After Ooth Hatches

[mantidsaresweet]

Hello everyone, I have a question for you guys to answer. I have no problem raising a mantis to adult and breeding them and then hatching out the ooth. My problem lays with after the ooth gives me 50+ little mantids in one cup. How you do you raise all these little guys up to L2 and get them ready to sell? Do leave all of them in the 32oz hatching cup (assuming you just used the standard hatching cup)? Or do you give them each their own little container? (This seems very time consuming and takes up a lot of space) Please enlighten me on how you guys handle all the babies after a big hatching.

Thanks! This will help me out a ton and any info helps.

 

[d17oug18]

if your just going to breed them for pets, no need to seperate, just put feeders in the single cup and let cannabalism take most them until you have enough to continue the cycle. If you want to sell them, after L2, everyone gets seperate cups.

 

[PhilinYuma]

One easy solution is to buy a 12"cube, put some paper toweling on the bottom as a moisture-holding substrate, fill it with coarse excelsior (best if you are going to sell at L2), raffia or palm fronds (my favorite) and shovel in the nymphs. Put in plenty of ffs (they keep the nymphs happy and turn their minds away from thoughts of cannibalism, which is a sin), and feed them, it turn, with a little honey squirted on the top of the cube and spread with a finger. This will keep them until L2 and you can just pull out a handful of excelsior and put it in a small bucket for easy transfer of the nymphs to their shipping container and as a packing substrate.

It would be really interesting to hear what really experienced breeder/vendors have to say, but this method works fine for me on a small scale.

.

 

[d17oug18]

Well the most ive ever had of one species was 400 C Gemmatus, and 400 in a 12" net cube there is sure to be some sibling frustrations =P I personally will put 2-5 nymphs in one 32oz cup and keep separating as they molted(L3 molting to L4 = only 2 per cup). So at least it isnt 400 SEPARATE cups! lol now its only 50-100 with very very low canni-ism. Thats just me, and i still consider myself extremely small scale myself.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Well the most ive ever had of one species was 400 C Gemmatus, and 400 in a 12" net cube there is sure to be some sibling frustrations =P I personally will put 2-5 nymphs in one 32oz cup and keep separating as they molted(L3 molting to L4 = only 2 per cup). So at least it isnt 400 SEPARATE cups! lol now its only 50-100 with very very low canni-ism. Thats just me, and i still consider myself extremely small scale myself.

I agree, Doug, but Mantidsaresweet was talking about fifty nymphs, not 400!

I have done exactly the same as you when I was using pots, and aside from sorting after molts, I'd balance out the pots when some died or were eaten, but 130 pots would cost me about $50+ (yes, I always buy from Rebecca and never buy just what I came for.!) and that's a lot for someone who is not buying/selling in volume. Also, feeding mels to 130 pots is a much bigger project than putting them all in a a 20 gal tank on or a cloth dog tote.and feeding them all at once. But you're right, different strokes for different folks, and that's what makes this hobby interesting!

There is another factor, MareS, which is well known but seldom discussed in the hobby, and that is the nymphs' instinct to disperse. You will see this in action if you ever have a Mass Escape. The AWOL nymphs don't bunch up, they stay well apart, just like we were taught in the army. Zephyr, a member who now only keeps and sells roaches,I think, once described how an oothfull of Chinese nymphs tended to have a much higher survival rate when they were allowed to live in an open., heavily planted area than if they were kept in an enclosed space. This is a very interesting hobby!

 

[mantidsaresweet]

Thanks you guys. This is very interesting indeed Phil :lol: !

I would love to hear how someone like Rebecca deals with all of her mantis and manages to even have time to do other things!

This has helped me out and I'm starting to get an idea of what to do with mine.