Centipede or Millipede???

[MrPitseleh]

When I hunt for mantis food I keep finding two types of bugs one's grayish and about an inch long sort of like a longer rolly poley, the other is skinnier, darker, and brown and up to two inches long and I found them both under rocks with decomposing leaves and acorns. Oh and I live in southeast Kansas. What I really want to know is could I feed them to my mantis and what about grub worms, when I tried them he just looked at it could have just been full maybe???

 

[Peter Clausen]

Of those three choices, I'd expect the grub worms to be the best feeder option. I wouldn't offer millipedes to my mantises, but more out of suspicion than confirmed fact. Millipedes excrete various toxins that are distasteful to most things that would attempt to eat them, if not all together poisonous!

Soft-bodied (non-rolling roly poly bugs) are called sow bugs. Mantises don't tend to be interested in them, but I've seen mantises eat them all or partially.

Centipedes tend to be flattened, while millipedes are more rounded. A handful of millipedes are somewhat flat, but still thick compared with centipedes which also tend to be reddish or orange when less than 2 inches. Centipedes are fast and predatory and might kill a small mantis. Millipedes are quite slow and harder bodied.

You would be better off collecting feeder bugs by day, on flowers or bushes or building walls, or collecting bugs that are attracted to your porch light, at night.

Or head down to your local pet store for some crickets.

 

[hibiscusmile]

More info than I needed, but thanks Peter for that !

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yeah, like Peter says, when you are hunting for mantid food, act like a mantis. You'll almost never find a mantis under a rock, so that's not a good plavce to look for their food. Check out flowering plants and shrubs and sweep areas with thick, overgrown grass with a heavy net. Good luck!

 

[MrPitseleh]

Yeah, like Peter says, when you are hunting for mantid food, act like a mantis. You'll almost never find a mantis under a rock, so that's not a good plavce to look for their food. Check out flowering plants and shrubs and sweep areas with thick, overgrown grass with a heavy net. Good luck!

Ya I thought the same but I heard they Eat Earth worms, I wanted to see what all he'd take a bite out of, and in Early winter won't those bugs still be there when other bugs have died and frozen?

 

[PhilinYuma]

Ya I thought the same but I heard they Eat Earth worms, I wanted to see what all he'd take a bite out of, and in Early winter won't those bugs still be there when other bugs have died and frozen?

Yep, you'll have to start buying crix and maybe roaches and raising or at least buying houseflies and bluebottles. You'll save a fair bit of money if you raise your own flies. You're right, mantids in nature spend much of their time sated or starving, and a starving mantis will eat all sorts of improbable things like earthworms and goldfish, but they don't make a good staple diet!.