Mantis 'Survivor"?

[FieroRumor]

On another site, I saw someone say that if you take an egg case, plop it in a container, and just spray the mantids once a day, you don't have to feed them, they will just eat each other, and you eventually will end up with one adult mantid (which you feed crickets)

Is this true?

:?:

 

[Jesse]

This would only be true if you fed them too, and it depends on the species. Most species would starve to death before eating one another at the 1st instar. Without at least some additional food, 80-100% of the nymphs would die before their first molt.

 

[DeShawn]

Jesse is correct. I am going through that right now (ran out of fruit flies AND money! AHHHHH). Some of the mantids will snack on their siblings, but most of them will die. L1 nymphs seem a little reluctant to munch on another mantid. It usually happens when one of the nymphs goes for food that another nymph is eating.

I have found that mantids don't normally cannibalize because they are hungry, but rather because they eat any friggin thing that moves (within a reasonable size). In fact, I have noticed more cannibalism with the stronger well fed mantids than with "hungry" nymphs.

Anyway, I usually keep mine together until L2 - L3 or so. That is when most of the weaker mantids have died off, and the larger ones start to eat each other.

 

[FieroRumor]

Wow, I hatched out several Chinese Ooths, and they are happily munching on each other. They have been munching on the fruitflies as well. What cool creatures!