HELP! Can I Pull My Hair Out Yet?

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ladygigi

ladygigi

Well-known member
Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
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Location
Kingman, Arizona
I had another 1st Instar hatch yesterday and I called it a late bloomer. :lol: Well, I should have kept my mouth shut because 5 more hatched today!! :no: They just keep coming, and coming, and coming. . . :blink: How long is this going to go on for? When I looked in the terrarium, they are coming out of the first ooth!!!! I say this because I can see more hatching out now. By later tonight or tomorrow morning I will have even more. Is this a normal trait for Iris Oratoria? How many do they usually hatch from one ooth? How long does their "hatching" period take place for??? I mean, are these things gonna keep coming out of that ooth forever??? :wacko:

I don't know how many of you remember this, but, I got into this on accident, not because I wanted to. I am disabled and quite frankly, it is getting to be a bit much. :huh: So, anyone that can answer some of the questions I asked up there, I'd really appreciate it. I asked them before in another post, but never got any answers. Please, somebody, let me know what is going on with this species. I'm literally about to pull my hair out. Every time I turn around, I've got to make more cups, and then I don't have enough shelf space for them, and then I don't have enough FF culture, and then I don't have. . .It's kind of like them, it goes on and on and on. . . :dots:

 
sounds like mantids are not a good hobby for you. ooths will hatch out over 30 nymphs. this is something to be prepared for. if you cant afford to feed them all and house and care for them just release them where you found the mother. if they dont have enough flies they wont last too long. if you only keep a few of them you can catch wild food and it wont cost anything but when they get to be adults you have to think about breeding them, then selling the ooths because you wouldnt want to be over burdened by more babies.i see in all of your posts you mention you got into this by accident, if your not wanting to keep them just take the easy way out and let them go, it wont cost anything and maybe in the future you will see them around the yard generations to come.

 
Why are you straining to take care of more than you want to take care of? If they were native release the extras. If they aren't then hit up the buy/sell section in this forum. You can even just keep them in a larger tank, provide a bunch of fruit flies, and let nature cull the numbers for you.

You sound like you would have a lot more fun caring for 1-5 our so at a time.

 
Mantis ooths can either hatch all at once or over a few days... Like others said, you can either release some where you found the mother or post an ad :)

 
yes, just post them now, a lot will want them. this species always hatches slowly over time, so it could go on for a while. Which is why I haven't kept them before for long as they are hard to tell when it is done. You will have to sell them at around 3 to 4 bucks each, but if you have a lot of them they will get sold, let the customers know in your ad some you send may be 1st instar, and this way they wont be disappointed.

 
BugLover said:
Mantis ooths can either hatch all at once or over a few days... Like others said, you can either release some where you found the mother or post an ad :)
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The problem is that it hasn't been a few days, it's going on like almost 2 weeks now. . .That's why I'm beginning to wonder when it's going to stop. LOL :lol:

 
hibiscusmile said:
yes, just post them now, a lot will want them. this species always hatches slowly over time, so it could go on for a while. Which is why I haven't kept them before for long as they are hard to tell when it is done. You will have to sell them at around 3 to 4 bucks each, but if you have a lot of them they will get sold, let the customers know in your ad some you send may be 1st instar, and this way they wont be disappointed.
Click to expand...
Thank you for actually answering my question rather than giving me advice. :flowers: I'm going to make a post because I'm really rather disappointed in the answers I've received to this post. Thank you again Rebecca. Can you tell me approximately how many come from an ooth of this species? I mean is it usually in the 30's or more like the 50's? You know what I mean? I just want to know what to expect.

 
I'm afraid I don't know for certain myself about I. oratoria hatch rates, but from some googling it sounds like they hatch anywhere from a few to a dozen nymphs per day for a week to ten days. So that can easily be a hundred nymphs.

Don't feel as if you need to care for each and every nymph. I know that's our soft-hearted human response, but the reason mantises have so many nymphs is because not many will make it to adulthood to breed themselves. In the wild, most of them don't make it, but enough do to keep the species alive and thriving. But you are not expected by other mantis hobbyists to raise every nymph safely to adulthood. Since they're a native or naturalized species that you got from a wild-caught adult laying ooths in the terrarium, do feel free to release some back into your garden, or another nearby spot that is accessible to you!

(Granted, for those of us who have non-native mantises, releasing the excess is NOT an option. I mean chances are slim that a tropical species could get a foothold in New England, for example, but you never know, and invasive species are a huge problem.)

And/or you could house them together and allow them to cannibalize, which would take care of both the need for food and your excess numbers.

And I know I would be interested in a few I. oratoria nymphs, and others have said so too! If it's within your ability to pack and mail nymphs to other forum members, I definitely recommend posting in the Classifieds. There's posts throughout the forums about how people pack their nymphs for shipping, to give you an idea of what you'd need to do to give the nymphs the best chance of making it through the mail.

Again, please don't feel that you must take care of every nymph! We will not judge you for allowing them to cannibalize, releasing some back to the wild, etc etc! I have two T. sinensis ooths I'm incubating, and since I'm not keen on having several hundred nymphs to house and feed separately, I plan to release the majority of them.

 
The species you have is NOTORIOUS for hatching over periods of weeks. They are naturalized (not native) to your area, so you can let them go and it won't be a problem. Typically they hatch about 30-50 but since it depends on the ooth. No where near a hundred or so like T. sinensis.

The reason why people were giving you advice was because it sounded like you needed. You're posting about how you don't think you can take care of them all, well then don't.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you to those of you who started answering my questions. That is what I was looking for, I just want to be able to prepare. ;)

 

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