happy1892
Well-known member
Hello. I have some thoughts about new sources of food for mantises. Here are some of my un organized notes:
I am in North Carolina and I have seen large evergreen oaks here that look similar to Laurel oaks. And I was wondering if those evergreen oaks would be a good source of food for butterflies or moths through winter. Or even walking sticks. Black berries are also a good source of food for walkingsticks, and the black berries in the ditches will keep their leaves through the winter, but often black berries will loose their leaves here in the winter.
I was also interested in breeding small butterflies for feeding Toxodera beieri. I have been told that Toxodera beieri doesn't take flies well, so they need butterflies to eat.
I am breeding lesser wax moths for feeding small mantises instead of flies. I am trying to figure out how to breed lesser wax moths at a faster rate because so far they don't breed super fast. They don't eat though once they are adult so are convenient to just leave alone for a week or more in the mantis containers without the wax moth starving and having to throw in more feeders again into the mantis container.
I got my lesser wax moths from my honeybee colonies. I am also using honeybees to feed my mantises. But they attack and sting my mantises and the bees are so aggressive that they even attack the dead insects and debris in the containers.
Bees are said to be nutritious for Orchid mantises and helping with egg bound condition and fertility in Orchid mantises.
I might be able to trap drones though which don't sting because they are larger than the workers. We have pollen year round even through winter here in North Carolina, so if fed sugar syrup they may produce drones through winter. And I could keep the bee colonies inside my room with a pipe to send the bees out through a baffle through the window.
There are traps that are slits at the entrance of the bee hive that allows smaller workers to pass through, but keeps makes the drones get stuck and congregate outside the entrance for easier harvesting of drones.
I am in North Carolina and I have seen large evergreen oaks here that look similar to Laurel oaks. And I was wondering if those evergreen oaks would be a good source of food for butterflies or moths through winter. Or even walking sticks. Black berries are also a good source of food for walkingsticks, and the black berries in the ditches will keep their leaves through the winter, but often black berries will loose their leaves here in the winter.
I was also interested in breeding small butterflies for feeding Toxodera beieri. I have been told that Toxodera beieri doesn't take flies well, so they need butterflies to eat.
I am breeding lesser wax moths for feeding small mantises instead of flies. I am trying to figure out how to breed lesser wax moths at a faster rate because so far they don't breed super fast. They don't eat though once they are adult so are convenient to just leave alone for a week or more in the mantis containers without the wax moth starving and having to throw in more feeders again into the mantis container.
I got my lesser wax moths from my honeybee colonies. I am also using honeybees to feed my mantises. But they attack and sting my mantises and the bees are so aggressive that they even attack the dead insects and debris in the containers.
Bees are said to be nutritious for Orchid mantises and helping with egg bound condition and fertility in Orchid mantises.
I might be able to trap drones though which don't sting because they are larger than the workers. We have pollen year round even through winter here in North Carolina, so if fed sugar syrup they may produce drones through winter. And I could keep the bee colonies inside my room with a pipe to send the bees out through a baffle through the window.
There are traps that are slits at the entrance of the bee hive that allows smaller workers to pass through, but keeps makes the drones get stuck and congregate outside the entrance for easier harvesting of drones.
