Lady Bug Powned!

[glock34girl]

Well, I ran out of HFs and had to turn to my lady bugs to get to step up and take one for the team. I'd read that mantis won't eat a lady bug but I was desperate. I put it in with my L4 spurca and he readily grabbed it up, took a few bites and realized he couldn't get through the body of the bug and dropped it. Lol I then put some in the pictipennis cups and they snatched it up and ate it. Dissicata reaches clear across his enclosure, pinned it to the cup and rotated it with a raptors all before eating it. But my favorite was my little ghost that just killed it! He was swaying as he ate it and pulled the wings and such off and gobbled it up. Wish I had a good camera in that one! Anyone else feed lady bugs? Any precautions? I don't want to use as a steady feeder because they are beneficial but I was in a pinch.

 

[Tony C]

Ladybugs do produce a foul smelling, mildly toxic oil when attacked but if your mantids powered through the stink and ate them I doubt it will do them any harm. Predators usually spit them out quickly if they are bothered by it.

 

[glock34girl]

Ahhhh, really? I couldn't smell anything but probably because my sinus infection at the moment lol maybe that's why the spurcas let it go. I have video of this little ghost eating it and he was chewing down like he was enjoying it? Pulled the orange shell back and ate it like an M and M lol

 

[D_Hemptress]

im not sure if you would be able to smell it... but i do know that the foul odor and taste are a defense thing... i used to watch bugs videos when i was a kid and the lady bugs used to fascinate me.

 

[agent A]

u seriously fed it an H. convergens??

couldnt u have caught an asian lady beetle or something?

 

[MantidBro]

My Stagmomantis limbata would eat lady bugs. They do give off a smell but it's not a terrible smell for mantids I don't think. It smells more like nature than poison. I've seen photos of wild mantids eating lady bugs, too. I think it's fine. Some may not like that taste/smell while others do. For instance, my Phyllocrania paradoxa ate a stink bug once and enjoyed the whole thing, while my Tenodera sinensis puked just after he took a bite.

 

[glock34girl]

Lol it dawns on me that I butcher the scientific names lol .... I was tickled to see my little P. spurca go for it!

 

[Malakyoma]

I thought ladybugs were poisonous

 

[MantidBro]

I thought ladybugs were poisonous

They can have toxic affects on some animals. But my Stagmomantis limbata would eat them and she was fine, lived 9 months with feeding her those. I think it depends on the species whether it's toxic to them or not. Like for some mantids, stink bugs are toxic to them, but to others, they cause no damage. I had a Tenodera sinensis that I tried feeding a stink bug to and he puked. But I also had a Phyllocrania paradoxa that ate it, no problem, finished the whole thing. She's still alive to this day so definitely wasn't detrimental, but seemed to be for the other species, the T. sinensis.

 

[Paradoxica]

I once fed one to my Creo. he seemed to like it once he figured out he had to eat it from the head first to get to the goods inside the shell. What I mainly remember is the really loud crunching sounds it made