Just wanting to know is there a specific temperature to use to get a female mantis especially ones that are giant asians into the calling mood to get them to mate with the males? Or is there no specifics on how to get a female mantis of any species into the mood to do her calling at all?
Temperature and Calling
- Thread starter massaman
- Start date
Help Support Mantidforum:
When well fed, female for this species will start calling as early as a week after the last molt. 80-85F will do.
sadly I cant have temps above seventy degrees in my apartment or there will be high electric bills so best I can do is seventies and wonder if that can be enough!So I guess I will have to make do with this temp but worry that will it be enough but going to try my best with what I can do!
sadly I cant have temps above seventy degrees in my apartment or there will be high electric bills so best I can do is seventies and wonder if that can be enough!So I guess I will have to make do with this temp but worry that will it be enough but going to try my best with what I can do!
By well fed does that mean like giving the females like 4-5 crickets a day or something like that?
By well fed does that mean like giving the females like 4-5 crickets a day or something like that?
PhilinYuma
Well-known member
I think that this is a much bigger problem in the hobby than is generally discussed, Paul. The fact is that the 80F+ temps that many mantids like are higher than normal household temps and for folks on a budget or teens who don't control the budget, this can be a real problem. However, if you have a good thermometer and are very careful, (moving a heat source even a little closer can greatly increase the heat; twice as close = four times the heat) you can raise the temp in at least part of a net cage (and the mantids will go to the part that suits them) with a 100W bulb in a reflector. That should only cost about $2.50/week to run, even at Michigan prices, and you would only need it at mating, and perhaps, ooth laying time.
well cant move my furnace since its built into the wall and I can regulate the temp but live at home to as to take care of my dad who has alzheimers too and my mom always worries and says that we cant keep affording 3-400 hundred electric bills to keep my insects from dying when trying to maintain a decent temperature is what I am getting at and being my dormer is not very big and I sleep and keep my insects in the same dormer and what have you and well I do have a waterbed heater but reluctant to even consider using it and I got a portable heater but half the times it shoots out sparks and dont want to cause a fire hazard or get electrocuted!
My other remark is that yen said 80-85 degrees and that is where the problem lies for me and prob alot of others in this hobby and forum who have limited resources or limited ways to raise temp and humidity and I do have some other means to raise the temp other then my furnace but there is always a worry as well of a fire hazard as the shelf with most of my mantids on it is right behind my pc and dont want to melt any wires on the floor that are in the way as if i wanted to bring up a radiator to raise the room temp even more!
Last edited by a moderator:
I always used to keep mantids in the low 70's with zero issues. The species in question is very easy. I think you just may well get a mating at those temps. Do you have a warm place in your home? There might be one warmer than another. Get something to measure the temps and move it around until you find a good place.
yeah going to try and mate them and just see how it goes as I have had success with creobroter gemmatus and nebulosa,gambian spotted eye,acromantis and europeans with nothing different but most of those were bred before winter but I think I may be just worrying too much but from alot of breeders do things way different then what I am doing but just going to go with what I know and see and maybe just use my furnace to raise the temp a bit not in the eighties though but just in the seventies should be sufficient I think!
I live in a dormer above my garage so there is no other place to really move the mantids too and dont want to move them into the house with my mom and dad and so just going to work with the tools that are in my disposal and do the best that I can and hope it will be plenty enough!
I live in a dormer above my garage so there is no other place to really move the mantids too and dont want to move them into the house with my mom and dad and so just going to work with the tools that are in my disposal and do the best that I can and hope it will be plenty enough!
Last edited by a moderator:
My house is very chilly but I made an enclosure of sorts to contain most of the heat. The lamps that heat my lizard are on the bottom with the shelves containing mantids up top. Heat rises so it rises towards the mantids. I put foam sheathing on three sides and plexiglass on the front. It works better than I could have imagined. The temps in the coldest parts at mid 80's.
Opivy
Well-known member
a dimmer and some smooth jazz.
