House flies...

[JoeCapricorn]

How do I prevent house flies from escaping when it comes time to feed the mantises? I think I have like, 6 now flying around my head at this very moment. At night, they like to land on the monitor, so at least that gives me somewhat of an idea on what to do for the ones that are annoying me right now... put Meek or another one of the African mantises on the monitor and wait until a fly lands by them... ^_^

Yeah, it's kind of a dumb question o_o;

Does putting them in the fridge work alright?

Once I get a good grip on them though, I take the forceps and pull a wing off so they can't fly away.

Definitely not a staple food for the mantises though, I look forward to when they are gone. However, they make a tasty treat and when it does come time to feed the African mantises, a medium sized male is all that is needed to fill them up. I know the Giant Asians can get their hands on them too, it's just that I've been keeping their tummies full of fruit flies since they got here! It's fun feeding them, requires attention since they are FAST and very curious.

 

[Rick]

I put the pupa in a 32 oz deli cup. THat will be their home when they eclose. When it is feeding time I put the whole cup into the freezer until they stop moving. Then I can use my long forceps to pick them out and feed to the mantids. By the time they wake up I am done and the lid has been replaced. Sometimes I will drop one and not find so there are a few escapees. I've found that new flies take four minutes in the freezer but the older they get the less time you need to use.

 

[hibiscusmile]

also u can let one or two mantis out around where u work and hope they catch them, usually for me though, I spend all my time catching them and running around to the loose mantis to give to them... kinda of like having a cat to catch mice, I do all the work.

 

[ismart]

I keep a couple butterfly nets handy for the escapees. There not hard to catch with these.

 

[3.1415926]

A carnivorus plant will do a good job of catching flies, especially a nepenthes.

Keep flies in a refrigeratior until the are slugigsh

 

[Katnapper]

also u can let one or two mantis out around where u work and hope they catch them, usually for me though, I spend all my time catching them and running around to the loose mantis to give to them... kinda of like having a cat to catch mice, I do all the work.

I do that too, lol.... feed all the resident escapees with flies I smack with a flyswatter, or cut up roaches to hand feed them.

If you use net cages to eclose the flies in, you can transfer them pretty easily by unzipping both (quickly) 1/4 of the way down, holding the flaps of each cage together, then banging on the fly cage with your knee repeatedly, in combination with phototropism (putting the mantis cage closer to the light source), and they will fly right in.

Or you can mist the flies in the net cage to slow them down (again using phototropism to position the opening at the darkest side), and then use either a cup with lid to catch batches of them; or you can use the cups your mantids are in to catch some directly in their cups.

Thanks for the tip, Rick.... I've now discovered an additional way to do it. I'm eclosing some of my new pupae in 32oz. cups and then it's easy to just unzip the net cage, insert 32oz cup, open, and let flies fly out into net enclosure.

 

[BellsBird]

Yeah, it's just easier to put them to sleep in the freezer It works for most bugs. And if they get out...Dunno, you could try leaving some rotting/decomposing fruit in a half open contianer, and when the escapees land on the fruit slam the lid down and chuck it in the freezer.