Getting it wrong. Getting it right.

[PhilinYuma]

O.K. I admit when Iam wrong (well some of the time, anyway). I have been raising mantids for six months in 32oz pots with little twigs and different substrates, misting away faithfully and feeding daily, using incrementally larger prey and "varying the diet." I have also started using 12" (30cm) "butterfly" cubes with all sorts of raffia and twigs and even artificial flowers (thanks again, Katt) and I'll complete a 10 tank setup when the hinges arrive, but I've got it wrong.

A few weeks ago, I found a sub adult female S. limbata hanging out where I keep my ff pots. She must have been the sole survivor of one of my late female's ooths that I had discarded as too tiny to bother with. She had never been misted or given water or even fed, but when I got her into a pot, she molted to adult and has started laying (infertile, alas) ooths. Tonight I discovered that I had a minor leak from my fly cage (probably no more than fifty got out though), and there, lurking behind the cage, was a giant Asian mantis larger than any of the ones I have in pots. It must have escaped from the cube in which the babies hatched. I put her in a pot, and she does not look happy. She's probably been laughing at the others for nearly two months.

Both these mantids have survived and thrived in an ambient humidity of 20%RL, or so, on whatever food they could find, so I am now considering letting all of my flies and ffs out, then releasing the mantids and letting them care for themselves.

Is there such a thing as a supersonic mantis whistle that I could use when I want to summon them?

 

[d17oug18]

well you can train them lol ive done it before, though no one outside my family(whose seen it done with there own eyes)believes me when i say you can. its REALLY easy with males who can just fly to there cages.

 

[hibiscusmile]

hummm, I detect a couple loose loons too! :lol: Which is understandable for people who play with bugs :lol:

The only problem I see is the flies pestering you, unless of course u don't mind that kind of nusiance, then u could also leave them a place to breed too and never buy them again too! other than the litter or frass the mantis will leave u, u should be good to go.

 

[massaman]

maybe u need to show them how its done since they only have one ear and they can only hear ultrasound, and the dominant source of ultrasound in the environment is the echolocation cries of hunting bats. Unless you can scream high pitched like the bats they wont hear anything ehh!

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cebh/yagerlab/Projects.html

 

[Schloaty]

Well, I the Giant Asians, at least (for me) seemed rather hardy when I raised them. I never misted them, and they were fine.

Never kept the other species you mentioned.

But, as my experience with tropical plants also supports, the guidelines for care are for the unltra-conservative (read: those who don't want to loose a SINGLE ONE).

Constitution varies from individual to individual. I have a plant that supposed to only fourish in HIGH humidty, blah blah blah. The darn thing grow like a weed for me, even in the middle of winter, provided I just WATER it. I've had others of the same speices croak because I looked at them funny.

Go figure.