jday
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2010
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I just thought I'd share some newbie experiences. Work took me 800 miles away from home three weeks ago, and I left with my wife and 7-year-old son (Z) and 16 Chinese mantises in tow. We lost one to a bad molt and one just quit eating and died. One was bisected by a neighbor and the head and forearms remained alive for 36 hours. (Z put a fly in its pincers and it tried to eat.) Two just disappeared. There are eleven left, each in its own container now. We're in a pretty nice hotel so we hide them everyday when the folks come to clean the room, 'cause I figure the managers don't want bugs in the place. A lot of them have turned brown, and we're wondering if it's because of the limited sunlight they're getting.
We brought a butterfly net and try to catch food every day, but it's rained a lot and is kinda cool (we're in Minnesota) so the bugs aren't always out. We avoid lawns that look chemically treated. We've mostly caught flies in an abandoned lot near the hotel, but we've also caught moths, and a few unidentified critters. Many escaped in the room and I had to chase 'em down. I read that ants aren't recommended, but we've had luck with some honkin' big black ants we find on the sidewalks around here. The mantises seem to love them. The only total failure was rolly-pollies. The mantises caught them, but couldn't eat them.
One day we lost a mantis out the third floor window (don't ask) and I had to talk a mid-level guy into letting me onto the roof of a walkway to fetch "my son's biology project." It probably helped that my little feller was teary-eyed.
The mantises have very distinct personalities. One is always scared and gets into a stick position any time its container is bumped. One is extremely aggressive and will attack anything. It actively stalks food, which we heard mantises won't do. It even lunges at food it sees in its neighbor's jar. It's been a wonderful experience, but way more work than anyone expected.
We brought a butterfly net and try to catch food every day, but it's rained a lot and is kinda cool (we're in Minnesota) so the bugs aren't always out. We avoid lawns that look chemically treated. We've mostly caught flies in an abandoned lot near the hotel, but we've also caught moths, and a few unidentified critters. Many escaped in the room and I had to chase 'em down. I read that ants aren't recommended, but we've had luck with some honkin' big black ants we find on the sidewalks around here. The mantises seem to love them. The only total failure was rolly-pollies. The mantises caught them, but couldn't eat them.
One day we lost a mantis out the third floor window (don't ask) and I had to talk a mid-level guy into letting me onto the roof of a walkway to fetch "my son's biology project." It probably helped that my little feller was teary-eyed.
The mantises have very distinct personalities. One is always scared and gets into a stick position any time its container is bumped. One is extremely aggressive and will attack anything. It actively stalks food, which we heard mantises won't do. It even lunges at food it sees in its neighbor's jar. It's been a wonderful experience, but way more work than anyone expected.
