Looking for feeding advice through life...

[Stuart89]

Hello, looking for some quick advice!

Ive read around on care sheets and understand that ghost/ spiny flower mantids like to eat flying insects, BUT the only flying insects I can seem to see on www.livefoods.co.uk etc. are fruit flies. But Im under the influence that these are very small flies, how long can I keep feeding these flies to my mantids and what is the next flying feeder up from fruit flies?

Need to finalise replies before saturday, any help is much appreciated !

Thanks in advanced, Stuart.

 

[joossa]

Hello, looking for some quick advice!Ive read around on care sheets and understand that ghost/ spiny flower mantids like to eat flying insects, BUT the only flying insects I can seem to see on www.livefoods.co.uk etc. are fruit flies. But Im under the influence that these are very small flies, how long can I keep feeding these flies to my mantids and what is the next flying feeder up from fruit flies?

Need to finalise replies before saturday, any help is much appreciated !

Thanks in advanced, Stuart.

You can go outside and collect flies, moths, almost anything and use that as food. Usually people go for bottleflies/blowflies and/or small house flies after their mantids have outgrown fruit flies.

I don't know how long it takes for the ghost and spiny flower to outgrow FFs.

 

[Stuart89]

You can go outside and collect flies, moths, almost anything and use that as food. Usually people go for bottleflies/blowflies and/or small house flies after their mantids have outgrown fruit flies.I don't know how long it takes for the ghost and spiny flower to outgrow FFs.

Thank you for that reply, can anybody answer that question though? "I don't know how long it takes for the ghost and spiny flower to outgrow FFs."

The mantids are coming from BugzUk.com and are "medium" size which Im assuming is L3 but Im not sure of that. Just found a site that sells Curly flies so its looking good atm.

Stuart.

 

[macro junkie]

maggots from fishing shop..hatch them takes just over a week.

i feed my ghosts a mix of crickets and flys.

 

[mrblue]

"I don't know how long it takes for the ghost and spiny flower to outgrow FFs."

well if you want a direct answer, i would say a long time. it MIGHT even be possible for them to take d.hydeii (large fruit flies) up til subadult. i have not ever done this so cannot vouch for it 100% but the fact is if they are hungry, they will have a go at alot of food, however big or small. i deffinitely have seen it with ghosts (p.paradoxa) taking d.hydeii til L5 or L6. however, as you can imagine, this is not really ideal or practical. you said you found a place selling curly wing flies (probably musca domestica), this is good news in that ghosts and spiny flower could also probably eat these even through adulthood if needs be but again, this is still not ideal.

i would say "medium" nymphs from bugzuk will probably be around L4 or so, in which case curly wing flies are pretty much a great size for them right now. the next size up readily available flying feeder from curly wing flies would probably be greenbottles, and then bluebottles. bluebottles especially are perfect size for adult p.paradoxa and p.whablbergi. like scott macro junkie has said, you can buy them both (bluebottles seem to be more common) as maggots from fishing shops, and wait for them to turn into flies. theres plenty of chat about them on the forum, if you do a search for them youll get plenty of info.

hope that answers your question.

 

[macro junkie]

my ghost mantis sub adult male will still eat frute flys if its hungry and theres nothing eles...flowermantis u can feed them frute flys up to pre-sub adult.

 

[Stuart89]

Cheers for the replies guys, been very helpful to me as I was pretty worried!

Stuart.

 

[darkspeed]

Cheers for the replies guys, been very helpful to me as I was pretty worried!Stuart.

My spiny flower males are sub adult now and they eat hydei no problem, but will also take on a bluebottle as big as they are... my adult male ghost also fed upon hydei without complaint... they were like candy bars to him, and he could burn through one in less than 30 seconds... granted it took alot to fill him up, but ghost males arent known for being gluttonous anyway...

 

[macro junkie]

My spiny flower males are sub adult now and they eat hydei no problem, but will also take on a bluebottle as big as they are... my adult male ghost also fed upon hydei without complaint... they were like candy bars to him, and he could burn through one in less than 30 seconds... granted it took alot to fill him up, but ghost males arent known for being gluttonous anyway...

same here..they dont eat alot at sub adult i have found.and dam have they been sub adult for like forever

 

[Gurd]

Quarter of a pint of white pinkes (greenbottles) from your local fishing shop will be perfect