caterpillars

[mantidian]

Found a yellow jacket wasp nest on my front door yesterday so I knocked it down and fed the wasp to my mantis after plucking its abdoment out

So when the nest fell apart, 5 caterpillars dropped out, with 2 dead. ( dehydrated?)

so today 4/5 of them were dead with one which split into black grains =,=

so the question is, can I feed the caterpillars to my mantids? or are they poisonous cos they where stung by the wasp?

any help appreciated

cheers

Jonjoe

 

[agent A]

wasps eat caterpillars and feed them to the larvae.

 

[superfreak]

Alex? Shhhhh!

I would not feed anything which has been poisoned by another insect to my mantids. Doesnt sound like the greatest idea. Wasp larvae, on the other hand...

 

[gadunka888]

it would be helpful if we knew what kind of wasp it was...

the wasp don't kill the caterpillars. they paralyze them and feed them to their larvae. I guess if you feed a mantis the caterpillars they will also end up paralyzed as well.

 

[agent A]

Alex? Shhhhh!I would not feed anything which has been poisoned by another insect to my mantids. Doesnt sound like the greatest idea. Wasp larvae, on the other hand...

I didn't tell him to feed the caterpillars to the mantis.

 

[mantidian]

see the title

 

[agent A]

yellow jacket! I wouldn't feed any wasp or ant to a mantis, just bees.

 

[mantidian]

I cut its butt out so the sting is not a threat

and dont worry my mantis wasn't bitten!

 

[Rick]

I wouldn't use those pillars as a food source. Probably woulnd't hurt anything but it would be far down on my list of food for mantids.

 

[ismart]

Are you sure what fell out of the nest was not the wasp larvae itself?

 

[mantidian]

They are definitely caterpillars: 3 pairs of sharp legs and 4 suckers

 

[jameslongo]

They are definitely caterpillars: 3 pairs of sharp legs and 4 suckers

Not saying they're wasp larvae, but sawfly larvae also have 3 pairs of legs & pseudopodae.

 

[mantidian]

its look like the common green caterpillar you see in a park. about 5mm thick and 1.5/2 cm long. but its definitely not the thing in the pic!

 

[ismart]

its look like the common green caterpillar you see in a park. about 5mm thick and 1.5/2 cm long. but its definitely not the thing in the pic!

Are you willing to sacrifice one of your mantids to use as a guinea pig?

 

[Katnapper]

If I had any doubts, I wouldn't use them as food.

 

[ABbuggin]

If I had any doubts, I wouldn't use them as food.

Same here.