Food alternatives

[Falconerguy]

Alright, so a lot of people are having trouble with what to feed their mantids when their fruit fly culture runs out, and I figured that I'd throw my two cents out there.

1st. Termites! Every mantid loves termites! Even those who only seems to go after flying insects, like Chaetas and ghosts. All you have to do is check if termites live in your area, and go out and look for rotten stumps. Take an axe to them and collect any termites you find!

2nd. Moths. Every mantis, like termites, loves a good moth! What I usually do is turn on my porch light, or my bedroom light and wait for them to flock. I swoop in with my forceps and collect!

3rd. Spiders. Spiders have a bit of controversy surrounding them. Some people feed spiders, others don't. I feed spiders, but if you choose to feed spiders, you have to be very careful. The kind of spider that it is usually safe to feed are the ones that are easy to catch, like cellar spiders, or those little guys you see all over the sides of your house, or even those garden orb weavers. Either kill the spider before feeding, or hold the spider with forceps while the mantis is eating it, and watch the fangs.

4th. Flies. We all have garbage cans that we have to put out each week, right? Flies love to congregate around the big, green LeMay trash bins, and they make for good pickings.

5th. Last but not least, grasshoppers! During the late summer, grasshoppers are everywhere! Go out with a cup and catch a few!

 

[happy1892]

4th. Flies. We all have garbage cans that we have to put out each week, right? Flies love to congregate around the big, green LeMay trash bins, and they make for good pickings.

Fruit flies too. Drosophila melanogaster. Put out fruit peelings and they come swarming.

 

[PIaf94]

How about the winter time when they're not so

Readily available?

 

[Ranitomeya]

I can say with confidence that in most of California, we have flying insects year-round. If you're in Southern California, you're even more fortunate as it's warm enough all year for all sorts of insects.

If you can't find insects flying or crawling around above ground due to cool weather, termites are definitely an easy food item to acquire if you're able to find an area with old pieces of lumber, discarded wood products, or rotten wood stumps--all you need is a trowel or sometimes just your hands to peel the wood apart. Unlike other insects, termites have a preference for cooler, wetter weather due to how vulnerable most of them are to dessication.

 

[PIaf94]

Thanks. I live in Northern California and it can get pretty cold. Not to the point that we ever get snow but there's always the occasional frost. I haven't seen termites here but when I lived in Tahoe there were a bunch of them. The flying males would make perfect food. I do get around for now by resources around me. (i.e. Moths, Craneflys, blowflies, damsels)

 

[Ranitomeya]

In termites, both males and females fly until they land somewhere and lose their wings. They then tend to couple up with the males following closely behind a female while she looks for a suitable crevice to try to begin a new colony. We usually get them around here right after the first rains or if someone suddenly decides to drench their yard near the end of summer.

Don't forget that you can always use earwigs as feeders--they're pretty easy to find even in cool weather and their cerci are quite harmless.

 

[DrakeLineous]

For me I haven't used fruit flies in a while.I accidentally bought melanogaster instead of hydei so I just took some newly born dubias and gave it to her on a piece of wire, kabob style. Last weekend I actually put in a moth and grasshopper in her enclosure to see if she would feed on her own but it was a no go. The moth died after a couple days and the hopper just escaped somehow.

 

[Ralphys_Mantids]

Ive never had problems with running out of ff. Cultures thanks to snailtail.com