Intro. plus a question

[Specimen24-7]

I don't keep any mantids now but I have in the past and now I want to go at it again. I mostly keep roaches and a culture of flour beetles, this is ware my question comes in. Can newly hatched ghost mantis nymphs eat flower beetles? I am planing on getting a mantis sp. to breed but the smallest food I can provide is flour beetles and quite frankly I don't want to deal with fruit flies. I can't wait to keep these charming creatures.

 

[CosbyArt]

Hello and welcome to the forum

New hatched Ghost mantids, or any mantid species, can not eat flour beetles. They have to have something about 100 times smaller than those and much softer too, fruit flies being the most obvious choice. There is no alternative size wise really, and the flour beetles do not even come close. Even my adults Ghosts refuse to eat flour beetles, or more specifically the Tenebrio species.

If you do not want to deal with the fruit flies, your only option is to get a much older nymph or an adult Ghost that will eat them (all my mantid species at any instar stage refuse to touch them).

 

[Ranitomeya]

You can try to feed them flour beetles. Flour beetles are as small as melanogaster fruit flies, but have much thicker exoskeletons and contain less nutritional value than fruit flies. The larvae of flour beetles are a better choice nutritionally, but they may move too slowly and infrequently for your mantids to notice them. I personally find fruit flies easier to culture and feed out due to their quicker reproductive rate and because they do not have to be sifted out of their medium.

 

[Rick]

Welcome.

I think that if you're unwilling to keep fruit flies you may want to look at keeping only later instar mantids.

 

[Domanating]

Do what I do if you don't want to keep too many mantids. Just let some fruit untouched in your kitchen and grab the fruit flies that come by. You don't need to raise them

I can feed at least 10 mantids like this without issues.

 

[CosbyArt]

You can try to feed them flour beetles. Flour beetles are as small as melanogaster fruit flies, but have much thicker exoskeletons and contain less nutritional value than fruit flies. The larvae of flour beetles are a better choice nutritionally, but they may move too slowly and infrequently for your mantids to notice them. I personally find fruit flies easier to culture and feed out due to their quicker reproductive rate and because they do not have to be sifted out of their medium.

Ah so we are talking about two different things, makes sense as the so called "flour beetles" I hear of are much larger than that lol.

 

[Specimen24-7]

I think a found a alternative to fruit flies, phorid flies. I have read some where in Orin's book of keeping. I do see these flies my hissin cockroach inclosure especially when there is a dead specimen. So do you guys and gals think these would work.

 

[CosbyArt]

I think a found a alternative to fruit flies, phorid flies. I have read some where in Orin's book of keeping. I do see these flies my hissin cockroach inclosure especially when there is a dead specimen. So do you guys and gals think these would work.

Indeed those will do just fine - I've been using those myself lately as my flyless cultures died off (didn't restart them in time). My two Ghost nymphs love those phorid flies.

 

[Specimen24-7]

That's good all you need is a big dead bug and they come in like vultures. I also have a culture of hissing cockroaches but they have a non parasitic symbiotic mite on them. It doesn't hurt the roaches (even less a mantis) and they can't live without a hissing cockroach so a infestation would be impossible. I think they will work as feeders, I just need to try pick them of the roaches with out crushing them. I will run some experiment ( as soon as I get some mantises).

 

[Mantis Man13]

Dude you wont have to "deal" with fruit flies. Just buy a culture of them form a pet store and by the time they all die the mantis will be big enough not to have to eat them.

 

[dmina]

To The Group!

 

[Sarafina]

Hello, I have 4 adult Tenodera Sinensis and 3 are very big females. I have not been exposing them to sunlight or heat lamps, so how long do they need exposure and what is best man made source to do so? Due to schedule and such I don't always get to take care of their needs while the sun is out. Thank you ^.~