sschind
Well-known member
A friend of mine (dwalls247) gave me a bunch of Chinese mantid nymphs a while back and this is the grow out enclosure I built for them.
Start with a 31qt homz style container (16x13x12) from Wal Mart.
next I cut a round hole in the top just a bit smaller than the diameter of a 32oz deli cup.
then I cut the top off one deli cup leaving about 1 inch of the sides down from the lip and glued it into the hole.
next I cut the bottom out of another deli cup so that it slips into and out of the hole.
The bottom lip of the inserted deli cup is about 1/2 inch above the "shelf" I created buy cutting a piece of egg crate to fit and gluing window screen to it. I took one deli cup lid and cut a larger hole in the top and glues a piece of plastic knitters canvas to it so I can swap lids if I want (top photo) I did this because I get a lot of fungus gnats in my room and if I want free food I just put the lid with the larger holes in it on the deli cup and leave it on over night. I put a few pieces of rotting fruit into the container, the flies go into the container and then I just swap the lid with the larger holes with the regular lid to keep them in.
If I want to use fruit flies I just pop off the lid, tap in the flies an pop the lid back on. You probably wouldn't need the second deli cup insert but I figured it would help keep the mantids in by creating a tunnel they would have to crawl up. A few still get to the top but not as many as when I didn't use it. I might consider gluing a piece of the knitters canvas to the bottom of this as well which would keep the mantids out completely but still should let the flies drop through.
Using this container I didn't have to worry about tons of nymphs escaping when I took off the top and yet I had a big enough opening to work with (rather than just a small hole plugged with foam) as to not spill flies all over.
I'm not completely happy with the shelf with the screen glued to the egg crate so I may try to tweak that a bit. I set it up with the screen on the bottom and the flies have a tendency to fall through the egg crate and just sit on the screen where the nymphs cant get to them. The fix may be as simple as flipping it over so the screen is on top.
Also, when it is full of nymphs pulling the shelf out and cleaning the bottom is out of the question so I need to come up with a fix for that as well. I thought about cutting the bottom out of this container and nesting it into another one so I just have to lift this one out to clean the bottom but I am not sure how much space there is between the walls and the nymphs might crawl between them.
The downside of using this for the Chinese mantids is that they grew so fast and were so cannibalistic that I only used it for about a month before I had to move them out to individual cups.
It should work great for more communal species and I am going to play around with the inside decorations so I can use it for a batch of tail less whip scorpions I am expecting soon.
Finally, I didn't add any additional ventilation and it seemed to work fine. I just misted it through the deli every 3 days or so but I might need to come up with something else for other species or for adult. I can cut additional holes in the top obviously and add screen to the side pretty easily so that shouldn't be a problem.
I just wish the whole thing was clearer. It works OK for grow outs but I'd do a bunch of these for permanent displays if they were a bit clearer. I see some pretty clear tubs on some of the UK sites but all the totes we have here in the US are pretty opaque. Anybody have any ideas on that.
Feel free to critique and make suggestions.
Start with a 31qt homz style container (16x13x12) from Wal Mart.
next I cut a round hole in the top just a bit smaller than the diameter of a 32oz deli cup.
then I cut the top off one deli cup leaving about 1 inch of the sides down from the lip and glued it into the hole.
next I cut the bottom out of another deli cup so that it slips into and out of the hole.
The bottom lip of the inserted deli cup is about 1/2 inch above the "shelf" I created buy cutting a piece of egg crate to fit and gluing window screen to it. I took one deli cup lid and cut a larger hole in the top and glues a piece of plastic knitters canvas to it so I can swap lids if I want (top photo) I did this because I get a lot of fungus gnats in my room and if I want free food I just put the lid with the larger holes in it on the deli cup and leave it on over night. I put a few pieces of rotting fruit into the container, the flies go into the container and then I just swap the lid with the larger holes with the regular lid to keep them in.
If I want to use fruit flies I just pop off the lid, tap in the flies an pop the lid back on. You probably wouldn't need the second deli cup insert but I figured it would help keep the mantids in by creating a tunnel they would have to crawl up. A few still get to the top but not as many as when I didn't use it. I might consider gluing a piece of the knitters canvas to the bottom of this as well which would keep the mantids out completely but still should let the flies drop through.
Using this container I didn't have to worry about tons of nymphs escaping when I took off the top and yet I had a big enough opening to work with (rather than just a small hole plugged with foam) as to not spill flies all over.
I'm not completely happy with the shelf with the screen glued to the egg crate so I may try to tweak that a bit. I set it up with the screen on the bottom and the flies have a tendency to fall through the egg crate and just sit on the screen where the nymphs cant get to them. The fix may be as simple as flipping it over so the screen is on top.
Also, when it is full of nymphs pulling the shelf out and cleaning the bottom is out of the question so I need to come up with a fix for that as well. I thought about cutting the bottom out of this container and nesting it into another one so I just have to lift this one out to clean the bottom but I am not sure how much space there is between the walls and the nymphs might crawl between them.
The downside of using this for the Chinese mantids is that they grew so fast and were so cannibalistic that I only used it for about a month before I had to move them out to individual cups.
It should work great for more communal species and I am going to play around with the inside decorations so I can use it for a batch of tail less whip scorpions I am expecting soon.
Finally, I didn't add any additional ventilation and it seemed to work fine. I just misted it through the deli every 3 days or so but I might need to come up with something else for other species or for adult. I can cut additional holes in the top obviously and add screen to the side pretty easily so that shouldn't be a problem.
I just wish the whole thing was clearer. It works OK for grow outs but I'd do a bunch of these for permanent displays if they were a bit clearer. I see some pretty clear tubs on some of the UK sites but all the totes we have here in the US are pretty opaque. Anybody have any ideas on that.
Feel free to critique and make suggestions.
