BE CAREFUL WITH SUPERWORMS

[Andrew]

Hey everyone, I just went in to check on my mantids, and everything was looking good. Then, I made the mistake of looking at the I. Oratoria's. I had 3 females of Iris Oratoria, and now I have two. I left the superworm in the cage with the female, thinking that she would eat it when she felt comfortable. Well, when I looked in I found that the female was MISSING HER HEAD. I think that she might have tried to catch the superworm, and lost the fight. Then, I looked into the other Oratoria's cage. She was laying an ooth, well thats good. Then I noticed the superworm eating away at the ooth as she was laying it. Do you think the ooth will be OK? All it did was make a small dent in the ooth.

-Andrew

 

[Jesse]

The ooth should be fine as long as not too many or none of the eggs themselves got damaged.

 

[Rick]

You just put the worms in with the mantis? Hard to believe they actually will go down after it. When I feed worms I just hand feed them or otherwise the mantis won't pay it any attention. Sorry to hear about you losing the one mantis.

 

[looseyfur]

not just mantids it seems superworms and crix are equal oppertunity killers. I have lost slings to both, lost a beautiful a. genic to a over zelous crix who just wasnt ready to be a meal. I agree with Leah that its a lesson which breeds caution after you lose an invert to a prey item.

bummer-

loosey

 

[Leah]

I've lost baby chameleons to crickets too- the pictures are quite graphic.

 

[herpfan]

yeah, my first mantis was lost to a cricket, although this was my dads fault and not mine (i always feed the mantis on my hand)

Kev 8)