Hungry Mantis

[maxxxix]

Hello everybody

My son and I live in south Miami.

I bought a mantis egg a month ago and right now I have almost 40 mantis little bit less than an inch long and hungry.

I try to feed it with the smallest cricket I found in Petsmart, but they are too big for them.

If I order more Fruit Flies will take at least a week to have it here and they eat about 400 flies in 7 days already.

Someone knows where I can find flies or small crickets or something to feed them. Or give me any idea…

Thanks.

maxxxix

 

[Woodbox]

Forget crickets and forget buying fruit flys. go to walmart. in the pest area, you can find a fly motel. It will look just like this.

buy a water mister if you dont already have one too.

They don't die without food right away so don't stress.

Also, buy some bananas. Browner is better. Also go to the cake isle and buy baker yeast. when you get home. Open up the motel and put in half a banana and sprinkle on a little baker yeast. Put outside in sun. I would take the other half of the banana and stick it in the freezer. One half a banana lasts a week or so. You'll have fruit flies by tomorrow. You'll have them in 2 hours or less if it is sunny and hot out so you can do this all in the morning. When you have a bunch of flies which wont take long, you can take the motel and put it in the container with the nymphs. Im assuming your container is big. Fruit flies can go in and out of the motel at will. They like light so you can attract them to the top with a bright light. If that doesnt work, there are lots of creative ways to figure out how to get them out and with your mantids. 2 minutes in freezer works. I use a brine shrimp net made for fish tanks sometimes. You can scoop them out of the air if they are in a cluster and shake the net where you want them if your fast enough.

Now go read this.

http://www.bugsincyberspace.com/mantid_care.html

 

[hibiscusmile]

Wow! Woody, what a lot of info u provide, thanks!

 

[Woodbox]

Wow! Woody, what a lot of info u provide, thanks!

Baby mantids are hungry and a fast response is important.

Id hate to be in Maxxxis's position trying to figure out how to feed 40 mouths. It's surprisingly hard to find good information with a google search on the subject.

Maxxxix, you'll want to let a bunch of those go if they are native after they shed once or twice. They'll eat each other. I'd keep the females if you just want hand pets. They are not as flighty and easier to handle.

 

[maxxxix]

Woodbox, thanks

I will try this tomorrow with my 4 year old son. If we have luck, we will try to keep as much as we can of the mantis. I have at least 10 friends, from the day care of Octavio my son, asking to have some mantis and take good care of them.

For my kid is an excellent instruction of nature. Again you have an outstanding website about this issue.

Maxxxix and Octavio.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

And you have outstanding initiative to take care of these sweet bugs and find information on how to do it right! I love mantises!

Is this a species native to your area, what species is it?

 

[maxxxix]

I don´t have good photos of my Mantis.

 

[maxxxix]

No Fly Motel in any supermarket near my home. I understand the way a fly trap work. I remember a very old movie. With English soldiers fighting in the desert in the WW2 and in order to keep the flies away, they have some kind of canister with a cone upside down on the top and rotten food in the bottom of this devise, full of flies, and the soldiers burning the flies to keep the place more comfortable.

So… I will try to do something near this thing I have in mind. With your fruit and the yeast in side.

Let’s see what happen.

Here are some pictures.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Looks good, the idea is to get them in to lay and then u can close them in when u have caught enough! good job

 

[maxxxix]

This is a good way to know what not to do. Total failure. I saw just one fly and 2 hours latter escape.

look for other way.

Maxxxix

 

[Rick]

This is a good way to know what not to do. Total failure. I saw just one fly and 2 hours latter escape.

look for other way.

Maxxxix

Or you could save yourself the trouble and just buy the flies. :lol:

 

[-MK-]

Both PetSmart and Petco sell fruit flies. Their cultures don't usually produce huge numbers of flies, but should be enough to feed your mantids while you order a proper fruit fly culture from a place like FlyCafe. Just one of these will produce thousands of flies for about 5 bucks. They also sell the empty 32-ounce cups with ventilated lids for when it's time to separate the mantids to keep them from eating each other. Check out the link.

http://flycafe.net/Wingless-D-Melanogaster-Fruit-Fly-Culture-32oz-1001.htm

 

[Woodbox]

Im shocked the motel didn't work! Try more yeast. Any squishy fruit and a bunch of yeast always gives me more flies then I can count inside an hour or 2. I don't even think I have a culture going. I think I just catch hundreds of flies in my neighborhood. Miami is hot & humid. I would think you would be swimming in fruit flies if you leave an apple core on your sidewalk.

 

[maxxxix]

Of course, we are in the Caribbean. This is the first thing everybody have in mind. But I live about 1500 yards from a big swamp and there not mosquito, not flies and nothing like this. I think the city fumigate the entire zone. Or the taxes keep the flies in cheaper cities.

Right now I get 1000 pinhead crickets. So they are happy mantis again.

Thanks Woodbox

 

[Woodbox]

Im not trying to suggest Miami or the Caribbean is swarming with bugs. Just that hot and humid conditions promote insect life. I live in FL too but in very sandy area where water doesn't sit around so I have few bugs compared to lower levels of FL. Glad to hear the pinheads are working out. Be careful feeding anything wild if you think they fog your area. If you do, try to split your mantises and only feed one group the wild. Id hate to lose all of them if that happened.

 

[maxxxix]

Thanks Woodbox