MantidLord
Well-known member
Okay, this is my first thread , so be gentle. Here is the story:
I have 8 Iris oratoria nymphs: 1 L5, 3 L4s, and 4 L6s. (which I assume is sub-adult) . My L6s turned L6 on Sunday evening, and I left them alone. A couple of hours later, I put some fruit flies in there (hydei), and they ate them...all. It was a massacre, :blink: and they weren't full. As to be expected, They tower over the flies. So I waited a day, and gave two small crix to each mantis. *Now I know alot of you are against feeding crix to your mantids, but bare with me. My mom can barely put up with fruit flies, so there's no way I can have flies, roaches, or anything else in the house. Anyway...The mantids didn't eat the crix. They just looked at them, because the crickets are clumsy, and make a scene. But the mantids were up top, and the cricekts on the bottom of the container. So, I fixed it to where the crix can climb up to the mantids. But for all four mantids (in seperate containers), when a cricket came to them, they would go in extreme defense posture (abdomen curled up, front legs spread wide, etc.) and strike the cricket down. :angry: So I just kept feeding the spoiled L6s fruitflies . But all my flies were eaten, and now I just have pupae and maggots in the two cutlures I have. And the other four mantids can't take crickets yet, so they're completely dependent on Fruit flies. And now that they've molted to their current stages as of yesterday (I'm not talking about the L6s now), they haven't eaten anything, and I fear starvation. So here are my questions:
1)When should my fruit fly pupae hatch, if they started appeaing on Monday/Tuesday.
2)Do you guys think my young mantids (not the L6) will survive untill the fruit flies hatch.
3)And finally, what the heck should I do about the L6s!!!
I've just left them alone, and nothing's happened. I've selected really small crix for them when they were L5 and they ate them. Now they are afraid! Should I just give them a choice: Eat or Starve? Or continue on babying them with fruitflies until they molt to L7 (Which I think is an adult. Please correct me if I'm wrong)? Please help me with these guys, I've raised them since L1 (They are wild caught). Thanks to anyone in advance, I really don't want these guys to starve.
P.S. I almost forgot. For some reason, I've lazily determined the sex of the four L6s, all female. But as I look at them, the two that I am 85% sure are females, have 6 segments. While the other two, I can't get a good view, as I'm not sure if there is a segment near the anus, or if I include that AS a segment. I know you guys probably can't help me out with this, but does anyone know of any dominant female sexual ratio with this sp.? Thank-you very much. I will update if anyone post. please reply
I have 8 Iris oratoria nymphs: 1 L5, 3 L4s, and 4 L6s. (which I assume is sub-adult) . My L6s turned L6 on Sunday evening, and I left them alone. A couple of hours later, I put some fruit flies in there (hydei), and they ate them...all. It was a massacre, :blink: and they weren't full. As to be expected, They tower over the flies. So I waited a day, and gave two small crix to each mantis. *Now I know alot of you are against feeding crix to your mantids, but bare with me. My mom can barely put up with fruit flies, so there's no way I can have flies, roaches, or anything else in the house. Anyway...The mantids didn't eat the crix. They just looked at them, because the crickets are clumsy, and make a scene. But the mantids were up top, and the cricekts on the bottom of the container. So, I fixed it to where the crix can climb up to the mantids. But for all four mantids (in seperate containers), when a cricket came to them, they would go in extreme defense posture (abdomen curled up, front legs spread wide, etc.) and strike the cricket down. :angry: So I just kept feeding the spoiled L6s fruitflies . But all my flies were eaten, and now I just have pupae and maggots in the two cutlures I have. And the other four mantids can't take crickets yet, so they're completely dependent on Fruit flies. And now that they've molted to their current stages as of yesterday (I'm not talking about the L6s now), they haven't eaten anything, and I fear starvation. So here are my questions:
1)When should my fruit fly pupae hatch, if they started appeaing on Monday/Tuesday.
2)Do you guys think my young mantids (not the L6) will survive untill the fruit flies hatch.
3)And finally, what the heck should I do about the L6s!!!
I've just left them alone, and nothing's happened. I've selected really small crix for them when they were L5 and they ate them. Now they are afraid! Should I just give them a choice: Eat or Starve? Or continue on babying them with fruitflies until they molt to L7 (Which I think is an adult. Please correct me if I'm wrong)? Please help me with these guys, I've raised them since L1 (They are wild caught). Thanks to anyone in advance, I really don't want these guys to starve.
P.S. I almost forgot. For some reason, I've lazily determined the sex of the four L6s, all female. But as I look at them, the two that I am 85% sure are females, have 6 segments. While the other two, I can't get a good view, as I'm not sure if there is a segment near the anus, or if I include that AS a segment. I know you guys probably can't help me out with this, but does anyone know of any dominant female sexual ratio with this sp.? Thank-you very much. I will update if anyone post. please reply