Help for a mantis foster mom?

[Kathi K]

Hi. I am looking for advice. I have rescued about 25 baby praying mantises that hatched in my friend's Christmas tree. She was going to let them die, but I volunteered to try and get them through the winter. I have read a lot of info online but I am still a little confused on what to expect and what I'm going to need to make it through the next few months. Right now they are eating fruitflies and seem to be relatively happy. They hatched sometime around December 26th(that is when she first found them). My biggest question is how much space are they going to need and how soon. Right now I have them in a small beta fish container(about 6x8x3in). I know they can't stay in there for long. I already have a bigger aquarium that is about 12x6x8in that I can move them into but I don't know how long that will work either. I don't know how fast they are going to grow. Any tips anyone can give me would be appreciated. Thanks~

 

[angelofdeathzz]

I would switch to the larger tank or use both to spread them out more, a pic would by nice to see what species? prob Carolina or Chinese?

 

[hierodula]

paper owel on the bottom, fruit flies. Mist 2x a week, and provide branches to the ceiling. Diagonally. should be a good basic setup

 

[Kathi K]

I don't know if this pic is close up enough- I pulled this from my facebook. I can take another if needed.

 

[aNisip]

I would guess Chinese (Tenodera Aridifolia Sinensis) ...they will be fine with ffs for up to two molts more but if you go and buy pin head crix, you can feed them those at L3...

All the best,

Andrew

 

[hibiscusmile]

yea, chinese babies, no fried rice, but do mist each day, they need water. I would move them to bigger container with some twigs right away.

 

[BugLover]

if you don't want them to eat each other, separate them into containers with paper towels in the bottom and have each container about 3x as tall and 2x as wide as the mantis. feed small pinhead crickets or fruit flies and mist as needed.

Hope this helps!

Buglover

 

[happy1892]

And have something rough for them to hold onto while molting. Like rough bark or a rough stick, not smooth.