Food variety

[sueb4653]

What varieties of food are out there?

this what mine have got so far

hydei

house flies

BB

crickets

grasshoppers

silk worms

moths

what do you feed?

 

[Bug Trader]

butterfly's, honeybee's, mayflies and others stuff like that

 

[Crazy4mantis]

anything I can find. :lol: don't forget melanogasters.

 

[patrickfraser]

No roaches listed? Dubia and hisser roaches are the kind I keep.

 

[Bug Trader]

They are illegal in TN we had to give up the roach cultures when we moved here. The arachnids never forgave us.

 

[sueb4653]

I dont know if I could do roachs just the thought ewwww

 

[frogparty]

Silkworms, wax moths, bbs, hfs, fruit flies, crickets for certain species,

 

[mantisboy]

For L6 and Up:

Crickets

BBs

Houseflies

Green Lacewing

Grass Hoppers

Female Katydid

Cabbage Butterflies

 

[Mime454]

Is it easy to culture roaches? Are they smelly?

 

[Saebjorn9]

crickets, wax worms, wax moths, blue bottles, mealworms, sometimes honey as a little treat. Anytime I'm outside I look for something new for my mantises to try.

 

[Mvalenz]

Fruit flies, house flies, crickets, cats, dogs, small children.

 

[Bug Trader]

Dubia are rather clean and easy to culture, They need a damp media in the bottom there are some good options that make cleaning easy, egg crate ran vertically in the culture to allow for more ground coverage for them. There are pre made diets only thing is they take a good 6 months to mature so buy adults to start with. you can usually get a decent breeder package with adults and nymphs of all sizes for a good price. They are however becoming illegal in quite a few states.

 

[patrickfraser]

LOL. Bringing up the legality issue is funny, seeing as what we feed them to. :lol:

 

[Bug Trader]

True, but I know people who had their house raided AND are facing charges, some went to jail for dealing roaches.....And the laws are enforced on them unlike the mantids.

 

[patrickfraser]

I guess you're safe if you're not dealing. I only keep for personal use. They could never stick me with "dealing" charges.

 

[Bug Trader]

Yeah dont go posting them for sale on a forum or KingSnake with your actual location posted when its a state that has outlawed them., Thats how they were caught,

 

[JSaff86]

i like to every now and then feed mine raw beef. just get some tweezers and put it up to there mouth and they start eating

 

[Sticky]

I feed mine bbs wild moths and others at times. I also hand feed mine milk,honey and powdered bee pollen I grind myself.It has kept my old mantis Sticky alive after he has stopped eating bugs.

Has anyone given their mantids milk? My unckle Bob fed his milk with an eye dropped when he was a tee.They loved it and grew big and healthy on it. He gave them bugs too.

 

[Mime454]

Mine get wild caught food. Whatever I find in my yard during the day, or at my light at night. They all seem quite fat and healthy. Plus the feeders are naturally gut loaded.