How to Feed and Mist Tiny Nymphs Without Escapees?

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cwebster

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Have a deli cup with 8 nymphs and a deli cup with about 22 nymphs ( ghosts who hatched yesterday). Right afypter they hatched, i was able to put in melanogasters and to must because they were slow moving. Today when i tried to open the cup of eight babies, they scattered and i had to catch them! What do people do to make feeding holes in the deli cups? Thanks!

 
I have heard of some people making a hole in the deli cup lid and plugging it with foam. Personally, to feed I convince all of the nymphs onto the lid, snap the lid off, put it on another container, tap the flies into or mist the now empty container, make sure all the nymphs are still on the lid, and move the lid back to the original container, now misted or full of food. 

- MantisGirl13

 
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Will try that, thanks! Would like to move some of the 20 or so from the one cup into another cup too. Besides just tapping on the lid to shake them down onto the excelsior, is there a gentler way to divide them up? They are incredibly fast. To slow down crickets i chill them but would hate to stress mantis babies that way. If i turn the cup upside down for a while, would they go to the bottom of the cup? Just want to take good care of them. They are very active and adorable and the flies have disappeared. When the nymphs are all on the lid, there are so many that they all jump off the lud in different directions very rapidly.

 
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Just tried feeding and misting by keeping everybody on the lid and think i lost a few. :(   may try to poke a hole and plug it with foam next. Or maybe i should only open the containers inside a larger mesh container? These guys are much faster than the chinese nymphs i raised in the past. Did divide the cup with most of them into two cups so now they are in three cups. Will let them come back to the top and hope most of them are still ok. I think from now on i will just purchase older slower moving ghosts. Their reflexes are far superior to mine and they are so fragile.

 
Best way I've found is a 32oz cup with a hole cut in the lid, as mantisgirl13 said. I stop up the hole with a piece of foam. At feeding time, I remove the stopper and use a funnel to add flies. 

I recommend a mesh cube like this to use when you are separating nymphs or cleaning their enclosures. You can see through the mesh to do what you need to do while the nymphs can't escape. I also recommend labeling your containers with a count as to how many nymphs there are. This way, if you open it to clean or feed you can do a head count and make sure you didn't lose any nymphs. It also helps to track if you lose any to canibalism between feedings.

I use a small paintbrush (like the cheap, little plastic kind you give to kids) to help as a tool to seperate tiny nymphs. They can grab onto the paintbrush and you can transfer them without damaging their delicate, little bodies. I always call it a 'magic paintbrush ride' lol. Some are still difficult jerks and stagedive rather than grab the brush, but it is very helpful in nymph wrangling

Hope that is helpful. Congrats again on the hatch!

 
Best way I've found is a 32oz cup with a hole cut in the lid, as mantisgirl13 said. I stop up the hole with a piece of foam. At feeding time, I remove the stopper and use a funnel to add flies. 

I recommend a mesh cube like this to use when you are separating nymphs or cleaning their enclosures. You can see through the mesh to do what you need to do while the nymphs can't escape. I also recommend labeling your containers with a count as to how many nymphs there are. This way, if you open it to clean or feed you can do a head count and make sure you didn't lose any nymphs. It also helps to track if you lose any to canibalism between feedings.

I use a small paintbrush (like the cheap, little plastic kind you give to kids) to help as a tool to seperate tiny nymphs. They can grab onto the paintbrush and you can transfer them without damaging their delicate, little bodies. I always call it a 'magic paintbrush ride' lol. Some are still difficult jerks and stagedive rather than grab the brush, but it is very helpful in nymph wrangling

Hope that is helpful. Congrats again on the hatch!
A funnel is a great idea! The magic paintbrush ride is a good idea too!

- MantisGirl13

 
Will get a funnel and put a hole and foam. Will also only open the cups inside a mesh cube,

. They are really really fast!
They are fast! In one of my first ooth hatches  when I went to separate the nymphs, I must have lost a few because my sister found a ghost on the Brunner's mantis cage a few days later and then there is the Thanksgiving surprise ghost that must have escaped at L1 too!

- MantisGirl13

 
Cam amazed at the speed if the little guys but LOL at your finding a nymph on the cage and the Thanksgiving surprise mantis.Yesterday we got a funnel and foam and converted one if three deli cups. But when i tried to pur in fruit flies tons of the flies escaped. Will try chilling the flies. Will try to convert the other two cups today. 

 
Cam amazed at the speed if the little guys but LOL at your finding a nymph on the cage and the Thanksgiving surprise mantis.Yesterday we got a funnel and foam and converted one if three deli cups. But when i tried to pur in fruit flies tons of the flies escaped. Will try chilling the flies. Will try to convert the other two cups today. 
Chilling the flies will definitely help!

 
All three nymph cups now have funnel sized holes and foam plugs. Chilled the melanogasters and fed the ghost nymphs today. How do you mist the nymphs though? Right now am just putting a drop of water on the cloth part of the top so it seeps in. .? 

 
All three nymph cups now have funnel sized holes and foam plugs. Chilled the melanogasters and fed the ghost nymphs today. How do you mist the nymphs though? Right now am just putting a drop of water on the cloth part of the top so it seeps in. .? 
Sounds like a good setup! 

For misting, Open the feeding port and do one mist inside and then close the port.

- MantisGirl13

 
Will try that. They are really fast and sneaky. Tonight when i cautiously opened the food port and put in the funnel, to dump chilled flies in, one mantis leaped through the hole!  I chased him around the top then he jumped back down through the hole. :)

 
Will try that. They are really fast and sneaky. Tonight when i cautiously opened the food port and put in the funnel, to dump chilled flies in, one mantis leaped through the hole!  I chased him around the top then he jumped back down through the hole. :)
Lol :)  Sounds like he had quite the adventure!

- MantisGirl13

 
Will try that. They are really fast and sneaky. Tonight when i cautiously opened the food port and put in the funnel, to dump chilled flies in, one mantis leaped through the hole!  I chased him around the top then he jumped back down through the hole. :)
Yeah, they will do that, lol! I have more of an issue with them perching on the foam plug and refusing to move when it is feeding time. I've become adept at slowly coaxing them onto the lid from the foam plug. 

I mist through the feeder hole, as Mantisgirl13 said. They don't like it and run from the mist, which may help you with feeding if you mist first. I also place the foam plug over the hole while I get my funnel and flies ready so they can't try to jump or climb to freedom 😉

 

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