Is my mantis eating enough?

[justkelly]

Hi there,

My name is Kelly and I am a photographer from Southern California, USA. I would like to know, have any of you seen "The Mantis Parable," a short film from Pixar? You can download it through iTunes. It deeply disturbed me and greatly colored my view of keeping predatory insects captive. I am hoping for your advice on releasing a captive-born mantis to the wild (as in, our yard) or keeping him in a mesh container for his whole life??

For some backstory... I helped my eight year old daughter "hatch" a preying mantis egg sac she got for her birthday. It was from a company called Insect Lore, and I believe the initial paperwork said it was a Chinese something or other. The nymphs came along on June 22 and I released all but two into our backyard. We recently saw one of the released "siblings" dining above a spider web. It appeared maybe one molt ahead of mine and more greenish, I assume because it adapted to its environment. The other of the two we kept is with a friend, who has done this before with his kids and has helped guide us.

Our mantis is living in a (maybe)12 inch tall mesh cylinder house, which came from the same company. Until the last few days (he molted again 5 days ago - this is about his 5th molt), he had been eating small wingless fruit flies, which I would feed him until he acted full. In recent weeks, I have bought small crickets and tried different ways to present them, to no avail. He seems like he gives up hunting if he doesn't make it on the first or second try, but I'm happy to say that he is getting more efficient at doing the deed. Anyway, I bought crickets after he recovered from this molt and he handily ate many in the past few days. Basically 2-3 a day. He has been a steady eater and I would first like to know... would crickets be OK as his only diet? If not, what else? If so, how many per day? Is it safe to keep feeding them until he indicates he's full? Can you overfeed a mantis the way you can, say, a fish? Right in line with this question is how to hydrate him. I was told early on that no water at all is necessary, as they get their hydration from the insects they consume. I know from reading more now that misting their habitat daily is indicated, which I've started doing. He loves this! I mean it, he loves to groom his whole head and drink up the droplets. Do you think they like to be misted directly? I don't want to "bug" him. It's a tiny spray bottle, so he only gets a dusting of water. How often should I mist?

I am deeply committed to making his life as awesome as possible, but I don't know where to go from here. I am a huge, huge insect lover and mantises have always been my favorite. My initial plan was to watch a molt and let him go, but the more I've kept him, the more I've learned about his amazing existence and, thus, the more I have fallen for him. I didn't mean for that to happen but I have come to think of him as a pet and now I'm totally torn. My friend who has done this many times had one mantis that they released live in a potted plant in their yard for its entire life. If only! But when I told the insect store employee of my plan to do the same, she admonished me and said it would never make it on its own and that I have to keep it. I know that's not exactly true since we did just see the "brother" in our yard - very much thriving indeed.

I am also curious if any of you have had the fantastic pleasure of viewing a mantis through a jeweler's loupe? You have to wait until it is near you, as you have to hold it close to the mantis to view it in-focus. It is SO remarkable. You can see very significant proof of an impending molt if you view a mantis this way. We have tons of magnifiers and nothing comes close. Also, I can tell you that from watching him through the loupe, he eats extremely systematically - the same way every time. I've heard mantises can be messy eaters but ours is like a surgeon - and he wastes nothing. There's nothing at all like watching a mantis molt under that kind of magnification! I just searched online and found that you can purchase them for even twenty bucks - so well worth it. Also, I am attaching a picture of him, which I took when he was 3 weeks old - very tiny. I shot this with my 60mm macro - I intend to reshoot this now that he's bigger.

Thanks so much for listening. I always felt that people like us, who respect and love bugs/insects are far more evolved than those who can just smash them for sport.

Best wishes.

 

[Sticky]

Welcome. You are doing good but as for different foods try catching small moths outside at night. There are several good members who have mantis businesses. They sell different kinds of mantids as well as different feeders. I would suggest blue bottle flies or house flies. Check out Mantisplace and Mantispets.

 

[Jinx]

First off, I really liked reading your post.

I haven't seen that short yet, and can't check it out because I'm at work. I always feel bad about keeping butterflies/moths because their lives can be very short. However, I have no regrets keeping/breeding mantids, because I feel that they have a better chance in the care of my hands than they would in the wild. They don't move around much to begin with, and they still get the feel of "the hunt" with the insects kept in there enclosures. They are very much "pets" to me, and I love how each one has their own little personality.

I'm still pretty new at this, but have done tons of reading over the last few months. I'm not sure how accurate my advice is and I'm sure somebody will correct me on something. I wouldn't give my mantids a diet of strictly crickets, as they seem to love winged insects. In the wild, it seems they would catch flying insects more often, as mine never hunt on the ground. Store bought crickets can also make them sick if you're not careful. I've seen several posts about feeding the crickets lettuce/vegetables and "cricket drink" to clean them out before giving them to your mantis. I prefer to feed mine flies. They get fruit flies until they are a bit bigger, and then they get a mix of House Flies and tiny insects from a nearby field.

I feed mine until they stop. I was worried about feeding them too much at first, but it doesn't seem to be an issue for me. They always seem to know when their full and drop whatever they don't eat. (I was so worried, because my Hierodula swelled up so much after eating, but it wasn't anything to worry about.)

