My first nymphs!!

[macawlover2]

Just the other day I received 12 Lineola and 12 Multispina nymphs from Rebecca, and I'm really excited about the little guys. I have them seperated into cups (2 or 3 in each cup) about 4" tall by 3" in diameter. (Boy was it hard to get the fast little jumping bugs in the cups! haha!) Each cup has ventilation, a line of substrate on the bottom, and a couple small sticks for them to climb on.

The only issue is I didn't realize they'd be so small! My boyfriend is making a trip to Twin Cities Reptiles to pick up some fruit flies. I got them on tuesday, will they be ok until later tonight without food? I'm misting the cups to keep the humidity up, and they're staying at room temperature.

I don't want to fail at raising my first mantids, so any tips for newbies would be awesome!

 

[PhilinYuma]

They'll be patient until tonight!

You have 24 nymphs (at the moment, anyway!), so you need to start breeding your own ffs, both D. melanogaster (smaller) and D. hydei.

Also, you might as well get standard pots and lids, now. A 32oz deli cup is rather larger than what you are using, 51/2' tall and 41/2" in diameter. lots of folks skimp on containers and then we hear sad tales of mismolts from pots that are too small or lids that don't provide a good grip. If you already have a good gutsiness relationship with Rebecca you'll find that she sells ffs (both kinds, country and western), ff food, pots and lids, etc. You can start shopping around when you know a little more.

What is room temperature for you? Most species seem to manage well between F75 and F85 during the day (it can be a bit lower at night, just as it is in the wild.

That should get you off to a safe start, and I'm sure that other members will have good advice, too.

 

[warpdrive]

yep, I agree that you are going to need some FF culturing kits.

there are a few online that sell them.

I sadly can't recammend joshsfrogs.com after my last (or first) try with them. but try snailtailflys.com or just order a few from Rebecca and then make your own mix.

they are going to eat like crazy since they didn't eat for 3 days or so. good luck.

Harry

 

[macawlover2]

Since Twin Cities Reptiles doesn't sell fruit flies, we had to do with pinhead crickets. :sweatdrop: It was awesome watching them eat though! One start struttin' around holding a half-eaten cricket :lol: I'll get some fruit flies going as soon as I can, but I'll probably have to keep using pinheads until that happens (hopefully it won't take longer than a week).

I have some 32oz jars that I bought off of ebay specifically for them, so they're all set. I was thinking about moving them when they get a tad bigger so they can still catch their prey easily.

What kind of screen tops are you guys using to allow sufficient ventilation?

 

[PeterF]

If they will take the crickets, and you are certain they can stay supplied then you don't HAVE to do the FFs. But, it will be cheaper to do the FFs.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Cant believ eth littel guys are eatubg crucjs! hey my fingers are not working. but u know what AI mane

 

[macawlover2]

I saw a couple of them eating pinhead crickets, but I have since replaced the food source with FF's! And wow am I amazed at how many of them are in this jar I bought at Petco.

Immediately after adding a bunch of fruit flies to each mantid's container, they grabbed them and started chowing down.

Call me weird, but it's adorable to watch them munching away

Rebecca (or anyone else who knows), at what age do they have to be separated individually? Currently I have 2-3 per container. I wanted to separate them all right away but I ran out of cups.