I'd found 20 oothecae by my house. Those are the ones I'd spotted anyways, there's probably more hiding. I collected 10 and left the other 10. The first 5 have hatched; I've kept 6 nymphs and released the rest of the nymphs in my backyard (about 200 feet from where the oothecae were originally laid). My neighbors have a garden and there's just way too many mosquitoes back there, so not only will it be good for us, it'll be good for them too. Those nymphs I released haven't seemed to move off that bush for this entire month!
Anyways, I wanted to introduce you to the 6 I've kept. I've got Cheech, Chong, Mori, Ferdinand, Saunder and Paully. Cheech, Chong, Saunder and Ferdinand have already reached L5 and they just hatched about a month ago! Maybe because not only is it heating up outside, but they've got heat lamps on them as well, and are also fed well. I've never had any Tenodera nymphs grow this quickly, I'm surprised honestly. My first Tenodera sinensis took 5 months to reach adulthood, these guys will take, what, 2 months? 3 at the most?
Here's one of the wild oothecae that I'd left:
One of the ones I'd kept hatching:
L1 nymph (this is Mori, Mori is at L4 now):
Mori is Elvish for "Dark".
L2 nymph (I released this one):
L3 nymphs (Paully [L4 now], Ferdinand [L5 now], Saunder [L5 now]):
Paully.
Ferdinand.
Molting from L3 to L4. Saunder. Came home and saw she was trying to molt so I opened the lid to mist and she fell so I stuck her up to the shelf with tape then misted her there. She molted fine.
L4 nymph (Chong, [L5 now]):
L5 nymph (Cheech, [still at L5]):
My guess is that:
Cheech is female.
Chong is female.
Saunder is female.
Mori I'm not sure of.
Ferdinand is male.
Paully is male.
Anyways, I wanted to introduce you to the 6 I've kept. I've got Cheech, Chong, Mori, Ferdinand, Saunder and Paully. Cheech, Chong, Saunder and Ferdinand have already reached L5 and they just hatched about a month ago! Maybe because not only is it heating up outside, but they've got heat lamps on them as well, and are also fed well. I've never had any Tenodera nymphs grow this quickly, I'm surprised honestly. My first Tenodera sinensis took 5 months to reach adulthood, these guys will take, what, 2 months? 3 at the most?
Here's one of the wild oothecae that I'd left:
One of the ones I'd kept hatching:
L1 nymph (this is Mori, Mori is at L4 now):
Mori is Elvish for "Dark".
L2 nymph (I released this one):
L3 nymphs (Paully [L4 now], Ferdinand [L5 now], Saunder [L5 now]):
Paully.
Ferdinand.
Molting from L3 to L4. Saunder. Came home and saw she was trying to molt so I opened the lid to mist and she fell so I stuck her up to the shelf with tape then misted her there. She molted fine.
L4 nymph (Chong, [L5 now]):
L5 nymph (Cheech, [still at L5]):
My guess is that:
Cheech is female.
Chong is female.
Saunder is female.
Mori I'm not sure of.
Ferdinand is male.
Paully is male.
