Keeping roaches and mantids together?

[Frack]

Hi, I have hissing roaches and I feed them alot of fruit and since I got fruitflys for my mantis they tend to get loose and get in my roach enclosure and what I was wondering is if I could put a mantis in with my roaches? Lately theres been quite a few ff in with my roaches and I was just thinking there looks like enough to sustain a small mantis but Im not sure if the roaches would get along with the mantis. I dont really care if the mantis will eat the smaller roaches but I dont want the mantis to get hurt by the larger ones. Anyone ever done anything like this before, any thoughts or suggestions would be much apreciated. I dont think Ill actually do it, I was really just curious.

 

[shorty]

Hi, I have hissing roaches and I feed them alot of fruit and since I got fruitflys for my mantis they tend to get loose and get in my roach enclosure and what I was wondering is if I could put a mantis in with my roaches? Lately theres been quite a few ff in with my roaches and I was just thinking there looks like enough to sustain a small mantis but Im not sure if the roaches would get along with the mantis. I dont really care if the mantis will eat the smaller roaches but I dont want the mantis to get hurt by the larger ones. Anyone ever done anything like this before, any thoughts or suggestions would be much apreciated. I dont think Ill actually do it, I was really just curious.

I'd probably be hesitant to do this because of the fragility of the mantids during molting. Mine usually molt hanging upside down and then drop the bottom to dry off. I'd be scared they'd get trampled while they're still wet.

 

[The_Asa]

Yes, as Shorty said, bad idea because of the mantids molting habits. Even if the mantis didn't molt, i'd would still be very worried.

 

[etb99]

This is a pic from another forum, showing it is possible. He put in the male because of all the FF he had and that did the job. He didn't have to feed the male again. The mantids can rest quietly because they hang off the lid, so no problems there.

BTW my mantids always moult and dry off while hanging from some place, so as long as the cockroaches can't get there there shouldn't be any problem. It may not be a perfect setup, but depending on what your cage looks like, it can work.

 

[Morpheus uk]

From an ooth i had one lone nymph left, so i chucked him in my hisser tanks and hes 4th instar now

 

[Frack]

Thx for all the input though I still dont think Id keep one in there maybe I might try putting one in there after its molted and only leave it in there to clean out most of the fruitflys and then take it back out. I just moved all my hissers so the new enclosure doesnt have a ff problem yet, theyve been gettting out lately and Ive been finding a few hissing roaches around the cage loose, makes me wonder how many months thats been going on, if theres a population explosion of wild hisserrs in texas yall know who to blame lol. Really Im thinking though that as long as you set up the cage properly it should be ok to keep them together. Ive been interested in keeping different species together since I saw a pic on insectgeeks with scorpions and lizards living together. People keep different types of fish in fish tanks and I think it would be a fun project to put together a big enclosure full of all kinds of different species of bugs, but ones that get along for the most part.

 

[Frack]

Hi, so I tried just keeping an adult male Thesprotia graminis in my hissing roach enclosure at first and he out lived all my other males so I decided to try it in my other roach enclosures and so far theyve all done really well. Right now I have a bunch of Hierodula patellifera nymphs in with my roaches and even just being a few days old they seem to do good and I havent had any problem with the roaches trambling them or anything, normaly I wouldnt put in ones so small but i bought some flying fruit flys last week and there all over the place exspecialy my roach enclosures. I think the worst comflict Ive seen between the roaches and mantis so far was when an adult male hissing roach walked up to an adult male pseudoharopax virescens, they looked at each other right in the face and the P. virescens slapped it right between the eys at which point the roach ran off even though he was a giant compared to the mantis, it was pretty funny to watch.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I have read many post on this and it seems a lot of people keep them together, usually the non climbers though, so they stay down low and dont seem to cause a problem.

 

[Rick]

This is a pic from another forum, showing it is possible. He put in the male because of all the FF he had and that did the job. He didn't have to feed the male again. The mantids can rest quietly because they hang off the lid, so no problems there.

BTW my mantids always moult and dry off while hanging from some place, so as long as the cockroaches can't get there there shouldn't be any problem. It may not be a perfect setup, but depending on what your cage looks like, it can work.

I don't see that adult male eating fruit flies. He is too large for that.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Yea it needs something bigger, house flies or something.

 

[nasty bugger]

My adults pounce on any roach they see, except the small one's, but I wouldn't have a colony if I kept them together.

Nymphs, maybe.

Once the roaches hit 3/8 inch their dinner for my last remaining mantis (I've let the others go, or they've disappeared in the house, and there isn't any food to sustain them so I'm sure they're goners)

 

[Frack]

Hi, so I bought some flying fruitflys and now there all over the place lol exspecialy my roach enclosures and I also had a bunch

Hierodula patellifera babys born so I threw some in my hisser cage to eat the ff's. I put a few in there that where anywhere form 2 days to a week and a half old. A few died but thats normal they werent crushed or anything they just died like babys do sometime, but the rest are doing great. What surprises me is how well they get along with the roaches. In the psat Ive just put adult males in with my roaches and they always kept there distance and werent afraid to slap a roach if it got to close but these babys I guess are so young they dont know that these giant roaches are supposed to be there enemy lol and they are always by them. At night they seem to all huddle together I guess for warmth or maybe cause its dark idk really but its pretty cool how well there getting along. One of these days Im gonna train a mantis to ride one :lol:

 

[revmdn]

Very interesting.

 

[Katnapper]

Very interesting.

+1!

 

[yen_saw]

That's cool Dustin

i wonder if that H. patellifera sneak up on the hisser back and yell "Yeeeee Haaaaa" at night :lol:

 

[Frack]

Yes, they do...

 

[hibiscusmile]

haha, :lol: thats too funny, get them thaer babies out of the roach house!

 

[wuwu]

LOL

 

[Kaddock]

cool idea! i would like to experiment with some inter-species relations.

OK that sounded weird...