Mantid care when you're away

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Digger

Digger

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Princeton, NJ
What do you guys do if you are going to be away, say for a week or so, and there's no one (I mean NO one) who is capable of mantid care? Do you pack them in the car and take them with you? I'm heading up to New Hampshire for Christmas and have no choice but to attempt to take the three girls with me. It's certainly going to be risky.

What do YOU do?

Cheers,

Digger

 
Warm up the car first, then get it as close as possible to your front door. I put my mantids in deli cups then in a box with heat packs if needed.

When they are settled in the car, open the top so the heat from the car keeps them warm. Thats what I did when I moved everyone to my new apartment.

 
To leave them alone one week only is no problem at all, especially if we are talking about older nymphs or adults. Just feed them up, put some castors inside and give them a good mist before you go.

They will be fine if they are neglected only one week. Just don't switch off the heating completely.

Cheers

Stefan

 
This time of year makes the week of absence much harder. They will do without food for a while and take to lower temps a lot easier than we might think. Do as much to make it easier on them as you can and they will probably fare better at home.

 
Thanks guys. Rich, your point is well-made. The trauma of moving them around, on this long trip would probably be more damaging than home. Still wringing my hands.

 
Drumkitchen said:
To leave them alone one week only is no problem at all, especially if we are talking about older nymphs or adults. Just feed them up, put some castors inside and give them a good mist before you go.

They will be fine if they are neglected only one week. Just don't switch off the heating completely.

Cheers

Stefan
Click to expand...
Stefan - what do you mean by "castors" ? ----------- jcm

 
Tammy Wolfe had a thread on here somewhere explaining how she set up feeding and watering her mantids when she traveled. I will look for it and link it here if I can find it. She would have fly pupae hatch in intervals so there would be a fresh supply of food. Her thread explained how she did it. It was ingenious :)

 
Drumkitchen said:
To leave them alone one week only is no problem at all, especially if we are talking about older nymphs or adults. Just feed them up, put some castors inside and give them a good mist before you go.

They will be fine if they are neglected only one week. Just don't switch off the heating completely.

Cheers

Stefan
Click to expand...
+1

I would give double the amount of food before leaving and let some more victims wander in the enclosures while I'm out.

For more than a week I would do the same as above plus the use of maggots. I would put a decent quantity of maggots in each enclosure (depending on the size of each enclosure too). While some are eaten right away, the rest will dig through the substrate to pupate. A week or so, say, halfway through my trip, the 1st big juicy flies would start to emerge and they would provide the last meal before I arrive.

Young nymphs is the main problem, though. I would never bring mantids with me on a trip because I don't have the means to. So In this case I would either free them or put them all together in a very large enclosure filled with prey.

Sticky said:
What if the power goes out while you're gone? I would take them with you.
Click to expand...
In that case you put the enclosures next to a window and let them enjoy the natural day/night cycle

 
I need to travel for 1 week in January, and I have to go by plane so I can't really bring them with me (I think the x ray scanners at the airport would kill them (?), and plus, I don't want to get in trouble for bringing "pets" on board).

I read somewhere that you can take advantage of the wicking motion of water by connecting a piece of string to the container, with the other end of the string hanging in a bucket of water. The water will travel up a string and keep the substrate of the container moist. I know this works for plants while I am away, but I wonder if it'll work for mantid cages too.

My nymphs are still eating FFs though I think in January they may be big enough to handle regular flies. In that case I can just leave some pupae in there and the flies will hatch. Some of my nymphs are probably still too small for regular flies, so is there some way to keep fruit flies alive for a couple of days in the mantis containers? If I keep the FFs alive in the enclosures, I might also run the risk of having the fruit flies interfere with any mantids that are molting.

 
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I've decided to leave them home. If it was summer, it would be easier. Located a neighbor who can visit and mist the enclosures. Crickets are the current mainstay feeder. Having him capture crickets, as I do, with forceps, may be daunting. Too late for fly pupae. They wouldn't hatch in time. Got mealworms, but the girls won't eat them unless they're hand-fed (mealies don't move enough). It should work out ok.

 
I don't go anywhere because I won't leave them lol. Every time my husband came out this way I would bring Lola to the hotel room but we only had her lol. Now I have WAY too many kids and grandkids to leave ^.^

Besides people leave me alone when I get invited out and I tell them I can't go because I have WAY too many teeny beans to feed, mist and clean.

Seriously, the look on peoples faces is priceless Hahahahhahahah :)

 
Hi Digger, have you come home yet? If so, how did your mantids do while you were gone? I hope they are ok.

 

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