ghost mantis feeding

[SomeWhiteGuy]

What can I feed a ghost mantis in the winter that I can order online in bulk and keep alive easy till summer.

 

[hierodula]

... well, it depends on the size, but flies are great, but wont las 2 seasons

 

[SomeWhiteGuy]

I did have a question on flies how long can you keep pupae in the fridge?

 

[SomeWhiteGuy]

Also the Ghosts are L4 been feeding them some big flies they are about the size of a nickle I would say the flies that is mantids are about 2x that almost

 

[hierodula]

ur talking about blue bottle flies. The pupae last about a month, but over time ur hatch rate decreases.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Get some diff wormms for etending the feeding season, in times like these, rations are rare!

 

[twolfe]

ur talking about blue bottle flies. The pupae last about a month, but over time ur hatch rate decreases.

Order blue bottle spikes/larvae instead of pupae if you need them to last longer. You just need to plan ahead and take some out every few days so that you have some continually hatching.

 

[SomeWhiteGuy]

Okay cool that is some good info. I just moved out to Wisconsin so they don't have any good pet shops near this location. So I needed to impovise and order some bugs in bulk to keep my babies fed. lucky for me my girlfriends father has some flies that were pupae so he did not want them any more he uses them for fishing.

 

[dlemmings]

Order blue bottle spikes/larvae instead of pupae if you need them to last longer. You just need to plan ahead and take some out every few days so that you have some continually hatching.

+1 on this....I order spikes and pull out a dozen or so every few days depending on how many mouths I have to feed...my current colony is 4 adult females, 1 adult male and around 7 subs. plus 30 or so L-2 to L-4s

crickets will work in a pinch and I keep fruit flies in culture pretty much ALWAYS in a pinch the smaller instars will take a bunch of fruit flies like bon-bons. :clown:

 

[justrokkit]

I've been feeding mine mealworms. She doesn't readily lock onto them because their shells are hard, so what I do is I cut the heads off. The flesh comes out, and once she has a few bites of it, she'll grasp the worm and chow down. I try not to go too long on just mealworms, but you're right: it's really hard to get some good eats for them in the winter. I have an orchid as well. Before they were even sub-adults, I also fed silkworms. They'd often be to big, so I cut them in half and they each got a piece. It's a bit gory, yes, but I'd read before that silkworms are among the most nutritious. But I wouldn't do them again. It's a huge pain to raise a colony of caterpillars. They make so much frass and they don't even climb well. Not to mention they haven't all eclosed... I got about a 70% yield of moths which have all been eaten already.

 

[SomeWhiteGuy]

All good info I like this. Thanks for all the info.