How soon to mate adult female?

[mantisboy]

My sub-adult female Religiosa (pics & video) molted on 9-23 and I was wondering what is the soonest I can mate her. 7 days is not enough, after my unsuccessful attempt yesterday. My stable of males is down to 1, I have never mated him and he only has a few more days...maybe a week tops to live. He's old but holding up well. I am now hand feeding him as he can no longer make his own kills and falls a lot. He now resides on a house plant to keep him calm instead of his housing.

I tried mating them yesterday and the old fella was more than game, but she wasn't having any and it became a tangled mess of wings and legs. I separated the two without any harm, just wondering what the soonest anybody else has experienced with their females?

 

[Ntsees]

Another week for the female wouldn't hurt, but I do understand the age of your male (he is close like you say). At that age, male Europeans tend to not be gentle (they grip hard) and that could be a reason why your week old adult female might not like it. You can feed the female lots of food until she's going to explode and then try mating them. If I was in your situation though, I'd just force it out, but then I'd hold the females raptorial legs to prevent her from getting the male (I recommend you not do this unless you completely know what you are doing i.e prepare to get bitten by the female).

 

[mantisboy]

Another week for the female wouldn't hurt, but I do understand the age of your male (he is close like you say). At that age, male Europeans tend to not be gentle (they grip hard) and that could be a reason why your week old adult female might not like it. You can feed the female lots of food until she's going to explode and then try mating them. If I was in your situation though, I'd just force it out, but then I'd hold the females raptorial legs to prevent her from getting the male (I recommend you not do this unless you completely know what you are doing i.e prepare to get bitten by the female).

You are spot on target with the male grabbing on hard, all of my other males never even grabbed on with their coxae, they basically held on with their middle and back legs leaving the coxae int the air and leaning back. My old male was basically putting the stangle hold on her below her head.

I was surprised she didn't kill him yesterday, but she's is pretty gentle, she just wanted that old horny male off of her. He seems to be doing well today, so if he can make it through tomorrow I think I'll try again on Sunday. As long as he can attach I don't care what she does to him as long as his body stays attached. Males are getting scarce this time of year, my son says he saw some at this school so I'm going to check it out tomorrow, then I will be able to wait until she is good and ready.

 

[Seattle79]

Your male sounds like a dirty old man :blink:

-Kevin

 

[Rick]

No less than two weeks. The older she is the more receptive she will be.

 

[PeterF]

Two weeks isn't always enough.

I have a european that I caught more than 2 weeks ago (and I doubt she had just molted, but who knows). She has eaten 3 males in about 30 hours. Plus at least 1 grass hopper.

I have a large stable of males though. It seemed dumb to be throwing them into the jaws of this man eater. But I kept thinking she had to be full....

Though, the last one only got eaten down to his wings.

I have no idea if any of them managed to mate her, but she's been retired from the breeding circle.

 

[mantisboy]

Two weeks isn't always enough.

I have a european that I caught more than 2 weeks ago (and I doubt she had just molted, but who knows). She has eaten 3 males in about 30 hours. Plus at least 1 grass hopper.

I have a large stable of males though. It seemed dumb to be throwing them into the jaws of this man eater. But I kept thinking she had to be full....

Though, the last one only got eaten down to his wings.

I have no idea if any of them managed to mate her, but she's been retired from the breeding circle.

Well in that case I'm going to let the old man :wheelchair: go tomorrow. He's become completely deranged, falls all over the place, runs frantically, and I literally have to hold him mid-air and feed him hopper abdomens by squeezing the juice/flesh out with a pair of needle nose pliers. I haven't even put him in a housing for the last couple of days, he's been content to hang on the house plant in my office.

Oddly enough he does eat and still drinks water droplets off the plants, but if I stopped assisting him he would day within a day. This is going to sound absolutely aweful but I was thinking of removing his coxae and just putting him on top of the female....

However if she still needs another week, rather than going to extremes I will just keep my eyes open and hope I can find another male. If not my other 2 females are becoming Ooth machines (4 so far with more on the way) and I will just have to live with the fact that my other female will produce infertile ooths.