New Old Guy needs direction

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11Bravo

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Nov 18, 2010
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Location
Levittown, NY
A brief history on my Matid addiction. I live on Long Island, New York and have always been amazed by this insect. When I was young I saw them each summer and thats when my Dad taught me never to hurt them, even told me I could be fined if caught. After the Army I bought a house that I lived in for 10 years and only saw one in all that time. Now I'm retired from both that house and my job and found time for gardening. About 4 years ago I bought two Oothoes (sp) from Ace hardware and put them into my Bamboo patch. Then, since I now knew what an egg sac looked like I found a few in the wild in salt grass along the Long Island Sound while shooting skeet. My Son then found them in a Christmas tree he cut at a farm. Since I use no chemicals around the yard I have happy Matids. This leads to the current question, Halloween Day I'm sitting out front and spy a Matid in the Ivy, I show it off to all the kids Trick & Treating and their parents also. The weather is changing fast and I was surprised to see one so late in the season. I see it for the next three days and realize it doesn't have any wild food anymore and the temps are dropping. I grab my daughters empty fish tank and bring it inside. Buy a dozen crickets and it chows down right away. Today I get back home to find it making it's egg sac, after she was done it was time to grab more crickets.

Sorry this is so long but now the questions.

Is the egg sac fertile?

Should I move the egg case outside for a spring hatching? (not interested in having them house hatch)

Does the female need to mate again to produce more young?

Thanks much

 
I'm still a newb, but I've learned a lot in the past few weeks. First, welcome to the forum, second, it's mantid in plural. (Or mantis, but not matid :D ) Since yours is wild-caught, the ooth should definitely be fertile. One mating is usually good for the rest of the oothecas for a female, but the forum members like to re-mate every 3 ooths to make sure nymphs hatch out well. Since it doesn't sound like your raising them, placing them outside should be fine. Since right about now it's too cold for any newly hatched nymphs, if yours hatch too early. Consider youself lucky that you can find mantids, too. I find an average of 1 mantis a year, or less. Where do you live?

 
The prevailing thought on this forum is that a wild caught female will already have mated, so I'd go with that.

I'd either put the egg out somewhere strategic, pinned or hot-glued to a branch out of reach of racoons and such, or put it in a container in your garage to over winter, and put it out in very early spring (a little riskier). Some of the other forum folks will surely have other options...

I am still far away from retirement, but I envy you and your bamboo. Enjoy it for all of us!

 
Sporeworld said:
The prevailing thought on this forum is that a wild caught female will already have mated, so I'd go with that.

I'd either put the egg out somewhere strategic, pinned or hot-glued to a branch out of reach of racoons and such, or put it in a container in your garage to over winter, and put it out in very early spring (a little riskier). Some of the other forum folks will surely have other options...

I am still far away from retirement, but I envy you and your bamboo. Enjoy it for all of us!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input so far. I'll have to cut part of the plastic tank to move the case outside, but thats doable. The Bamboo is a throw back to unhappy days, yet I slept many a calm night among them in Viet Nam. Bamboo offers the perfect nesting place for Matids and song birds find shelter amongst them during the winter. I have some pictures of a wild Matis doing the male beheading about a month ago. I'll upload the pics of the Boo to my site in a few days.

matid1.jpg

 
Welcome to the forum Wayne! And thanks for your time serving our country. You probably won't have to cut the fish tank. After a few days, just mist the ooth and carefully slide it off. If that doesn't work you can very carefully use a razor blade to get it off.

 
Beautiful Chinese Female - classic!

Yeah - give it a few days to dry and harden, then you should be able to peel it off the screen with a little cautious effort. Or cut out the screen. And, like it says above, thanks for serving.

 
Welcome to the forum. What is it like to be old and retired and such?

Excellent, accurate advice from everybody! The only thing that I would add will not help you with your mantis husbandry, but might be of interest. In the singular, both "mantis" and "mantid" are correct, and in the plural, "mantises" and "mantids". Most scientists use "mantid" and "mantids", but what do they know about etymology? Diddly squat, that's what. Oh, and the egg case is an ootheca or "ooth" for short!
biggrin.gif


 
Give the ooth a week to dry and place it outside. You should be able to remove it without cutting the tank apart if you're careful.

 
Update on the Matid; The Ooth was attached to a U channel part of the tanks top. I honestly didn't trust myself to either slide it off or surgically remove it. Yesterday when she was in the bottom of the tank doing in another cricket I cut the plastic piece out. Today I glued and tie wrapped it under the top rail of my cyclone fence shaded by the Bamboo and in my garden. Today I also noticed the Matid is basically just hanging in the area where the ooth was, she hasn't moved all day? I'm thinking she is either pissed I took the ooth away or maybe she is going to molt?

 
If she laid an ooth, she's an adult, adults won't molt. Concerning her behavior, she's probably just doing mantis stuff, hanging and waiting for her next meal, nothing unusual. Also - it's MaNtid, with an N, not matid. :lol:

 
They tend to hang out in the same place in their cage. Which means they also tend to lay their ooth there. But there is no knowing or feeling on their part about the ooth once they are done laying.

 
That could be a snapshot right from my childhood! We would catch 20 or 30 adult Chinese in an afternoon and (mistakenly) put them in a box together (we thought they were escaping - ah the innocence of youth). we also thought the (smaller) males were still babies, and left them behind - hillarious!

 

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