In a funny turn of events I've been feeding my foreign mantids a foreign invasive species.

[Thrillhouse]

I spent some time traveling and landed back in Utah last winter, and a few months later started renting a nice house with a yard right outside of downtown with my girlfriend.

I've been swarmed by box elder bugs in a previous apartment, but the absolutely insane elm seed big epidemic is like nothing else. I had never seen them before, and discovered they're an Italian native introduced acidentally into Idaho in 2012. 

It's so bad we'll just leave them to walk across the walls, on our shower towels, and even on the clothes we're wearing. There's so many it's hopeless to put up the effort. The summer heat hit over 100 for a few weeks, so they were mobbing to get in from the heat.

My girlfriend and I can't have pets. She's allergic to dogs and I'm allergic to cats. I purchased a couple ghost mantids and was really excited to give it a shot and finally have some pets.

For the first couple months I was worried to stick the elm seed bugs into their jars for fear of injuring them or making them sick. But once I dropped them in they both caught and ate one.

With the elm seed bugs I've had an unlimited supply of free food pouring into my house for months. And now that fall's arriving they've slowed down. I'm happy to have them gone, but now I need to figure out what to feed my ghosts. My girlfriend isn't excited to have live flies in the refrigerator, so I need to come up with something else. At least until next summer.

 

[CosbyArt]

Sounds like a good use for them as your mantids enjoy them. I can't say I've ever seen any boxelder bugs (Boisea trivittatus), but they look similar to the local milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus); however, those are toxic due to what they eat.

Sorry to hear you have so many, that sounds terrible. Worst we had was the Asian lady bugs (Harmonia axyridis) by the hundreds at a previous house in the fall, but vacuuming them up with the hose daily kept them manageable.

I hear you about the fridge, but is one of the best options. I myself ended-up getting a small "dorm" fridge off Craigslist for $25 to end the issue. I keep fly pupae, ground bananas for my fruit fly cultures, and various things in there. Also sadly the freeze comes in handy too for badly mis-molted mantids. You may check into trying to get one second-hand as well, I'd be lost without mine.

Other options are starting feeder colonies such as crickets from pet stores, cockroaches, and wax worms (if given a proper environment they turn into moths). Also you may have luck with mealworms (easy to culture too) but I had no luck getting my mantids to eat them.

 

[Sticky]

They love flies! Get some wax moths and let them turn into moths. The moths are really nice.

 

[spider_creations]

Sounds like a good use for them as your mantids enjoy them. I can't say I've ever seen any boxelder bugs (Boisea trivittatus), but they look similar to the local milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus); however, those are toxic due to what they eat.

Sorry to hear you have so many, that sounds terrible. Worst we had was the Asian lady bugs (Harmonia axyridis) by the hundreds at a previous house in the fall, but vacuuming them up with the hose daily kept them manageable.

I hear you about the fridge, but is one of the best options. I myself ended-up getting a small "dorm" fridge off Craigslist for $25 to end the issue. I keep fly pupae, ground bananas for my fruit fly cultures, and various things in there. Also sadly the freeze comes in handy too for badly mis-molted mantids. You may check into trying to get one second-hand as well, I'd be lost without mine.

Other options are starting feeder colonies such as crickets from pet stores, cockroaches, and wax worms (if given a proper environment they turn into moths). Also you may have luck with mealworms (easy to culture too) but I had no luck getting my mantids to eat them.

I have had great success with wax worm moths I put wax worms in a cage with wood chips and paper towel running up the side I then add gram cracker with honey on top of it in a few weeks you'll have loads of moths after they pupate 

 

[CosbyArt]

I have had great success with wax worm moths I put wax worms in a cage with wood chips and paper towel running up the side I then add gram cracker with honey on top of it in a few weeks you'll have loads of moths after they pupate 

Indeed they are a great feeder and not hard to get into moths, with some members doing it unintentionally.

I've successfully turned 50 waxworms into thousands by the 2nd and 3rd generation (as the moths mate and lay eggs for the next batch). Although I've found after the 3rd generation the culture tends to take a nosedive and the numbers drop quickly at the 4th generation (and 5th is rare), likely as the food supply starts to dwindle but with so many moths and wax worms in the food mix/substrate it is impossible to change. In that regard picking out as many as possible to another container with new food at the 3rd generation would ensure anyone could kept the culture going.

See my original post here, and my guide if your interested in culturing them as it has lists the required food mix and housing/molting surfaces for best results of culturing, with of course plenty of photos.

 

[spider_creations]

Indeed they are a great feeder and not hard to get into moths, with some members doing it unintentionally.

I've successfully turned 50 waxworms into thousands by the 2nd and 3rd generation (as the moths mate and lay eggs for the next batch). Although I've found after the 3rd generation the culture tends to take a nosedive and the numbers drop quickly at the 4th generation (and 5th is rare), likely as the food supply starts to dwindle but with so many moths and wax worms in the food mix/substrate it is impossible to change. In that regard picking out as many as possible to another container with new food at the 3rd generation would ensure anyone could kept the culture going.

See my original post here, and my guide if your interested in culturing them as it has lists the required food mix and housing/molting surfaces for best results of culturing, with of course plenty of photos.

For some reason my moths never laid eggs which stinks

 

[CosbyArt]

For some reason my moths never laid eggs which stinks

They prefer wax to lay on, and I just use crumbled up wax paper. I'm not sure how long you let them live, but they don't start to lay eggs until the 2nd week or so as adults. The eggs are nearly impossible to see, but within about a month you should see little waxworms crawling around, if eggs were laid.