dispensing small cricket to each mantis

[john57]

I am trying to see if there is a way to dispense small crickets to mantis without getting them loose in the house. I think the the common cricket keeper with square tubes will not keep the small crickets in as the vents seems to be too big for the small crickets. Looking into using a funnel tube but have not come with a workable idea. Can anyone give me some more ideas?

 

[MantisGirl13]

I use needlenose pliers or tweezers and they work great!

- MantisGirl13

 

[Mantis Lady]

I use tweezers to give them to the mantids and watch them eat.

 

[john57]

That is how I have been doing but crickets are hard to catch. It is like trying to catch popping popcorn with tweezers. I do not want to squeeze the life out of the crickets and the mantis will not eat it. I only have one mantis that will eat worms or none will try roaches like Dubia which are easier to catch. Most of my mantis will eat crickets as long it is moving. Most will eat house flies but have too many escapes.   I need to find a better system that will work for me.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Long feeding tongs are easier to use than regular tweezers. It gives you more control and you don't have to squeeze the life out of them to hold on, they have grippy teeth. I use 16 cm long dental forceps like these (I got them on eBay)

With flies the way I prevent escapes is to hatch a few dozen in a deli cup then when I am ready to feed I put the cup in the fridge for 10 to 20 min. This makes the flies dormant for a few minutes until they warm up again so work fast. If the flies start waking up before you are done put them back in the fridge for a few minutes. Repeat as many times as necessary.  I got a mini fridge to keep in my insect room and that has helped to cut down the number of trips needed to feed everyone. 

You can put crickets in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes to slow them down too.  Just don't forget about them, unlike flies that will be fine if you leave them in the fridge all day, crickets will die if exposed to the cold for too long.

 

[Mantis Lady]

The dental ones looks handy for smaller prey. I need those too.

Most of my mantis will eat crickets as long it is moving. Most will eat house flies but have too many escapes.

What i do when the cricket is too big, cut it in 2. and feed the abdomen by putting it under the mantids mouth. Let the mantis taste and starts to eat. When he does he will grab the prey in his claws and you can let go.

 

[Ocelotbren]

I don't feed with crickets often, mostly just as a bonus supplement for the larger females that eat a lot. However, I keep them in the cricket keeper and use the tubes to dump a single cricket into a small deli cup. From there, while holding the lid most of the way on the cup so the cricket can't jump out, I remove or maim the jumping legs so the cricket can't go very far if it does get loose. It's pretty easy to grab with tweezers then. The trick for me was just to reduce the space it can escape to, and that meant shaking them out of the tube one at a time. I only ever need at most 2-3 at a time though and I'm sure this would get tedious if I needed more. As a side note, I transfer them into the deli cups outside on the deck, just in case they escape during the shaking.

Another option if they don't have working jumping legs anymore is to just hold the deli cup open in front of the mantis so they can grab the cricket straight out of it while it tries to climb the walls of the cup but can't.