Moths mating inside enclosure

[Skunkwulf]

My L4 ghost has lost interest in the hydei she's grown up with. I currently have a problem in my house with pantry moths, so I decided to see if she would like them. Lo and behold, she absolutely loves them, as well as house flies. 

I've been keeping 2 or 3 moths at a time inside her enclosure (it's a fairly good sized bio-active setup). Tonight when I took a peek, I found 2 of the moths on a plant, joined at the abdomens and mating.

Could this cause any issue? Should I remove the moths immediately, or could it potentially be actually beneficial to have moths hatching inside the enclosure? I have no clue of their gestation time or how many larvae hatch.

 

[MantisMart]

If there's a bunch of moths in the enclosure while the mantis is molting, the mantis could be knocked down and become crippled or worse. I don't think having constant moths hatching is a good idea, but if its too late, it's probably not a big deal, as long as they're small. If there's like 1,000 eggs though, it will stress out the mantis, and overfeeding could also become an issue. I recommend removing them.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Your house will be over run with them soon. They will eat your clothes and carpet. Remove all u can from your house. You will c them as they turn into callipillar  and get bigger. The ones in the container won't hurt the mantis. 

 

[Introvertebrate]

Yeah, unless you’ve got a bag of flour inside your mantis enclosure, any newborn moth larvae won’t last long.

 

[Skunkwulf]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I'm going to remove them and let them go outside, just to be safe.

 

[Curiosity]

Wouldn't the mantis most likely catch the moths before they even lay their eggs? I had this happen with grasshoppers; Allie ate them both in the same day they mated.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Who knows if they even lay eggs on something they don’t perceive as food for their offspring.  It’s not like it’s the pantry.

 

[Curiosity]

A moth just laid some eggs on the plastic floor of my mantis Leaf's cage. I don't give them much credit for brains; there's nothing in the cage they could possibly construe as food.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I guess when ya gotta lay, ya gotta lay.  They won’t last long though.