PhilinYuma
Well-known member
I just posted on Frey's feedback thread about the high hatch success that I have had with her ooths and the consistently poor success with ooths that I have bought in the US over the past few months.
Here is a depressing (or interesting, depending on how you look at it) question. Is it possible that we have developed strains of exotic mantids in the U.S. whose ooths hatch more readily under very different conditions from those in the tropics from whence they came? In Europe, there is a strong tendency, at least in recent years, for "serious" mantis breeders to use an incubator for their ooths where they can control temperature and relative humidity.
I am sure that I am not the only one over here to use something similar. 'lectric Blues eyes(!) built a glass incubator several years ago, I think that Sporeworld uses a method similar to mine and Frederick Prete of the Prete Book published a description of a mass incubator in the early nineties that used air driven through a wash bottle as a humidifier.
I think, though, that the vast majority of members of this forum keep their ooths ion a covered pot at room temp and spray it "once or twice a week" with a spray bottle.It is possible that we have developed strains of mantids that are used to this treatment, since those ooths that could not tolerate the low temp/humidity would not have hatched, and that now, they do poorly in the more natural conditions of 80F and 80%RH, which usually require the use of a lamp and a humidifier over here.
So please, could members who buy European and U.S. ooths tell which of the two basic hatching methods you use, and whether or not you have greater success with either U.S. or imported ooths?
I think that I shall pull all of my unhatched US produced, exotic ooths, leave them at room temp, give them an occasional spritz and see what happens.
Here is a depressing (or interesting, depending on how you look at it) question. Is it possible that we have developed strains of exotic mantids in the U.S. whose ooths hatch more readily under very different conditions from those in the tropics from whence they came? In Europe, there is a strong tendency, at least in recent years, for "serious" mantis breeders to use an incubator for their ooths where they can control temperature and relative humidity.
I am sure that I am not the only one over here to use something similar. 'lectric Blues eyes(!) built a glass incubator several years ago, I think that Sporeworld uses a method similar to mine and Frederick Prete of the Prete Book published a description of a mass incubator in the early nineties that used air driven through a wash bottle as a humidifier.
I think, though, that the vast majority of members of this forum keep their ooths ion a covered pot at room temp and spray it "once or twice a week" with a spray bottle.It is possible that we have developed strains of mantids that are used to this treatment, since those ooths that could not tolerate the low temp/humidity would not have hatched, and that now, they do poorly in the more natural conditions of 80F and 80%RH, which usually require the use of a lamp and a humidifier over here.
So please, could members who buy European and U.S. ooths tell which of the two basic hatching methods you use, and whether or not you have greater success with either U.S. or imported ooths?
I think that I shall pull all of my unhatched US produced, exotic ooths, leave them at room temp, give them an occasional spritz and see what happens.