Mile high mantids!

[Primal]

Hello! My names Christian. I live in Colorado and thanks to a friend I have recently began my journey into the mantid world. Ive just set up my first terrarium with some locally available Chinese mantis ooths but if all goes well ill be getting some ghost nymphs off a friend in a few weeks. I hope to make some new friends while learning to breed the most photogenic predators for my garden as possible! 

 

[Ocelotbren]

How exciting, good luck and welcome to the forum!

 

[Mantis Lady]

welcome

 

[Serle]

Welcome , fine lookin' habitat ....... S

 

[Rick]

Welcome. 

Some advice if I may; you will want to attach the ooths with something other than tape. Even the slightest amount of tape adhesive will trap nymphs and removing them is about impossible without hurting them. I recommend a dot of glue from a hot glue gun. 

If you're using just the standard metal screen aquarium you will find that the fruit flies needed to feed newly emerged mantids will simply crawl right through the screen. The mantids may also escape depending on the size of the screen. With an aquarium like that it becomes difficult to find a solution to this problem but I have had some luck with using fabric mesh over the tank and the screened lid sitting on top of that. The issue with that method is when you have to open the thing to drop in fruit flies. 

With T. sinensis the mortality rate is very high so don't get discouraged if you lose many. Lastly, please don't release any of the nymphs. The species is non-native and while they are naturalized to the US, the fewer the better to compete with any native mantids. 

 

[Primal]

Welcome , fine lookin' habitat ....... S

Thanks! Ill probably add to it soon but i figure itll keep em happy for a bit.

 

[Primal]

Welcome. 

Some advice if I may; you will want to attach the ooths with something other than tape. Even the slightest amount of tape adhesive will trap nymphs and removing them is about impossible without hurting them. I recommend a dot of glue from a hot glue gun. 

If you're using just the standard metal screen aquarium you will find that the fruit flies needed to feed newly emerged mantids will simply crawl right through the screen. The mantids may also escape depending on the size of the screen. With an aquarium like that it becomes difficult to find a solution to this problem but I have had some luck with using fabric mesh over the tank and the screened lid sitting on top of that. The issue with that method is when you have to open the thing to drop in fruit flies. 

With T. sinensis the mortality rate is very high so don't get discouraged if you lose many. Lastly, please don't release any of the nymphs. The species is non-native and while they are naturalized to the US, the fewer the better to compete with any native mantids. 

Thanks for the advice! I will certainly see about switching out the tape. I think i may glue a pair of cheap pantyhose over the mesh lid for safe measure. They seem to work great on the air intakes of my garden to prevent gnats from getting in/out. I had no intention of letting them outdoors as i have a pretty large indoor garden that they can expand into if needed. My goal after reading about the voracious cannibalism of this species was to feed them enough to get em by but for the most part hunger games em out until i had a handful of specimens. Mainly just trying to get my feet wet before investing in more finicky species. Haha

 

[Rick]

Thanks for the advice! I will certainly see about switching out the tape. I think i may glue a pair of cheap pantyhose over the mesh lid for safe measure. They seem to work great on the air intakes of my garden to prevent gnats from getting in/out. I had no intention of letting them outdoors as i have a pretty large indoor garden that they can expand into if needed. My goal after reading about the voracious cannibalism of this species was to feed them enough to get em by but for the most part hunger games em out until i had a handful of specimens. Mainly just trying to get my feet wet before investing in more finicky species. Haha

Good plan. I've found that they tend to just drop dead for no obvious reason before they start eating each other.