Surprise: dubia babies hatch: Can they be food?

[Mantis Lady]

I had a surprise this morning: I got a Dubia roach hatch. (I never intended to breed them. ) I saw baby roaches in their box. I think they mated when it was so hot a few weeks ago.  I took out the egg thingy and this is the result.  I think the babies hatched last night.

Then I removed the litte babies and placed them in their own box because I have read somewhere adults can eat the babies. I don't know it is safe to feed them to Leyra and Atyeo. They got new cricket food and some salad for taking water from. And made new homes of an egg case.

But now my question: Their mom ate and drank (gel) maybe ate food that killed my 9 mantids. Is it save to feed them to my mantids? I don't want to put my nymphs lives at risk.

 

[ausar318]

If I were you, I wouldn’t use them for feeders. I’m not sure how/if the nymphs are somehow fed while inside the female, if it’s like with humans, where the things eaten by the mother are passed to the child. It might be the same with dubias, but then again, it most likely isn’t. Nonetheless, to play it safe, I wouldn’t risk it. If you think it was those dubias that killed your other mantids (9 deaths seems like pretty strong evidence), I would put them in the freezer and start again with some new dubias. Who knows, maybe it wasn’t the gel stuff they ate, they could have just been infected with something. 

The choice ultimately is up to you, but if I lost 9 of my mantids due to some dubias, I wouldn’t even consider using them for anything else for at least a couple generations

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Mantis Lady]

Thank you.

This is what i wanted to know. The sickness ended in 100% mantis dead  and killed off the crickets/grasshoppers one by one and that i how i discovered it was the gel or the food that made them sick. .Good I never fed them to my mantids.Good that is a good thing. Then I won't feed the babies either. They are getting other/ older dubias (i bought)with more goo in them.

The feeders (dubias/grasshoppers) are doing fine. Now rarely dying on their own. (except being eaten)