BB pupae dont hatch!!

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Psychobunny

Psychobunny

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I have been trying BB pupae for my mantids.

I just drop a few of the refreigerated pupae into the mantis cage and wait for them

to hatch.

But they almost never do!!

Is it because I have the mantis cages on UTH's at 95F?

Will the heat kill the pupae?

 
Yeah, maybe it's too hot. Are they new pupae? I just hatched some from green oasis for the first time. I used the cup-o-flies set up, basically, and put all the little cups in a plastic tupperware container with a whole cut in the top with a sponge for easy access. They hatched in a couple days at room temperature.

 
I hatch mine in a shallow 32oz deli with a foam stopper at room temp(68-74), feed them honey first, then feed them to the mantis once there gut loaded. Yes high heat can be bad for sure, plus they like to hatch dry not humid.

 
I got them from Carey and they were fresh. Been in the fridge for about a week but my fridge is really

cold, high 30's to 40F.

Do you think it would be better if I stored them in my wine fridge, which is always 55F and does not

dry stuff out?

My BB spikes died after only about 10 days in my fridge! I think maybe it's just too cold!?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
angelofdeathzz said:
I hatch mine in a shallow 32oz deli with a foam stopper at room temp(68-74), feed them honey first, then feed them to the mantis once there gut loaded. Yes high heat can be bad for sure, plus they like to hatch dry not humid.
Click to expand...
Do you freezer-stun them to pour into the mantis cages?

I have a bottle of powdered fly food from Rebecca. I could put some of that on the floor of a deli

cup and put a lid on it with a foam plugged hole.

 
Yup. I take out the stopper sponge, and eventually a fly makes his way out into another cup. I quickly close that cup and stick it in the freezer for a minute (so I'm only freezer-stunning one or two at a time). The rest continue fattening up on food. I think you can give them fruit puree too (though it goes bad quickly).

cupflyfilled.png


 
Last edited by a moderator:
Psychobunny said:
I got them from Carey and they were fresh. Been in the fridge for about a week but my fridge is really

cold, high 30's to 40F.

Do you think it would be better if I stored them in my wine fridge, which is always 55F and does not

dry stuff out?

My BB spikes died after only about 10 days in my fridge! I think maybe it's just too cold!?
Click to expand...
Maybe. My fridge gets super cold too. I should turn it down.. I put some mealworms in there (on the bottom shelf even) and they died Very quickly.. The ones I'd hatched I hadn't even put into the fridge yet. I wish the pupae had a longer shelf life.

 
Yeah, I bet your fridge was too cold. But my BB pupae are stored in a pretty cold fridge (~37F) and take around 4-5 days to hatch at room temperature (~65-70F). This process works fine for about 5-6 weeks and then hatch rates decline substantially. I use the fly hatching container that Megan linked and let the flies eat (dry mix powder with ground honey and pollen) and drink for a day before stunning them in the freezer.

 
Here's my guess!

If your regrigerator temp is between F33 (i.e. above freezing) and F40, it is within normal range, so that shouldn't be a problem.

The temperature of your UTH (University of Thailand, for anyone unfamiliar with the abreviation) is very high at 95F, about F10 higher than the optimal temp for BB larvae. I would guess, though, that your spikes are dying from dehydration. When you raise the temp about F20 or so above ambient, the humidity is going to take a big hit and drop to unacceptable levels. I would suggest drastically lowering the temp of your UTH. If that lowers the top of yr enclosure (where i assume yr mantids live) to unacceprtably low levels, try using a heat lamp instead.

 
I am not so sure temp is doing it, but they do good at 40F. They will lay and leave pupae in ground over winter, so can't really say it is temp. related, do you know how old the pupae are?

 
keep your flies in a top self of your fridge, not on a back wall, hatch some of them in a deli with a stopper on top, take a small container with the same size stopper hole to line up nicely with the deli, get some flies in the 2nd small container , put them in the FRIDGE for 10-15 min. (freezer will kill if more than a few minutes), open and feed, i also use just the deli with no chill on tanks with doors, much quicker(Exo Terra's-Zoo Meds)... But darken the room as they fly to the strongest light source.

 
I have to say, I've tried hatching in them both ways, and hands down- angelofdeathzz's super simple solution worked the best! Who knew!!!

Before, I have had them in a huge 64 oz containers, as pictured, with the three cups filled with larva/food/water and it took FOREVER to hatch! I was certain they a bad batch, and wasn't hopeful.

As angelofdeathzz suggested, I simply put some larva into a large deli cup, added NO additional moisture, though I put some excelsior in for good measure, so they had something to climb on when hatched. Then and possibly most importantly, I put a few drops of honey on the screen holes.

Schwing!!!!! 10 flies in one day! 10 flies the next! I'm swimming in flies! It's crazy, seeing as I also had such a hard time getting them to hatch! :)

LL

 
You're cooking them. I just take out a small handful and put into a bare 32 oz cup. They hatch in a day or two. Once hatched I squirt some honey with a syringe onto the top of the foam stopper in the feeding hole. When mantis feeding time I stick the whole cup into the freezer and then use my long tweezers to pluck them out and drop them into the mantid cages.

 
hibiscusmile said:
I am not so sure temp is doing it, but they do good at 40F. They will lay and leave pupae in ground over winter, so can't really say it is temp. related, do you know how old the pupae are?
Click to expand...
I got them a little over a week ago, but how old they really are, I dont know!

I put 3 or 4 in a 12'' net cube with a adult mantis and after a few days, maybe one will

turn into a fly and the rest are duds!!!

I have tried putting them in a deli cup to hatch, then freezer stun them to drop into the

cages, but they tend to wake up really fast!!!

There must be an easier way to do this!!??

 
Rick said:
You're cooking them. I just take out a small handful and put into a bare 32 oz cup. They hatch in a day or two. Once hatched I squirt some honey with a syringe onto the top of the foam stopper in the feeding hole. When mantis feeding time I stick the whole cup into the freezer and then use my long tweezers to pluck them out and drop them into the mantid cages.
Click to expand...
I have been using a wide plastic powder funnel to dump the stuned flies in, but I have to move really fast.

It does not take long for them to come too, but right after hatching, they cant fly so well yet.

If I wait a day, they are developed and can fly very well!!

 

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