Deli Cup Container Help [URGENT PLEASE REPLY FAST!]

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Mantis Man13

Mantis Man13

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Ok, so the exotic pet store employees that have kept Orchid mantises before and I bought fruit flies from said that my ten gallon cage and another cage I have that is a bit smaller are too big for L2 Orchid and can cause the Orchid mantises to die from stress potentially. Is this true? Also, they gave me springtails to put in the bottom of these deli cups that they gave me to control mold. Is this neccesary? I also put cocunut husk on the bottom as substrate and put sticks in the cage and mesh on the top of the lid. Finally, I know that a lot of people on the mantid forum keep deli cups and I need a LOT of help on how to make the best Deli cup home ever. I will post pictures of what the deli cup homes look like and please tell me how to improve the homes. For now I will give you as much info as possible and please tell me what I should do to make the deli cups good.

 
First of all, each deli cup is a standard quart sized deli cup. I have two of them, each 6 inches tall and 3 inches wide. I put sticks in everywhere as well. I cut a small hole on the lid and put screen on the top of the lid. I made sure to make the hole have a 1 inch diameter so moisture would still stay in. Was that a good idea and should I make the circle bigger? Also, I put coconut husk at the bottom for substrate to keep moisture in. Then I put the spring tails at the bottom with some feeder so they clean the cage. I am wondering if I should buy a fake Orchid flower so the Orchid mantises will stay pink. If I were to do this would the Orchid mantises have a bad molt if they molted on it? Once I post the pictures please tell me if I did the wrong stick placement and what to do. Also, should I put screen on the sides of the cage since it is slippery and could be bad for molting? Please respond I really want my first Orchid mantises to survive! Do a fellow mantis brother a favor and try to be as detailed as possible in your responses if you too keep deli cup containers!

 
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The first picture is my first deli cup. The second picture is my second deli cup. Each cup has vertically placed sticks please help me for better stick placement. The third picture shows what each of the two lids look like with the one inch diameter mesh hole. Should I make the hole bigger? Should I put mesh on the sides of the deli cups?

 
Also, is it healthy for the Orchid mantises to eat Springtails? They are eating them at the moment.

 
Please disregard the factual tone of my comments (which are opinions based on my own experiences). They are not intended to be negative but are offered in the spirit of constructive criticism only. I'm in the middle of a busy day and reply only because you asked me to check out this thread via PM.

(For future reference, it would be best if you edited your additional questions into the original post rather than replying to yourself 4 times. This prevents excess scrolling for the rest of us.)

First thing I notice is tape. Tape has been the cause of death for many mantises in poorly conceived shipping containers. Hot glue (glue gun) is better.

The sticks look freshly cut. Freshly cut sticks will mold in humid environments.

Also, the angle of the sticks is suitable for climbing but they are rather steep for use as molting surfaces. The mantis may be tempted to molt from them and the steepness combined with the somewhat smooth surface may increase risk factors in the molting process (still the stick is better than the plastic wall of the cage as a molting surface!).

Not sure what the black stuff on your coconut fiber is but the substrate aspect of your cage looks perfect.

Size of cage is a little big for an L2, if anything, but a great improvement over a 10 gallon tank.

Springtails are too small. Use fruit flies.

Ventilation is perfect.

If you want the ultimate habitat for an orchid mantis it is the jungle in Asia ;) . If you want the next best thing, it's a boring old deli cup with paper towels running up the sides and bottom of the cup and with paper towel glued to the lid and all these surfaces slightly moistened every day per the size of the ventilation gap and your household temperature. You should always have some humidity in there. Aside these two set ups yours is overall a big improvement, but I have to recommend the changes above.

I suspect you'll get a few additional suggestions from other members. I gotta get back to feeding my mantises!

P.s. Super cute animation in your signature line!

