Deacon
Well-known member
I have the roaches but I need the right mantids to eat them. My first mantids were T. sinensis but they wouldn't eat these roaches. Now I'm looking for another specie of mantid that will. Any in the beginner league?
Okay. Do you have a big enough stable colony of dubias with nymphs of all ages? Sphodromantises are nice, though they can be scary if you have an aggressive individual, particularly if it is an adult female, that is if you are planning on handling them. jk (trivial matter ). Hierodula maybe good also? Pnigomantis medioconstricta are cool, and get big. Rhombodera good, too, with the dubias I think. Deacon, what type of mantises do you think are pretty, or the ones you like? Do you have any intermediary things, like Blue bottle flies to feed them when they are kind of young but too large to eat D. hydei? When they are younger, they might not be that aggressive or observant enough to attempt to eat a small enough sized, slow moving dubia nymph. I thought dubias were fast enough to get the attention of most mantids though.I want to have better luck and instincts the next time around...so, I'm looking for an easy one but it has to eat dubia roaches when it grows up :helpsmilie:
Thanks so much.
No problem. I really wasn't suggesting that your's were sickly from bad care. Sorry if it sounded like that. The black eyes are probably from the mantis rubbing against the plastic or glass walls of the container she was in. Net cages are easy for keeping big mantises in. I heard that the black from that type of rubbing injury does not cause much harm so probably do not need to worry about that, unless maybe it's caused by a disease, and now we are getting paranoid! The netting is good for the mantis to hang on. It probably will keep the mantis from getting the black spot in the eyes. Livemonarch.com possibly make the best quality net cages for your money's worth (is that the right phrase?).Happy1892, none of the mantids you listed are on my growing list of possible "beginners" so no worry there.
You are absolutely correct that my two Chinese mantids are/were not healthy. My mated female had a bad final molt (probably my fault) and wound up with a floppy abdomen (she was fine until then), wings all over the place like a turkey tail, got a prolapsed anus right before mating, and it was suggested she was overly fat also. :blush: These are my first mantids so I'm still learning and I thought she was just full of eggs. Anyway, she died last week at ten weeks without laying an ooth. My male is fourteen weeks old, had perfect molts, but a few weeks later was missing his front tibia and now his eyes are permanently black. Not sure if he can see. I am hand-feeding him Gerber baby meat, honey and water every day. Anything else I've tried to coax him to eat is batted away, even wax worm moths. Two nights ago I found him hanging, head down, touching the peatmoss and I was sure he was a goner. I was wrong. He's still alive for now, but this is why I'm looking for a new specie on the beginner list as he is growing old. (I inherited the Chinese fem. mantid from a grandson's 3rd grade class and now I am impossibly hooked.)
So, not only were the mantids sick/getting old but, probably, from what I've read since, the roaches I tried to feed them were too big--nothing under an inch+.) Now I have all these dubia (some adults too) and no one to feed! I'm hoping I'm smarter and more successful next time with the right beginner mantid (that will readily take a roach.)
Thanks for your suggestions.
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