What to do with newly laid egg sack...

[Toronto]

Hi,

We acquired a mantis from a local park back in August (see photos... not sure what species it is and how it got here). We fed it a constant diet of grasshoppers from our backyard over the past month. It was getting fatter and fatter, until yesterday we noticed an egg sack! It's almost October here in Toronto and the weather will start getting colder... I don't want these to hatch indoors in the middle of winter when I have no desire to take care of them, and the mother is getting tougher to feed because I am not finding as many grasshoppers in the bushes around the house!

Does anyone have any suggestions of how we can keep this over our long winter, and how to keep the mother going?

I heard that the egg sack can be kept in a fridge which will stop it from hatching. Could I keep it Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar? That's 6 full months and there is no guaranty that April will be warm enough here in Toronto... We still get frost warnings at night until May! If I can somehow keep it in the fridge or our garage in a jar, and supposed to "mist" it once a week, that may keep them dormant until spring I presume. Will they hatch if it is cold? I'm horrified of the thought that I'll open my fridge one day and see a bunch of mantises running around. They will only hatch if brought back to room temperature, right?

If I put the egg sack in the backyard in April, hopefully they cab hatch, they can feed themselves. Also, as far as the mom adult mantis goes, I can't keep looking for grasshoppers or finding bugs to feed it the whole winter. What am I supposed to do?

Please let me know if this will work.... I was going to put the egg sack in the backyard and cover it with some branches and leaves, it will be fairly cold and hopefully they will make it over the winter freeze and wake up naturally in the spring. I cannot take care of them in the house and don't have time to keep spraying them or put it in the fridge. As for mamma mantis, how much longer does it have to live? Do I just release it in the backyard at this point or can I still keep it inside a few more months? What can I feed it (a local pet store sells crickets and mealworms for their lizard pets but they are expensive).

Thanks for any advice/suggestions! 

-Toronto, Canada  

 

[Connor]

You can buy bluebottle fly pupae on a bunch of sites on the forum: mantisplace.com, mantidkingdom.com, panterrapets.com, bugsincyberspace.com to name a few. You can keep those in the fridge and just take them out when you need to feed and they will hatch in a day or two. They will last about 2-4 weeks in the fridge. The momma will die outside sooner than if you bring her inside. 

 

[Rick]

I replied to your post in the intro forum. 

 

[Okoboji22]

The species of mantis you have is the European mantis. It's scientific name is mantis religosa. As for the egg sack, I think that if you found the mantis there then the eggs will be able to survive so it would be fine to put them outside. (But don't cover up the eggs as when they hatch they might get caught in something or be bent out of shape because when they hatch they are very soft like during molting.

 

[Ocelotbren]

As Connor and Okoboji mentioned, you can buy feeders online (although you do have to pay shipping generally), and the egg case will be fine outside.  I would hang it from something though and not bury it or place it on the ground as the female usually lays the egg case on a branch, a fence, the side of a building, etc.  The nymphs need to hang down from it when they hatch so they can harden and they couldn't do this (or at least not easily) if the egg case were on the ground.

 

[Toronto]

Ok, thanks. I am thinking of transferring the momma to another container (to keep indoors for the kids to watch) and putting the original container with the ootheca outside, somewhere up near a branch or tree. Alternatively, I can maybe remove the stick with the ootheca and attach the stick to a branch outside but keep in the same orientation as it was originally formed in the container. It will probably survive the winter here as this was found at a park near our house and I presume it wasn't someone's escaped pet! We have some vines on the house which could provide something to attach to and also provide some shelter.

I can also place it on a spruce tree we have at the corner of our garden, on the main trunk deep in under the branches. Animals don't usually work their way in that deep, and it seems well sheltered from wind and the elements so it should be a safe place over the winter for them to hide out. It will get cold over night and that should keep them from hatching until spring.