Tweaking My Ghost Enclosure

[Ryan.M]

I've had my ghosts for a few weeks now, and have made some much needed adjustments to their enclosure. Maybe some other mantid newbies like me can benefit from these tips!

I started out with 5 of them at L2/L3, and now I'm left with 3 at L4 (two females and 1 male). Two of them (1 male and 1 female) were eaten, both of which could not keep up molt wise and the others were simply too big to hold off.

It (may ) have been my fault that they weren't molting because I had bark substrate and sphagnum moss on the bottom which, although helped with the humidity, left tons of little crevices for crickets to hide, preventing them from climbing all the twigs that the ghosts were stalking on. I believe this prevented a couple of the ghosts from feeding until they were full, thus slowing down their molting rate.

Anyways, I've removed the moss and left only the bark substrate which should result in more crickets going up the branches instead of sticking along the ground.

While I was cleaning out the cage I was surprised to actually see mold on the bottom of one of the large branches. Moisture apparently got trapped in one of the crevices surrounded by the moss and another decoration in the terrarium, and that, coupled with the heat from the substrate heater at the bottom apparently made it a breeding ground for some mold. I've taken a lot of the clutter from the bottom out, leaving only branches and a couple other things to prevent this from happening again.

And the last improvement I've made was removing the decorative (and in my opinion, useless) foam background that comes with exo terra terrariums. The crickets, if you can believe it or not, were actually feeding on the stryofoam as I saw a bunch of them munching on it, leaving little craters on it's surface. I certainly don't want my mantids eating crickets that are gut-loaded with styrofoam and paint! On top of that, crickets were climbing it to the top and reaching the vents, leading to escapes (after learning about this a week or so ago, I closed the vents with hot glue). Great research and development exo terra! <_<

I've included some (artistically enhanced ) pics for your viewing pleasure.

Cheers!

 

[psyconiko]

Careful with those crickets...dont take any risks with your remaining ghosts and feed them on flies.

 

[Ryan.M]

I would gladly feed them flies if they were easy to come by... I'm not saying we don't have flies, we have tons, but the pet stores don't sell them. Plus walking around outside with a net snagging flies is so time consuming!

The crickets I'm feeding are 1 and 2 week old crickets so I'm not concerned about them harming the ghosts. A few weeks ago the ghosts were pretty timid about eating crickets, but after a couple of hand feedings they readily snatch up any cricket that walks up thier branch.

 

[kmsgameboy]

I would gladly feed them flies if they were easy to come by... I'm not saying we don't have flies, we have tons, but the pet stores don't sell them. Plus walking around outside with a net snagging flies is so time consuming! The crickets I'm feeding are 1 and 2 week old crickets so I'm not concerned about them harming the ghosts. A few weeks ago the ghosts were pretty timid about eating crickets, but after a couple of hand feedings they readily snatch up any cricket that walks up thier branch.

If you dont want to bother with catching flies just do like I do. Leave a light on outside and catch moths at night. Its a quick and easy way to gather free mantis food. You can also use a bug net and sweep it through the grass and bushes in your yard. I do this to collect small feeder insects for my mantids and find that its an easy way to snag young grass hoppers, spring tails, and leaf hoppers and once again its quick and free!

 

[Termite48]

Ryan: I would like to share with you as you have with the rest of us. Flies can be caught so easily using the following. If you have a store where cloth is sold, get the smallest amount of fine mesh material that they will sell to you. I bought some that is very fine, but yet, you can see through it. This is important. When you get it home, cut a piece about 15" x 15" for your fly catching. Then get a couple of the small plastic cups that hold about one to two ounces. Fill up the two cups about half way with fresh dung (horse, cat, dog, even human if you have to. Place the poopy cups on a table in your yard where flies are known to be. Within a few minutes on a sunny day, more on a cloudy day, check the cups for visitors without being seen. Then when you are satisfied that there are enough flies (2+) hide your face with the mesh cloth as you slowly and closely approach the cup. As you get closer, make sure that you keep the cloth tight and approach with the cloth at a 45 degree angle. Then when you are 2" away go for it quickly covering the cup and not allowing the flies to escape. Sometimes if the cup is not too full, you can leave the cup behind and curl the net in such a way as to capture the flies as they try to escape. This takes some practive, but this allows you to go directly either to the freezer for a quick stun, or directly to the enclose if you do it properly and release the flies in to the mantids without having to stun the flies. I just caught six in one netting a few minutes ago. You can buy Blue Bottle or housefly pupae from sources online, two of which are regular Mantidforum members. These pupae eclose within hours sometimes of being heated up a bit. Sometimes for days at a time I am out of housefly pupae and I resort to catching flies the way I outlined. Then after netting these cuties, place them in the freezer for two or so minutes to stun them. Then you can drop them into your fly enclosure and not have the risks that feeding non-gut loaded and quaranteened crickets pose. The other advise, in rearing mantids, is if you go to the plant nursery and buy a piece of coco-fiber matting, used in potting hanging flower baskets, that is the best substrate you can imagine. It is washable, harbors no mites, holds the moisture without molding. It can be cut to any shape

and size you need. It is a good cushion for the mantids if they fall on it.

Rich on SoCal

Nice pics and nice looking habitat.