Staple Diet

[Scythe]

I've been feeding my mantis a steady stream of flies; I place a banana peel and a grape outside and then place my mantis near the food. The food attracts lots of common house flies; she (the mantis) caught 4 flies and ate all of them. What I'm wondering is that is it safe for the mantis to eat only house flies as her staple diet? I might add a few bees or moths, but I'm very limited in food choice besides house flies.

 

[Rick]

Welcome. We have an introductions forum where I encourage you to tell the community a bit about yourself.

To answer your question I suppose it partly depends on what type of mantis you have. If these are wild flies they will make good meals. If the mantis is large it can take a lot of flies to properly feed a large mantis. A small species like a Stagmomantis spp. could do just fine on a diet of flies like that. House flies are on the small size though. Bluebottle flies are much larger and readily available to purchase.

 

[Bug Trader]

As far as diet a varied diet of captive feeders, wild caught flies, moths, roaches, crickets, silkworms, and others or a mix would do better but if you must focus just on flies make sure they are properly gut loaded to ensure some level of nutrition for the mantis.

 

[JP77]

Wild-caught insects are pretty good for mantids. I would just make sure the insects aren't around any areas that are sprayed with pesticides, since that can make the mantis sick.

 

[mantisman 230]

All of the above sums up what I was going to say, but moths are excellent to feed too, and as long as they cannot injure the mantis even spiders, they are only a treat though, as I like to have a few around.