A very merry christmas

[Bigboy]

Well, Christmas was doing its best to ruin my day when I noticed something in the fresh garlands my mother had bought that has not delighted my eyes in years. A plump fresh praying mantis oothecae. I am simply ecstatic over this find. I had all but given up hunting for mantids in my hometown and here I find an egg case right in my very own home. I've only ever hatched one of these before and I promptly let all of the young go. I plan on keeping a few this time for a few weeks. Will freshly hatched pinheads do as a food source for baby mantids?

 

[Farom]

Fruit flies work better, but newly hatched pinheads would work too.

 

[Scolopendra55]

Just make sure you keep the nymphs fairly humid to aid with molting

 

[Bigboy]

They hatched, 104 total, 4 dead, 100 separately housed in deli cups. And are all eating well. I can't wait to release them in a few more weeks.

 

[padkison]

Once you get mantids hanging around your house, they show up year after year. We get oodles of ootheca from the chinese mantis in our bushes. I think they stick fairly close to where they hatch out.

Last year we happened to see a ootheca hatching out in the front flower garden.

 

[dirtborder4life]

mantids

Congrats on the ootheca! We hatched one as a class project when i was in school,and i've kept a few since then as pets.Very interesting insects.