Which mantids will eat B. dubia roaches?

[Deacon]

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?

 

[Sticky]

Hierodula will eat just about anything! I have H. Multispina, Yellow Venosa and Xaenensis. All three are great, easy mantids.

 

[Deacon]

Thanks, Sticky. I've been thinking about H. membranacea---I just like its simplicity and size.

My B. dubia colony finally got old enough and I found my first adult male tonight---he was still all white and absolutely beautiful with his long wings (and I never thought I'd say that about a roach!) At least now those fat females can get to work! :wub:

 

[happy1892]

I have kept Chinese mantises several times in the past. Chinese mantises should gladly eat dubia roaches (could be their staple diet when the nymphs get big enough to handle/tackle the dubias) if the roaches are small enough, if the dubia roach were too big, then the roach would be too strong for the mantis or the mantis would not even attempt to grab the roach to eat. There are I think only a few kinds of mantids that would not be alright eating dubias, like maybe... Brunneria borealis, Blepharopsis mendica, Pseudocreobotra, Violin mantis (Gongylus gongylodes), Orchid Mantis. Actually maybe those that I listed can eat dubias just fine or just the occasional dubia would be alright with feeding them mostly flying insects like house flies, blue bottle flies, and moths etc.

Sometimes a mantis is not very healthy or is timid for some reason, maybe if they get stressed out (I am not saying that that is the reason your T. sinensis would not eat the dubias). Then moths tend to be good to get their interest, I guess because a moth has large wings and flaps a lot, and flies around quickly.

 

[Fredstrong]

My Dead Leafs, D. Lobata, eat them. For one of them, I keep a little plastic cup in the bottom of the coco substrate. The roach cannot burrow, cannot climb out, my mantis knows to look there, will see the movement and chow down. I keep my other in a larger enclosure, so i take her out and and put her in a deli cup with the roach. They love them. I am experimenting to try and get my popa spurcas to take them, but the dubias tend to be rather sedentary and don't get their attention, like crickets or flys.

 

[Deacon]

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.

 

[Deacon]

Fredstrong,

Thanks for your ideas. Would you consider the D. lobata a "beginner" mantis? Looking at a photo in Orin McM's wonderful book, Keeping the Praying Mantis, they look like there's lots of corners to have problems molting. Orin writes that, "this specie has been the most common in recent years." Does that equate to easy? I'll see if there is a caresheet.

I really did fine with the Chinese mantids until my female had her final molt. You know how they say each molt gets progressively longer between them? Well, I was giving up on her ever molting to adult and took her out to clean her cage. I realized she was wobbly and odd looking and quickly put her back. But the next morning, she and her molt were on the floor of her cage. What's more, I had absolutely no idea how huge she would be! I think her cage was too low and when she reached the bottom, she had to bend at the abdomen to get out of her old skin and they both tumbled down. I had read that most mantids that fall will die within a couple of days...she lived with all her problems, including mating, for ten weeks. She was very sweet.

My grandsons go to a Catholic school and they had the annual Blessing of the Animals a couple of weeks ago. Since my female had hatched in their third-grade classroom, I took her and the dogs to be blessed (my grandsons thought it was a good idea.) Everyone was fascinated, including the priest, and I met a couple of people who have found Mantis religiosa in their yards here in Washington state. I have never seen a wild mantis except in Hawaii! Anyway, the blessing didn't help her maladies and she died last week.

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.

 

[happy1892]

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.

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.

 

[happy1892]

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.

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?).

 

[Deacon]

Happy1892, thanks for each of your suggestions.

I was not at all offended with your comment about sickly/shy mantids. It was more an aha moment actually. :balloon:

I have avoided the net cages for the reason that maintaining humidity seems more difficult, but mostly because I have cats with claws and they are attracted to the flies, mantids and the heat mat. A net cage would be a disaster in the making I'm afraid. Now, if I had an extra room for all the bugs, I could do many things differently!

I ordered the B. dubias when my mantids were younger and then I mated them and things just started going downhill. The dubias are finally maturing so I'm looking forward to babies (I think I read it takes a couple of months though, so I think I'll have order some little ones for now.) I have lots of BB flies right now and I hope my new nymphs will be big enough to handle them.

Re: the perfect next mantids? Right now, I love the simple, sturdy look so I took the plunge and am expecting two Hierodula membranacea tomorrow from Mikhail at Tree Top Reptiles. Many posts have suggested that these mantids would love the dubia.

(My husband doesn't mind the mantids on the kitchen counter, but the fly pupae in the fridge, the bins of roaches and wax worms in the garage, and the hatching jars and cages of pupae and flies under the lights---he just thinks it is over-kill! Yep, but when you need them, you need them now, right? )

And my T. sinensis's eyes were fine. Then he started having trouble hanging on and falling so I put some shelf liner in his cage---I bought black. It made his cage so dark, then his eyes turned black, so I ripped most of it back out (I have white ready for the new arrivals.) I wondered if he was rubbing his eyes on the soft shelf liner. Today, I was hand feeding him and you're right, he can see. So, his clumsiness must be his old toes.

Anyhow, I hope I'm a better/smarter care-giver to the new nymphs and I avoid any mistakes---just have to get back into watching for those molt stages. Oh, and I love to handle the mantids, the roaches, not so much!

Thanks again, Nancy

 

[happy1892]

Oh, nice. Good luck with the H. membranacea. They actually might be easier than T. sinensis. lol I get the impression that people think of T. sinensis as being very easy to keep. They are, I guess, but not the toughest in my opinion, like the Sphodromantis could be a better beginner's mantis. I like the flower mantises, and thick bodied/stocky mantises very much.

 

[Deacon]

Yeah, for me right now, it's still about loving the little triangle faces. And having perfect success. Then, maybe something more exotic looking

I take the blame for my T. sinensis's last molt and hope to be more observant this time around.

Thanks for the input, Nancy