RE: Insect Cups with ventilated lids IN ENGLAND

[Jwonni]

I like the look of this american product & the 6.75" ones

http://superiorenterprise.com/catalog/prod...products_id=134

But dont need that many, expect high postage and as there are so many the cost is high

Does anyone know of anywhere in the uk selling these same things as i have been searching for hours and am stuck

If not maybe one of the mantid sellers/supply sellers in england may order them to sell in smaller quantities in england

as they are no-where for sale here i imagine they would be easy to sell on

 

[Sheldon Johnson]

In my town we have this place called the scrap store. You go in, pick up a shopping basket and fill it until its overflowing with anything you can find.

It costs £4 regardless of how much or little you get and there are lots of great mantis things i.e. film containers and cups.

Also it is run by the council, so you may well have one in your area, call them and find out, its deffinatly worth it; 400cups+lids for £4 yesterday! (actually 2.50 since she decided give me a "student discount")

 

[Jwonni]

nah we dont have a scrap store m8 are the lids ventilated as i really like the look of these ones with the little round mesh ventilated holes

*scoots of to see if i'm far from somerset*

 

[julian camilo]

i seem to have the problem as you. i cant find any plastic cups with lids anywhere near me, let alone ones with ventilated/mesh lids. however i found some containers of a good size and material in a local japanese stationary/tupperware/kitchenware shop that had suitable tight lids, like so:

i then cut a hole in the lid. i cut some mesh about 1/2cm/1cm larger than the hole and layed it over the hole on the underside of the lid. i then used a hot glue-gun to glue the mesh to the lid, making sure to use a consistent amount and not leave any gaps, so as to create a seal. this is what it looked like:

it provides good ventilation and also a good surface to hang from. ive yet to try it with mantids (at the moment im just using them to hatch out flies and for fruit fly cultures) but i assume it works just as well.

it might seem like too much effort but really its pretty easy. and you can choose how fine the mesh you use is (used a very fine one for fruit flies and a coarser one for flies).

so yeh if you can get just the cups with lids, you might consider doing something similar to the cups. or try having a look at any kitchenware shops near you. or also if you have any cheap pound shops near you, they usually do a variety of tupperware that is useful too. they also sell large mesh/netting cage type things that i think are supposed to be used for laundry or something but which i think will work well to house lots of nymphs or to hatch an ootheca out into (i think i saw it being used for this in a photo of a mantis room/setup that was posted here a few weeks ago ior so).

hope this helps in some way.

best wishes

julian camilo

ps - that shop in sommerset sounds brilliant, wish we had one near us :roll: :wink:

 

[Sheldon Johnson]

Well im not promisisng anything, but i guess i could pick you guys up some stuff if you pay me for it + postage and when i have a little more time free.

All you would need after is some netting (although the scrap store may well have that too). Cut a hole in the lid, put the netting over the cup, then put the lid back on, works fine for me and is a little more practicle than other methods when havign to do it to 75 cups in an hour!

 

[Jwonni]

currently doing a similar thing but with jam jars and a hole cut in the metal lid, place the netting over the jar and screw the lid on

 

[KennethJ78]

I've tried ventilating my containers with pieces of mesh screening as well, but ran into one major problem: crickets.

I feed my mantids ( mostly ) flies and little roaches, but I also feed them crickets... And these crickets have been chweing massive holes in the mesh screening. So any future cricket / roach that is put into the container has a huge escape exit...

Now I just poke tiny holes into my plastic containers, using a thick needle that has been held into a flame, so it melts through the plastic. It does take a while, but the results works perfectly.