I mist mine once a day on humid days and twice on dry days. It seems to be dependant on the species for how often you should mist them and how high the humidity levels should be. It's a good idea to look up some care sheets and cross-reference them to see what they should eat, and how humid their environment should be. I will usually mist a bit more often if I expect them to molt soon, but I try not to get them wet while doing this.

One of my Ghosts HATES being misted and will run under a stick if he feels a drop. The rest don't seem to care. My Hierodula loves being lightly misted, but I have to spray around her so it gently falls down. Afterwards she'll clean herself up and drink from a nearby leaf.

Again, I recommend looking up care-sheets for your specific species as that seems to be the best way to learn. Just be sure to cross-check them with others so you know they're not giving you false information. The people on the forums have been extremely helpful as well.

Sorry for the long-winded response...

 

[Rick]

Welcome.

Crickets are a great food, don't believe those here who will tell you otherwise. However, the typical pet store cricket is often unhealthy. Best to buy a batch online but this is probably impractical given you have only one mantis. I would buy a dozen or so and then feed them some fresh veggies, dry dog food, leafy greens, etc for about a week before feeding them to the mantis. A diet of nothing but crickets is fine and in fact for many many years that is exactly what I did with no issues. I do give wild caught feeders sometimes during the warm months.

Misting is necessary but how often depends on how humid or dry your place is. I'd do it at least every other day. I find it funny that people wonder if it's okay to directly mist the mantis. They get rained on in the wild.

I would keep the mantis in captivity. Last thing we need is more non natives competing with our wonderful native species of mantids.

 

[justkelly]

Hey there, Thanks so much for the great advice but even more so for not making me feel ignorant! To Jinx, I really appreciate you taking the time to walk through all of my questions. Being 6 weeks old, do you think I should just go back to just feeding wingless fruit flies and if so, for how long? I feel like the flies are safer because the crickets are dying off like, well, flies (haha) even though I made a 25 dollar investment in their housing and food. I fear that can't be good for my mantis - eating stuff that's so not-hearty. I don't have a week to gut load the crickets right now - I mean, my mantis has to eat, you know, today. I do have wingless flies that I purchased from Petsmart, which is what he's eaten prior to the crickets. I will go right now, "Sticky," and try to find the blue flies you recommended on the mantis food site you posted. Happy to order them. Rick, the reason I fear feeding him house flies and insects from the yard is that we live in a community association where I see the landscapers spraying pesticides several days a week. I worry eating our yard flies could kill him??

Regarding misting, it's funny because I mist away from him and let it travel down to him, or he gets it from leaves. But I could really swear he seems to love the misting! He loves to take mist baths, grooming for a long while. I'm careful not to do anything to stress him, though. Which leads me to something I'm wondering... Do you guys try to let your mantises walk on you? I would love to have him do that but I don't want to scare him and I'm a tiny bit afraid if he did something sudden, I may jerk or something.

In closing, for now, thank you for helping me come to the conclusion I guess I already knew - not to release him. Now I have to learn about habitats and what is best for him to live a happy life in captivity. Talk to you soon and thanks again, so much.

 

[Rick]

If you know there is pesticide spraying then of course don't use anything caught in the area for food. Common sense is at least half of this hobby I think sometimes. Handling is fine in moderation. Frequent handling is not good for them.

 

[ScienceGirl]

If you know there is pesticide spraying then of course don't use anything caught in the area for food. Common sense is at least half of this hobby I think sometimes. Handling is fine in moderation. Frequent handling is not good for them.

Agreed.

Try catching fruit flies by setting out a lure of bananas, citrus, or other various cut-up or mashed fruit in a mason jar. Fruit flies should come and you can catch them by snapping a a clear plastic grocery bag over the rim. Also, the fly eggs will hatch into new fruit flies that you can use.

Also, you can try small flies.

 

[Jinx]

No problem! Like I said, I'm pretty new so I would head the advice of others from the forum before my own. Crickets should be okay (I've used them before), but I'd be cautious of the ones from the pet store. As long as he's getting something to fill him up that you know isn't making him sick. I bought a load of stuff to take care of my crickets too, but then ended up setting them all free because by the time my Hierodula was ready to eat them, half of them had grown too large for her.

With misting, I agree with Rick. When I was spraying mine, I thought about it raining on them and just took consideration to how they reacted to it. I avoid spraying the one directly because he always freaks out and tries to get away. I'm not too worried about the other though since they don't seem to care.

I take a couple of mine out every other day or so. The Ghosts seems to enjoy it and come to me, and once they're out they sway around and start to explore. They seem to like it a lot, but when handling my Hierodula too much, she gets stressed out, so I avoid taking her out too much.

Like Rick said(as I was typing this) just try to use a little common sense while caring for him and you'll be just fine. You'll begin to learn quickly what's stressing him out just by how reacts. I'm glad you decided to keep him, and hope you're enjoying this great hobby. Welcome to the forums and I hope you stick around!

 

[TheOtherSpecies]

I love that short film!