Multiple Ooths hatching not sure how to proceed???

[Buckeyerunner]

So I bought 5 ooths thinking some won't hatch and since I want to release them into my garden and keep a couple for pets...Well I've had 3 hatch already in a ten gallon tank and a fourth in waiting to possibly hatch as well...It's mid-April and my garden is not in the ground yet and really still a couple a weeks from really getting going. So I'm curious how to best keep these guys alive and maximize their survival until the temperature is better and the garden is more ready.

I've got roughly two hundred nymphs and two fruit fly cultures to feed them with. I'm misting them pretty often with distilled water and that seems to be going well. My biggest concern is the nymphs tend to hang out on the screen up top while the fruit flies are mostly ground bound with some exceptions in both cases. I'm afraid this will lead to rampant cannibalism.

Also many dead starved flies are littering my floor and I know that needs to be cleaned up before bacteria and disease become an issue. Obviously it's no small task to remove the lid for such duties without a mass exodus promptly ensuing. So the cleaning and feeding logistics have me a bit perplexed but I'm thinking the twig(with no leaves) advice will be a bit helpful in some of this endeavor... Any other advise/tricks from you pros out there would be greatly appreciated!!!-Thanx, Chris in Columbus

P.S. Anyone who knows when and how to best release them for optimum survival and garden pest elimination would be helpful

 

[patrickfraser]

A net cage is easiest to deal with. Nymphs cling to sides and you can dump from zippered section dead flies, frass, and possible dead mantids. Do so over a large bowl to rescue any fallers. The net cage I found is also good for feeding, as it is easily turned to another side and fruit flies follow light, so make them run towards the mantids.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Well seeing that you have them in something already, to get the flies to them, just put the container on its side. do you have stuff for them to climb onto in the container? If not, see what you have around, even some dried grass that appears to be pretty clean and shove it in there, if you have the container on its side, they should move around to what appears up to them as , as you can see they like to hang . Once they move up, you can then open the top and put the grass in there, and that oughta do it. There is no worry about the dead flies for a few weeks, they wont hurt anything. other then that, all u have to do is wait for the weather to turn warmer before u let them out!

 

[hibiscusmile]

Oh I thought you ssaid a gallon jar, being in a tank, you can probably still get the grass in there, use a bamboo skewer to catch the escapees and good luck, u gonna need it! :lol: