Catch and release project

This is just a little something I did this summer. I caught and marked all adult chinese mantids I could find in a small area near my place. From 7-24 to 9-16 I caught 30 different adult chinese mantids. 18 were female and 12 were male. One female was found three different times while most were only found once or sometimes twice. The ones that were found more than once were never far from the first location they were found.

Most of these mantids were in excellent health however one was found with significant old, healed wounds to the head. Another was found with more recent injury to the head. One female was found with highly deformed wings. Two males were found missing parts of their front legs. Two females were found eating very large cicada's. I found those because I heard the cicada's loud buzzing as it tried to escape the mantids grasp. Found one female eating an adult female carolina mantis.

I wasn't able to get out there much after 9-16 and the few times I did I only found mantids I had already found. I went out there today and found no mantids. Even though it is 80 degrees right now we had a couple nights a couple weeks ago where it frosted and I believe the mantids were killed on those nights.

Just thought you guys would be interested in this little bit of data.

That is pretty interesting info Rick, thanks for sharing. How many oothecae have you observed? We have yet to get a frost and/or freezing temperatures up here in Central Indiana, so some of the people in my department have told me they are still seeing mantids (both Chinese and Carolina). We may finally get a frost sometime next week!

I live along the MA/CT border, and I still have 2 tough Chinese females hanging around. It's been very warm these past weeks, so I attribute the diminishing numbers to starvation, migration and eating each other. Occasionally I'll feed them with black crickets I find in the basement & garage, but otherwise there's not much food around for them. In September there were about 15 females and one bad molt male that couldn't fly. There was also a bad molt female who had the "droopy abdomen" condition-amazingly she made it up to last week, and made an ootheca too! One tough bug. Of course part of her success was due to my going around feeding everyone with grasshoppers every few days all summer. That gave her an edge for sure.

I've collected about 35 ootheca. Too bad I'm going to give them all away. This past summer one of the gals bagged a juvenile hummingbird (yes, it's true!) and I'm switching to the smaller Europeans next summer. No more Chinese for me, I've worked hard at getting the hummers to come, and that was a sad scene. The poor little guy was about the size of a ping pong ball, and she caught him with squarely with a claw on each wing, at the shoulder. She ate half (hanging upside down naturally), feathers & all, and then dropped it. Really shocking. I had read online of mantids catching hummingbirds, but dismissed it as freak incidents. Now I definitely know better! I was relocating mantids off the hummingbird plants for the rest of the season. They know where the action is.

Saw one ooth today but really wasn't looking hard. It is in the 80's here but we had just a couple cold nights and that looks like all it took. Interesting that Indiana hasn't had a frost yet but we have.

how did you mark them?A tag?

Perm. black marker to the outer wing.

That's a lot of hard work Rick, well done. Have you thought of joinning any wildlife society in your area? These info maybe useful for them in keeping track of beneficial bugs and pest.

yeah i will try that i have 10 chinese mantis ooth to try with :twisted:

Your going to need to do it with adults, nymphs would just molt out of the mark.

wow....thats a dope project you got going on. I have a question though.

What I wanna do is buy about 10 ooths and then put them up all within 100 square yards (in my backyard and the park down the block). My question is when would be a good time of the year to take on this project? I know they obviously hatch when its warm out but maybe theres some tips you guys can give me. I live in New york city. so if theres anyone familiar with the weather patterns that would help. I dont wanna do this for a research project although I wish I had the ambition and time to do so, like you guys do. But I just simply wanna make a nice little population of mantids around and learn about them at the same time.

wow....thats a dope project you got going on. I have a question though.What I wanna do is buy about 10 ooths and then put them up all within 100 square yards (in my backyard and the park down the block). My question is when would be a good time of the year to take on this project? I know they obviously hatch when its warm out but maybe theres some tips you guys can give me. I live in New york city. so if theres anyone familiar with the weather patterns that would help. I dont wanna do this for a research project although I wish I had the ambition and time to do so, like you guys do. But I just simply wanna make a nice little population of mantids around and learn about them at the same time.

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Buy the ooths in March or April, either put the ooths outside where you want the mantids and risk predation on the ooths by birds and rodents, or hatch the ooths indoors and release the newly hatched nymphs where you want them. They normally hatch outdoors in NYC around early May. If kept indoors at room temperature they hatch (in most cases) in 4-6 weeks, occasionally longer.

Keep in mind I didn't put these mantids in this area. They were already there. I just kept track of the mantids I found in this area. If you release mantids into an area keep in mind that if there aren't any there now it might be for a reason. The area you release them into must be able to support them. A weedy area with lots of grasshoppers is an ideal area.

well yeah...let me clear it up. I live in NYC but real close to a park/trainyard/cemetary. really. im serious, theyre all connected so I figured if i did it around there, the would have a lot to eat. The park has got a lot of space, and theres trees everywhere. I think itd be ideal for mantids. If i thought otherwise, I wouldnt do it.

Trees don't seem to be ideal habitat in my experience. High weeds are though.