How many oothes would be sufficient to populate a large backyard with hopes of there being enough to keep the population year after year?

Should I hatch the oothes indoors or put them outside once the weather gets warmer?

What month would be best to try to time the hatching for future sucessfull populations?

And though theres always the option to purchase online but does anyone know of any garden centers in western pa that sells oothes?

Thanks for reading.

Nick.

 
I've done this with as many as 3 wild caught ooths at a time and I did see hundreds of little nymphs all over my yard but the following year I only found 2 adults over the coarse of several months, in short they will go where they want and chances are it won't be your yard, but hey its still worth a shot.

And yes you can keep them in the fridge until late winter early spring, when they do hatch you may want to grab 10-12 quickly if you want to enjoy them.

You can find them online easily, Ebay, major gardening centers, etc.

 
Hello Nick,

I've been involved with mantises since 1998 and I've tried different things with T. sinensis. You can buy the ooths this year or next spring. My garden center tends to have them in spring. I find that the best thing to do is take the ooths and actually attach them to shrubs outside of your house. Keeping them in the fridge has not worked well for me but maybe I was doing something wrong (like not keeping them moist or the right temperature). You have to keep them cold or they WILL hatch indoors, as has happened to me twice in mid-winter. That's where I learned (unwittingly) to raise them from hatchlings. This is very time consuming and you need to maintain proper temps and humidity and keep them separate from each other.They seem to always do quite well hatching outside in the spring. Just know where you put the ooths and when you start getting warm days (a few in a row in the high 70s) watch for hatchlings. They hang out around thier ooth the first couple of days. I tend to not hatch them inside because then you can have hundreds of hungry mouths to feed and will end up putting most of them outside anyway. I have the same experience as "angelofdeathzz," where I may not even find a single mantis even after putting 3 ooths out in spring. This year was a good year due to abundant rain and not-too-hot temperatures so I have as many as 12 individuals that I've been observing in my yard (started with 2 ooths). They are just eclosing (getting their wings) now. If you have a favorable garden: lots of plants (places to hide & hang out), shade, food around for them to eat (flowers that attract bugs), and not too many predators (birds), they should stay around. My local garden center has them but you can order them from Carolina Biologicals. Some of our mantis forum colleagues may have ooths.

 
I did very well with some ooths I bought on ebay. The seller is a favorite of mine. (I can give you her name if you like).The nymphs I got from the ooths are colorful and big. Some I am keeping indoors as pets and they are beautiful, especially Mahagony, a rich reddish brown male.

Both sexes are big.

 
Thanks for the responces everyone. I have had them as pets in the past but its been years, I do plan on getting a few to keep but ill probably get them in 3rd to 4th instars. Hopefully ill be sucessful in getting a nice population outside, there are lots of places for them to live but with the amount of woods they can easily pack up and leave the area. Ill buy as many oothes as i can each year if I have to but it would be nice to have enough around to see on a regular basis. Thanks again.

 
Woods are not the best habitat for most mantids. They tend to prefer weedy meadows and overgrown fencelines instead. I also believe their use as pest control is debatable. But I really wonder why people want to try to populate an area with a non native species, how about try Stagmomantis sp depending on where you live?

 
Rick said:
Woods are not the best habitat for most mantids. They tend to prefer weedy meadows and overgrown fencelines instead. I also believe their use as pest control is debatable. But I really wonder why people want to try to populate an area with a non native species, how about try Stagmomantis sp depending on where you live?
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Thanks Rick, thats actually good to hear about the woods, I do have thick surrounding weedy areas seperating the properties in my yard, the woods are at the back, I just assumed they would prefer heading there instead of sticking around the weedy areas. Thanks for the species advice, I just figured since the T.sinensis oothes are so commonly found and considered ok to release in my area which is western PA. They would be my best bet.

 
nicks75 said:
Thanks Rick, thats actually good to hear about the woods, I do have thick surrounding weedy areas seperating the properties in my yard, the woods are at the back, I just assumed they would prefer heading there instead of sticking around the weedy areas. Thanks for the species advice, I just figured since the T.sinensis oothes are so commonly found and considered ok to release in my area which is western PA. They would be my best bet.
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It isn't illegal or anything and at this point it probably doesn't much matter but lately I have been against it. I have seen such a decline in our native species but an increase in the non natives. I don't know of any studies on the issue but I figure the native mantids are in decline. It has become a rare treat for me to come across a Carolina mantis.

 
All I have ever seen up here in New England are the European or the Chinese, is it possible to release Carolina nymphs and/or ooths and have them do well up here? I apologize if it is a stupid question.

 
devetaki9, that certainly is not a stupid question. I'd love to know where to get Stagmomantis carolina ooths. The years that I found Carolinas in my yard, I did not release any other species. Sure enough, these Carolinas are still around year after year. I sure would rather promote natives. The Carolinas are small (about 2 inches) and hard to spot. They seem to hide more deeply and I never catch them "sunning" in the open like the Tenodera do. Does anyone know any Carolina breeders?

 
devetaki9 said:
All I have ever seen up here in New England are the European or the Chinese, is it possible to release Carolina nymphs and/or ooths and have them do well up here? I apologize if it is a stupid question.
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I don't know if they occur up there. I used to find them frequently growing up in the midwest so I know they can tolerate cold. It would be better than releasing more non natives.

 
I will post first in our for sale/wanted forums Sticky but could you pm me the name of the person you purchase from? Thank you :)

 
Rick said:
Woods are not the best habitat for most mantids. They tend to prefer weedy meadows and overgrown fencelines instead. I also believe their use as pest control is debatable. But I really wonder why people want to try to populate an area with a non native species, how about try Stagmomantis sp depending on where you live?
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Except Stagmomantis carolina live in woods.

 
I think you should look for native mantids to release other than the commercially available european and Chinese ooths as these compete with the natives, I agree with stagmos or Oligonicella. Personally think all natives should be captive kept

Lol realize this is an old thread

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I do not think we know for certain the Chinese Mantids compete with S. carolina. S. carolina I have found in forests (oothecae and nymphs and I am going to look for adults this summer and fall) where T. sinensis do not live. But I guess that M. religiosa and T. sinensis live in the same habitat. In Far East Russia I have read both Mantis religiosa beybienkoi and Tenodera live together (The Tenodera species in southern part of Far East Russia might be Tenodera sinensis? Anyway the Tenodera there is larger and still eats the smaller Mantis religiosa beybienkoi I read.) and in South Korea I have read that Mantis religiosa sinica live there. Also there are Tenodera angustipennis and Tenodera sinensis (both Tenodera species common, but Tenodera angustipennis might be more common in the mountains). I have not seen a Mantis religiosa sinica in Daejeon though and I spent a lot of time going through grass and other areas looking for insects. Mantis religiosa sinica I have read are smaller than Mantis religiosa religiosa. I have read the ones introduced to the United States are the subspecies M. religiosa religiosa.

 

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