success rate?

[TheBeesKnees]

Hi again, guys!

I have a question for everyone--well, for those of you who haven't lost count by now.

What would you say your "success rate" has been in raising mantids? By which I mean, how many mantids have you had that have made it all the way to perishing at a "ripe old age"? And how does that compare to the number of mantids that just didn't quite make it that far?

I only have three girls right now, each a different species, and I'm running into the problem of growing way too attached to them. I fret over them like they were my babies :T if any of them exhibit any kind of behavior that they never exhibited before, I get worried sick for them and get caught researching the behavior for hours before deciding that there's nothing wrong with them. I might be driving myself crazy, a little bit.

I know that if I want to continue with this hobby, I'm going to eventually be faced with the situation where a nymph mismolts, or one gets sick, or hurt, resulting in an untimely death. And I know It's gonna happen more than once. Heck, it might even happen to any one of the three girls I have right now! And so I'm kind of interested in knowing what the chances of having a mantis live out a full (or close to full) life-span is! If I know the odds on average, I might be able to deal with my own inevitable future losses a little better! Right now, I don't think I'd handle losing one of my ladies very well, ha haha.

On that note, has anyone else gotten super emotionally attached to their first mantids upon their initiation into the hobby? Or am I just destined to be a crazy lady who's eternally doomed to providing bugs with the kind of love and devotion that's usually reserved for something more long-lived and reciprocating...like--a old, loyal dog or something? (I would say "maybe I need a hobby", but this IS the hobby :clown: !)

 

[reptilia5]

I am now down to 8 mantises from about 40 due to cannibalism,bad molts and other reasons I have never quite figured out since they just seem to drop dead without warning. I would like to breed the mantises I have left but I also know their are no guarantees that will happen. I do get nervous with each molt and have a tendency to watch it all the way through if it is happening when I am awake and be something of a cheer-leader (but obviously the mantis could care less). I am attached to my mantises and want to see them die at a ripe old age,but it is not the same attachment like I have to my Dumeril's boa. I can get other oothecae very easily but another snake that I have cared for for almost 4 years is a different story. I would say at this point in time I have been about 20% successful. By the end of summer I will know concrete how successful I have been in raising mantises. Thanks for posting this great topic. It has given me something new to think about.

 

[sally]

I am sad everytime one dies. I keep telling myself it is the cycle of life. If I lose an older adult to old age I find that is bittersweet. I will have a good cry, but now I am doing better knowing this is how it is, their lives are. Short. I really do love keeping mantids, and yes I have lost count lol

 

[[email protected]]

Sally,

This is EXACTLY what I am going through now. I just lost another one to cannibalism today. My success rate with my first batch was 100% until about their 5th molt. Then, the scared ones mismolt, and they start cannibalizing. I gave some away, but I'm afraid they weren't good homes. I need to get rid of some now because they cannot stay in the cages together anymore. It is 110 degees here in AZ and even though they can survive, chances are that they will not. I just don't know what to do. I do love them so much.

 

[[email protected]]

To answer your question directly. My success rate is 50%, but they are just now at the stage of turning to adults. I'll have a better number for you soon.

 

[HungryGhost]

Whatever rate of success you are having, you have to remember one thing. Your captive rate is many, many, times higher than the rate they would survive in the wild. In the wild a hatch of 300 mantid nymphs probably results in less than 10 making it to adulthood. It's part of their make up.

 

[Digger]

I always separate newborn T. sinensis to individual, furnished condos. Of course this means that the vast majority of the hatch are set off into the wild. And, not being a selling breeder, that's ok with me. But this process eliminates cannibalism. It also allows very individual study and care of each nymph. I currently have 11 who have just all molted successfully to L2. One got some screwy DNA and his back leg is EXTRA long (two normal leg lengths). So he'll be a little more closely watched than the others. And - since I DO get very attached to these animals, keeping only a small batch at birth helps (never guarantees, of course) a better chance of reaching adulthood. Speaking of youngsters dying without an obvious cause: Aristotle (part of the batch mentioned here) was found face-down in his condo yesterday morning. Stone dead. Well fed, well watered. Who knows?