Housing different insects together

[SpaceWolf]

Well I was thinking of maybe adding some stick insects to my enclosure which hold ghost mantids, since every care sheet tells me that they do not eat anything larger than their head size, is this true or not? Can I house different insects together without the mantids eating the others?

 

[LAME]

I Don't know about the head size part... Most ghosts I've owned have gone for prey nearly as big as themselves ( female ghosts anyway...)

Keep in mind cannibalism will still happen from time to time... With that said, females easily take down males and there's not much difference in size. So I can see an adult female possibly looking at a stick as prey.

....But that's my theory.

 

[MantidBro]

I personally wouldn't risk it to be honest! Just in case.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Mantises can and will go after absurdly large prey at times, just to eat a little bit of it before dropping or letting go of the extra.

Ever see what happens in a terrarium full of walking sticks that have run out of food for a day? They start cannibalizing each other. I wouldn't trust the stick insects not to munch on the ghosts if they run out of food. They're herbivores, but they will try to eat anything they can get their mouths on if hungry.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Okay roger that, but I'll try to house some lacewings in my terrarium because since Ive had so much springtails running around lately (they just popped up out of nowhere in a few days) I can see red mites also running around them trying to eat them. So if that happens there is no stopping the mites from reproducing and I need those to go away any other suggestions on which insects eat mites?