need help finding food for ghost mantis

[yaih0550]

I have an i5 (i believe, shes big enough to eat a housefly) ghost mantis who I have had trouble finding food for. I'm not able to hatch house or bottle flies so i tried feeding her dubia roaches and she wont take them. The only thing ive been able to get her to eat is d. hydei but she eats 20+ at a time and that's not a sustainable amount, or probably good for her either. Does anyone know where I can buy live houseflies or something of a similar size?

 

[agent A]

Jesus Christ why is she still on D. hydei? at i5 she should be on blue bottle flies!
I get blue bottles from 2 sources. mantisplace has Protophormia terraenovae, a smaller blue bottle species
rainbow mealworms has Calliphora vomitoria, a large blue bottle species
I'd recommend buying from both places tonight and setting them up like I do, here's my link
https://milehighmenagerie.com/pages/mantis-care?_pos=1&_sid=c5504c1d6&_ss=ryou will also want some gut-load for the flies. I make crested gecko diet, make it a little more watery than you would for a gecko, then stir in some condensed milk and a little bit of tissue so the flies don't drown in it

 

[yaih0550]

Jesus Christ why is she still on D. hydei? at i5 she should be on blue bottle flies!

she wouldn't take anything not fly-shaped and my dad isn't on board with me culturing bigger flies so I was limited in what i could try to feed her. since i've made this post she's actually taken one of the tiniest dubias so i'll just tweezer feed her those until i can get some bottle flies in. thank you so much for the help, this is my first mantis and i've been way in over my head with her.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I'm in Ohio so you should get them quick from my site. So they do not escape and aggravate you father, put pupae in clean water bottle to hatch with some pin holes at the neck of bottle and after they hatch you can put them in a paper bag and put in fridge at the bottom where pop;s can't see em.

 

[agent A]

she wouldn't take anything not fly-shaped and my dad isn't on board with me culturing bigger flies so I was limited in what i could try to feed her. since i've made this post she's actually taken one of the tiniest dubias so i'll just tweezer feed her those until i can get some bottle flies in. thank you so much for the help, this is my first mantis and i've been way in over my head with her.

yea ghosts are picky that way. They don't like crawly prey. other species I notice acting this way include Popa spurca (at least when young), Otomantis scutigera, and Odontomantis spp.

your father doesn't sound like a very supportive person. Sorry about that

 

[ANTdrew]

I’m feeding my L5 ghost house flies I ordered from Josh’s Frogs. I order 25 pupae at a time, then let them eclose into adults. I’ve been keeping the adults in the fridge. I bring them out every once in a while to feed them some bits of fruit. My ghost will also take bits of chopped dubias I stick on a broom straw. Bigger tweezers intimidate him. Good luck.

 

[minomantis]

Ghost mantises are picky and are at a size that they’re afraid of everything which can be quite annoying.

I’ve raised a few that readily ate dubias, but even when they caught I had to watch them because sometimes they would just drop it. The dubias have to be small if you want to feed them but many places don’t have them in the size you need.

I order from Josh’s frogs. If you need quick food, get the house flies. They usually hatch the day of arrival.
Ghost mantises will surprise with the size of food they can catch. When they’re comfortable, they will go after larger prey (meaning larger sized flies).

Good luck!

-mino

 

[hibiscusmile]

They just have to get used to the food, my 4th instar will take blue bottle, is it a male? they are harder to feed.

 

[yaih0550]

i believe its female but shes so small its difficult to tell. i had no idea that they could be so picky about food. it took a week of her not eating before she went after a dubia

 

[cometmoth]

You could try catching wild food outside if the environment is clean!

 

[minomantis]

i believe its female but shes so small its difficult to tell. i had no idea that they could be so picky about food. it took a week of her not eating before she went after a dubia

Yea, I would try to stick with flying prey, but if she doesn’t eat the food presented, maybe wait like two days or so, keep her well hydrated and see if she’ll take on the next day.

 

[TheWolven]

yea ghosts are picky that way. They don't like crawly prey. other species I notice acting this way include Popa spurca (at least when young), Otomantis scutigera, and Odontomantis spp.

your father doesn't sound like a very supportive person. Sorry about that

Interesting. My Otomantis would go nuts for just about anything. She wasn't picky lol.

 

[hibiscusmile]

do u have a pic of her?

 

[agent A]

Interesting. My Otomantis would go nuts for just about anything. She wasn't picky lol.

my females as ADULTS weren't picky, but as nymphs they were. But then again I don't tweezer-feed

 

[happy1892]

My sub-adult male Ghost mantises actually took the small D. hydei fruit flies and ate enough of them to get fat. Right after molting the larger Ghost mantises may not take small D. hydei though. Not sure. I know that L5 P. wahlbergii nymphs wouldn't take D. hydei right after molting, and so house flies or lesser wax moths were necessary at that age (L5). But then after a couple of weeks or so from when they molted the L5 P. wahlbergii nymphs were aggressive enough to take small D. hydei fruit flies.

 

[TheWolven]

my females as ADULTS weren't picky, but as nymphs they were. But then again I don't tweezer-feed

Even as a nymph, when I tried to see her reaction to the roaches by tossing them in, she went crazy. She was just a little too small to grab them.

 

[ANTdrew]

My subadult male ghost is taking dubia roaches with great gusto. I cut small ones in half, then stick them on the end of a broom straw.