Freeze dried crickets for mantids

[Pythonipus]

Any thoughts on feeding mantids those Fluker's freeze dried crickets? I have 11 Deroplatys lobata that I'm currently feeding house flies. It is annoying to order a couple hundred or so every 2-3 weeks and spend more on shipping than the flies themselves. They are readily taking food from tongs so the crickets being dead might not be an issue, but I'm not sure if them being freeze dried is going to be. Any thoughts?

I know starting a colony of flies is a possibility, but I can't justify it with just 11 mantids eating them. I could see if my LPS would take the extras to ease the numbers, but I want to hear other options first. I could also take Matthew McConaughey's advice and pump those mantid numbers up.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Will your mantids take anything dry? If not, I wonder if soaking the crickets in water would rehydrate them.

 

[Pythonipus]

I haven't tried it before. Also apparently Zoo Med Anole food is dried house flies so that should be better than crickets for smaller mantids. Guess I'll have an experiment to see if they will take them or not. Time to bust out my lab coat.

 

[Greasylake]

Those freeze dried crickets that come in a bottle are meant for reptiles, not insects. I really doubt your mantis would be interested in them. You're better off just buying small live crickets and feeding them. Another thing you could do is start a red runner colont as the nymphs are pretty tiny and make great feeders for small mantis. I used them for my C. gemmatus for multiple molts until they were big enough to start taking small crickets, which really wasn't until they were mature. I've never had to use flies to feed a mantis and honestly with how annoying they are to work with I don't think I ever will.

 

[Chelbelle]

Have you thought about seeing if they'll take mealworms/baby superworms/dubia? Most of my mantids will ONLY take flying insects so I don't have much option there but there are a few who will eat anything I offer. I just introduced them by smooshing the heads of the insect and they were like "oh this is actually tasty". The listed options are pretty sustainable. They live for a decent amount of time unlike flies.

 

[Introvertebrate]

If they take dead feeders from tongs, I don’t see why a little piece of fish or ground beef wouldn’t work.

 

[Ratmosphere]

They won't take freeze dried. Just use live, it's a benefit to them.

 

[Andrea82]

Instead of the flies, you can feed the maggots, they stay well in the fridge for a long time, and if one pupates to fly, you simply feed the fly

 

[Pythonipus]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I'll stick with houseflies as a staple and try the small superworms and crickets next. A roach colony is also a no go until I can get my own place and my LPS only carries dubias.
I tried the freeze dried flies on a few of my mantids and only one took it. The rest ran away from it as if it was the Rabbit of Caerbannog and they were all out of Holy Hand Grenades. I rehydrated them, but it was still a no go. Oh well.

 

[Esherman81]

Mine will take tiny meal worms and flies ..I had one that used too take dead flies

 

[Introvertebrate]

Here's a mantis you can fake out with a cricket on a stick.

 

[Pythonipus]

Well, I stopped at the petco by my house to find some viv supplies and picked up a cup of wax worms for the heck of it. A couple needed to sample the goods for a bit before committing to the meal, but they are all sitting fat and happy now. Hopefully between those and super worms I should be done with flies as a staple. I think I'll still get flies every now and then to stimulate them a bit since they are active little guys.