 
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That mesh will allow fruitflies to escape, and lose the tape ASAP as mentioned earlier. If you don't have any pre-ventilated cloth lids around, I find a cheap micromesh that works great is some organza from the fabric/craft store, and it will function as molting surface if you glue it to the underside. While you are there, pick up a glue gun, preferably one with a low heat option :)

I like to make a hole in the middle big enough for a funnel tip that I plug with a sponge. Easy way to keep things in when adding fruit flies, etc. When hotgluing the organza on in this case, I make a hotglue circle around the middle opening (inside lid), and another circle around the edge of the lid (also inside). I used a soldering iron to melt the airholes, but that is not necessary.

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Can you tell me what angle I should put the sticks Peter? Should they be horizontal? How many sticks should I have? Also, can I put mesh on the top instead of paper towel? and can I also put mesh on the sides instead of paper towel? thx.

 
I think you're freaking out way too much about it... (no offense). The angle of sticks really doesn't matter, heck I don't even use sticks for mine anymore. Paper towel substrate, paper towel lid and that's it. Feed them fruit flies, let their enclosures dry out between mistings. Done.

Don't fuss too much with mantises. The more you fuss the more you stress them out, the more likely they'll die on you. Just make sure temperature is good and don't overwater them. Honestly the less you put in there the less chances of stuff going wrong. They do not need anything apart from a surface with good grip to molt from.

 
What if I just keep my sticks and substrate and put mesh on the sides and top instead of paper towel? Wouldn't it be better than paper towel? Also I am sorry for overreacting but I just want everything to be perfect lol. Been wanting it too perfect it seems. These are my first Orchids don't want to die. Since you keep Orchids have any more tips for me Aryia?

 
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Deli cups with pre-vented fabric lids are less than 50 cents a piece at new england herpetoculture. I keep my nymphs almost exactly how Pete explains except I put a little excelsior in the bottom.

 
So I am wondering if I should put a fake Orchid in the cage? Also if I put leaves in won't it be bad? Should I take the coconut fiber out and just put in paper towel at the bottom? Also, can I put mesh on all sides and the top?

 
You can do whatever you want with mesh/paper towels... just speaking from experience it's a heck lot harder cleaning if you have mesh hotglued to the sides. Fruit fly wings and legs get lodged in there along with all kinds of other goodies, but if you just have a couple cups to clean it won't be a biggie. (Definitely avoid hotglueing any paper towel on the sides or bottom if you're thinking about it, you'd have to make a new enclosure everytime you want to change it.)

My point was that you shouldn't try to focus as much on what to put into the enclosure. All they need to thrive is proper humidity, ventilation and temperature and a surface to hang upside down and molt on. A healthy orchid climbs plastic very easily, decorations are not necessary but you can put them in if you'd like. Just make sure there's enough space for your orchid to molt. The only thing I would change about your enclosure is the lid. You can cut out everything (leave about 1 cm from the rim) and just replace it with paper towel or a smaller diameter mesh. Honestly paper towel holds humidity in better in my opinion, plus it's a pain to find smaller mesh (all types of fruit flies will escape through the mesh you have right now, I found that out the hard way). As someone said, the pre-made lids from NE Herp work very well.

The only problem I ran into while keeping them was when I tried to follow caresheets that said they need HIIIIGHHH humidity and to mist them daily... Didn't work out very well since a lot of nymphs started getting weak and dying on me. They need their dry time, let their enclosures dry out at least for a day before spraying more water. They prefer to drink droplets of water so spray the side of the enclosure (try not to spray the mantis, a little water won't hurt them but they don't like it). I keep mine all in a room that is 80 degF during the day, temperatures vary and the orchids are pretty resilient to it.

Someone gave me a lecture about how they're not actually found on orchid plants but papaya flowers instead... go figure xD But up until now I've let them sit on real orchid plants occasionally and they've loved it.

*Sorry if I don't make much sense, I haven't slept yet* You can PM me if you have questions, I'm notorious for not checking back on threads!

 

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