Wasps

[ellroy]

My adult female Idolomantis has just polished off a rather large wasp, it was extremely crunchy! She seemed to choose her strike carefully so perhaps they instinctively know to handle them with care. I know some keepers don't recommend feeding them to mantids but I am always keen to offer as much wild caught prey as possible and as bees and wasps are among the most abundant insects on the planet it seems likely they are an important part of the wild mantid diet.

Alan

 

[Peekaboo]

The main reason behind not feeding your mantids bees or wasps lies in the worry that they may sting and injure your mantis. However, I've heard of some people removing the stingers before feeding them to their mantids.

 

[ellroy]

Yes of course thats the concern but I feel that the mantids are skillfull enough to handle their prey to avoid getting stung. Just as many mantids have evolved to hunt prey on and around flowers, so have bee's (which have a particularly intricate relationships with flowering plants) and wasps and it seems unlikely that mantids would not have developed strategies to exploit this readily available food source. Even under captive conditions the mantis still has the opportunity to avoid prey and I have seen this happen on numerous occasions.

Alan

 

[julian camilo]

i agree with ellroy. i think mantids know how to handle bees and wasps and whatnot. i have only had a mantis being stung once, it was a wahlbergii subadult i think, and there was no lasting damage. the mantis could not move the arm for a short while (i mean minutes). after about 15/20 minutes, the same mantis caught the wasp again and munched it down like an old twix. and this was just once, every other time has been absolutely fine.

 

[Rick]

I can't even count how many times I have seen mantids sitting on flowers catching bees and wasps in the wild. I feed them to mine from time to time. They eat them naturally and as long as you are willing to take the "risk" then it's fine.

 

[nympho]

hi. last week i fed my sub sub adult heirodula nymph a queen wasp for a change due to there not being many bluebottles around. i'm amazed it took it due to its size and looks but it didnt hesitate to attack. The mantis stuggled for ages to bite through its tough thorax and it took at least 5 minutes before it could get through it with the wasp trying to bite and drag the mantis along. it was a good job i had removed the point of the wasp sting, as the wasp had the opportunity to sting many times. it was trying to sting the mantis between the soft joints in the capturing legs and would have if not handicapped. It was feeling around for weak spots and the mantis did not seem to be stopping this.

So I wouldnt feed a queen wasp without de-stinging it, too risky; although ive fed the little workers to mantis without problems.

 

[rickyc666]

Ive fed hundreds of bees to my various flower mantids for the reasons you guys mentioned (i.e. natural food for predators exploiting flowers). Ive never had a problem and the mantis always seems to hold the bees sideways.

However, literally only today one of my orchids caught a bee and started to eat it abdomen first, it was literally eating the bit with the sting and i was fairly concerned, then suddenly the mantis stopped completely motionless for about 5 minutes, except for its mouthparts which were going mad. i watched and waited for the mantis to fall down dead, it then ate half of the bee and left the rest. its still alive hours later. I dont know if it was stung in the mouth but ive never seen that behaviour before.

I wait nervously with anticipation as i am hoping to mated her.

 

[ellroy]

I imagine it had eaten the venom sac and perhaps was reacting to the venom. I hope it worked out ok,

Alan