Ooth laying for African mantid

[SoCalMantis]

I have a female African mantis(S. Centralis)and have since bred her twice with 2 different males...both lasting about a day to complete mating....this was over 2 months ago and she still has not laid an ooth....she's huge and has to be full of eggs...why isn't she laying>? I even put her outside in the garden for a few weeks to see if temp would do anything...but still no laying....whats up with her?

 

[Rick]

That is a bit odd. How long has she been an adult? When they mate has nothing to do with when they make an ooth. Give it some more time if she is nice and fat.

 

[SoCalMantis]

She's been an Adult for 3 months perhaps....I bred her the 1st time 3 weeks after she had reached maturity...then again a month later.

 

[julian camilo]

does she accept food? if she does, try feeding her til she refuses to eat any more. also she may not have laid because she can't find an appropriate place. are there any twigs/branches in the enclosure where she should be able to lay? what kind of stuff has she eaten? she might not have gained the necessary nurtrients for an ootheca, possibly. or maybe just hasnt eaten enough yet.

 

[Rib]

I had the same problem. All I did was clean out the tank and put some different twigs in for her to climb / lay on. She laid the same night. Maybe its a fairly similar situation to yours?

 

[SoCalMantis]

She still eats like a pig....mainly just crickets since that's what's available to me...sh'es in a bush now that has many branches for her to lay. Maybe the diet of Crickets only is making her ooth-less...lol ...I'll try to see if she will eat some wax worms...maybe that will help with the ooth problem.

 

[julian camilo]

yeh maybe try feeding her some different stuff, if you let the waxworms turn into waxmoths, they could be pretty good for her. or maybe try changing the enclosure completely with all-new branches and stuff like someone above mentioned.