problem with complete darkness?

[d270]

Hi,

I did a search but didnt come up with my questions.

are there any issues raising mantids in complete darkness?

My fruit flies are more active when the light is on, and especially if I bump their culture.

Could my raising the mantids in complete darkness hinder them?

I have them under an overturned cardboard box in my garage to keep them around 75deg since it has been chilly in Chicago.

On another note....Im going to have issues since I have 2 eggs cases in one aqaurium....I thought my divider would separte them, but mantids found their way thru anyway.

So when the other egg hatches it will be about 3 weeks behind....and Im afraid they'll all get eaten.

My mantis babies are total carnivores, even with daily, massive, fruit fly feedings. I saw two mantis ready to grab a fly.....it crawled away from them.....so one mantis took the opportunity of the distracion to just pounce and devour his buddy next to him!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Mantids are diurnal creatures and need daylight. Give them as much as they would receive outside and preferably artificial light with a spectrum similar to daylight.. They use vision for prey capture and are largely inactive at night. A famous mantis keeper named M. Arnold described the result of an experiment in which he tried to raise mantids in the dark:

They hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And they are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies* clash by night.

Take his word on it. Why on earth would you want to raise them in the dark, anyway?

*"Ignorant" here means "not knowing what's going on because the armies can't see each other. It is commonly believed to the description of the battle of Epipolae by Thucydides. Good stuff!

"So when the other egg hatches it will be about 3 weeks behind....and Im afraid they'll all get eaten." Yes they will, so put the unhatched ooth somewhere else, already.

 

[d270]

Wow

See it will not be easy separating them at this point and that was the frustration I was portraying.

Thanks for the answer, but lighten up Francis.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Mantids are diurnal creatures and need daylight. Give them as much as they would receive outside and preferably artificial light with a spectrum similar to daylight.. They use vision for prey capture and are largely inactive at night.

I wonder about the inactivity part. I can't help but notice my adult males can get very active at night, namely between roughly 2am-5am. I've seen some of them run races in their cages and I imagine this is when many a wild male would take wing. I have always been under the assumption it is probably one of their prefered times to roam and try to find the pretty lady mantises. It is around that time period I also notice the girls enjoy laying their oothecas and mantises of all ages seem prone to slipping out of their old skins. Also a popular time for ootheca hatching. I definitly think mantises need to have a light cycle, but I'm not sure I would consider nightime a hugly inactive period. In a lot of ways I find if far more active than the daylight hours.

 

[d270]

Fortunately the temps are warming up so I will set them into the wild very soon. Im not even sure the other egg sac will hatch at this point.

Im new at this and this for the kids really. Next year I think I will just order an older Mantis online. While it has been an interesting experience raising cultures of fruit flies and seeing the baby mantids hatch, it is a little time consuming. I actually went the egg case route since I want to release many into my yard, with hopes they will be back next year.

I was thinking of putting a light bulb for warmth, but the box over the cage has worked well....the cage is on a mini/dorm fridge in the garage so the heat from the coils is trapped by the cardboard....plus Im not using more electricity....helping the environment...yada, yada, yada. It has been a learning curve from getting proper humidity, and now realizing the importance of light.

I saw some information on the internet that Mantis dont have bones so you dont need to have a special light and took tha to mean light was inconsequential....which apparantly is not entirely true.

When I looked onine for adult mantis they were either crazy expensive for Chinese Mantids or they were not in stock yet...too early in the season.

 

[Chivalry]

I'm not sure where you live but check here for your date of last frost: http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/ If you're past it, release them and the little guys will have a much better chance of making it, since they can spread out.

If you have a habitat for them, at least some of them will stay for you. They like low-growing bushy type stuff. I have herbs planted, and that is where 5 of the 6 ooths I found were, in herb plants. Just yesterday I spotted one of the hatchlings out of those ooths outside, so we are on year 2 from egg cases I put in the garden last year.

Right before frost last year we brought an adult female in and she laid a few more ooths for us, which we hatched in the house, so if you want to carry on with your experiment that might be one way to do it. Since you're starting with a big population already you're likely to have some to find later this year. Or, just keep a little guy or two from your current brood.

Do give them light of some kind if you're hanging on to them... most of mine love to bask.