Flightless fruitflies are a great first mantis food. Many pet stores and web stores sell them. It's also fairly easy to raise enough fruitflies to feed alot of mantids.
I developed a simple recipe for growing the flies.
You will need pototo buds, dark molasses, dried yeast, and a tiny bottle of something like "Fungus Stop" for tropical fish.
Start with a clean dry approx. 14 oz clear bottle.
1. Add a small cup of dried potato buds to the bottle.
2. To the same size cup add water, a tiny drop of molasses, a toothpick end full (a spec) of Fungus Stop.
3. Mix well.
4. Add lthe liquid to the bottle.
5. Let it harden for about 10 minutes.
6. Add about 10 granules of dried yeast.
7. Add some rolled up none rotting structure like styrofoam "paper". It should touch the food at the bottom and five the flies more space to run around.
8. Add a bunch of flightless flies. About 40 should do.
9. The flies will mate, lay eggs, form tiny maggots which eat yeast, form small cocoons above the food, and hatch into fruitflies. This takes about 2 weeks at 70F. It's faster if it's a little warmer.
10. After they hatch (several hundred) make a new culture.
11. To feed them to your mantids, gently shake them into a funnel of death leading to your mantises :twisted: .
I developed a simple recipe for growing the flies.
You will need pototo buds, dark molasses, dried yeast, and a tiny bottle of something like "Fungus Stop" for tropical fish.
Start with a clean dry approx. 14 oz clear bottle.
1. Add a small cup of dried potato buds to the bottle.
2. To the same size cup add water, a tiny drop of molasses, a toothpick end full (a spec) of Fungus Stop.
3. Mix well.
4. Add lthe liquid to the bottle.
5. Let it harden for about 10 minutes.
6. Add about 10 granules of dried yeast.
7. Add some rolled up none rotting structure like styrofoam "paper". It should touch the food at the bottom and five the flies more space to run around.
8. Add a bunch of flightless flies. About 40 should do.
9. The flies will mate, lay eggs, form tiny maggots which eat yeast, form small cocoons above the food, and hatch into fruitflies. This takes about 2 weeks at 70F. It's faster if it's a little warmer.
10. After they hatch (several hundred) make a new culture.
11. To feed them to your mantids, gently shake them into a funnel of death leading to your mantises :twisted: .
