[skip to last paragraph to get to the point. I tend to babble.]
It's been about 5 years since I kept mantids. I started the hobby and joined this forum when I was about 15 and now I been busy with moving out of state and college and work and blah blah blah. I've been wanting to get back into the hobby. It won't be until about a month or two from now but I'd like to be prepared for what I never thought I would do.
I want to start raise Idolomantis diabolica's and a buddy of mine on the forum has been helping me with that
. I know that they have this weird thing with eating only flying insects and usually I always find a way around those "advanced species" and sometimes I don't usually go by the book when taking care of expert species but I have been reading about and those who fed their Idolo's strictly on roaches, crickets, and ground insects usually encountered problems. Now I can go out and catch butterflies and moths, but I would like easy to access feeders instead. I know a lot of you order flies but I honestly don't like messing with flies. I don't mind it but I'd rather not. I don't even like dealing with fruit flies.
Is there any easy to breed flying insects that are fairly cheap to obtain and easy maintenance? The only thing I could think of is milkweed bugs but they're technically non flyers, BUT they ARE arboreal and have wings and they CAN fly, they just don't do it all they time. I'm not even sure of they'll get big enough to satisfy Idolo's.
It's been about 5 years since I kept mantids. I started the hobby and joined this forum when I was about 15 and now I been busy with moving out of state and college and work and blah blah blah. I've been wanting to get back into the hobby. It won't be until about a month or two from now but I'd like to be prepared for what I never thought I would do.
I want to start raise Idolomantis diabolica's and a buddy of mine on the forum has been helping me with that
. I know that they have this weird thing with eating only flying insects and usually I always find a way around those "advanced species" and sometimes I don't usually go by the book when taking care of expert species but I have been reading about and those who fed their Idolo's strictly on roaches, crickets, and ground insects usually encountered problems. Now I can go out and catch butterflies and moths, but I would like easy to access feeders instead. I know a lot of you order flies but I honestly don't like messing with flies. I don't mind it but I'd rather not. I don't even like dealing with fruit flies.Is there any easy to breed flying insects that are fairly cheap to obtain and easy maintenance? The only thing I could think of is milkweed bugs but they're technically non flyers, BUT they ARE arboreal and have wings and they CAN fly, they just don't do it all they time. I'm not even sure of they'll get big enough to satisfy Idolo's.
