Separate Ghost Nymphs?

[cloud jaguar]

We have two 12" square net cube cages with lots of fake foliage and flowers - One wiith about 20 L3s. and the other with about 15 L4s. The L3s seem to be starting to challenge each other and fight and kill each other a bit but the L4s seem fine and nice to each other.

Eventually we want a little colony of them into one of two 1.5'x2' net cube cage with tons of fake foliage. What is our best option with the L3s?:

1) separate into deli cups. this seems like a bad idea to me since eventually we want a colony anyways - perhaps best to get them used to communal living. what say you?

2) put them into the larger net cage already! not sure if they will get the requisite food saturation level but sure tempting to think they are fighting because the feel crowded - they dont look crowded however.

3) separate them by sexes because the males are already probably mostly dead anyways. i sure hope this one is not true yet. i cant seem to see their segments well enought to sex them yet.

4) keep them together just feed them like crazy.

Well, which is the best option?

 

[ismart]

I would go with option two. There challenging each other because there to close to each other. Just add in more food items to counter act the extra space.

 

[PhilinYuma]

I would go with option two. There challenging each other because there to close to each other. Just add in more food items to counter act the extra space.

I think that that is option #4, Paul , and I agree.

I assume that you are feeding HFs at this stage. If you don't have the paper towelling on the bottom of the cube as suggested by Katt, now is the time to do it, it's not only good for the nymphs but for the flies as well. I don't know how many nymphs per cube you have, but you'd do well to have 50-100 flies all the time. For a setup like this, I usually add fly food (sugar + powdered milk) and a small pot of wet sphagnum moss. It's not a bad idea to get a HF subscription from Chuck or someone else (sure! good luck!) so that you always have enough pupae to toss in the cage.

In my case, I keep a cube or two full of HFs, slurp up about 50+ with my handy dandy vacuum cleaner aspirator, and dump them in the nymph cube -- takes less than 2 mins. I also use it (very carefully or it sucks up the lining) to clean out fly corpses. Gotta love this hobby!

 

[ismart]

I think that that is option #4, Paul , and I agree.

I ment option #2 and #4 combined. Whitch will make option #6 the best one yet!

 

[cloud jaguar]

Thanks - where can i get an aspirator, Phil? i saw one for kids at target but it looked too cheap and toy-like.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I leave mine together in my medium and large cave, they do fine with branches and silk flowers. They seem to love it and can move around, I vent the back and have a feeding hole in the bottom which also is a rinse the bottom out without disturbin them, especially after they bite me when gathering ooths!

 

[ABbuggin]

Thanks - where can i get an aspirator, Phil? i saw one for kids at target but it looked too cheap and toy-like.

Do a google search on how to make one. They are very easy to make. When I made mine, I made it huge (3/4" tubing, and a water bottle). It works great and I can even sucks things up as large as bumble bees, and as small as spring tails. I've been using it for at least 3 years and still works flawlessly.

 

[PhilinYuma]

I agree with ABbuggin, but if you are short on time and longer on funds, try somewhere like Carolina Biological for one under $12. If you are thinking of aspirating large numbers of flies for feeding, though, I (and Chuck of SpiderPharm) strongly recommend a mechanical suction device. You could really harm yourself if you accidentally aspirate a number of flies and they get into your trachea. Instead of using something like my workmanlike but ridiculous -- looking aspirator, you might want to buy an old 400 series GOMCO aspirator. These are long discontinued, but there were millions of them in US hospitals 40 years ago (they were killed by wall suction devices), and you should be able to get one for between $100 and $200: http://www.dotmed.com/listing/670803.

I used them for many years and am sure that my makeshift aspirator is more effective, but that's another story.

 

[Katnapper]

I ment option #2 and #4 combined. Whitch will make option #6 the best one yet!

I agree with Paul and Phil.

Thanks - where can i get an aspirator, Phil? i saw one for kids at target but it looked too cheap and toy-like.

I bought one from BioQuip:

Order Detail

QtyCatalog No.DescriptionPriceExt. Price

11135PASPIRATOR "POOTER" STYLE $21.75

11135PCASPIRATOR COLLECTING TUBE, 2/PK$11.40

Merchandise Total: $33.15

Estimated Sales Tax(Calif. Only): $0.00

Estimated Shipping & Handling: $7.50

Order Total: $40.65

It appears to be a really nice one and I even bought extra collecting tubes for it. I used it (or tried to use it) about 3 times, and gave up. Maybe I didn't put it together correctly? I don't know... all I know is it took too much sucking for me. I'd pass out before I got all my mantids fed. I've had it packed away in a drawer since shortly after buying it, and have been thinking about selling it. Let me know if you (or anyone else) is interested. Actually, I think I'll put it up for sale in the classifieds. I've got my own method of transferring flies, which allows some escapees... but it's my method, and I'm sticking with it!