- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 183
Ok you have probably seen some of my photos of my L6 African mantids. I shared a hatch with the people that provided a male so my female could breed. We had 2 oothecae in Dec and I got 10 young to raise from day olds. Well, I was having fun with these guys when, on Feb 8th, she spun another ootheca. This was a month and a half from the breeding. She was in a one gallon ice cream bucket at the time. I moved her into a 5 gal aquarium and put the bucket aside thinking the ootheca was probably sterile. None the less I kept a wet paper towel in the bottom for humidity. I marked the calender for 6 weeks from laying...March 14th. Well...you guessed it...they hatched. By God did they hatch! I was at work but Anne thought the screen on the ice cream bucket was moving. When she looked in there was a black wave boiling across the lid , down one side and up the other. By the time I got home things had calmed down a bit. There must have been 500 + hatch originally but they probably ate themselves down by half. I stepped up the assembly line production of cups and screen lids. By the time we finished we had rounded up about 275 young (5 per cup). Seems as long as they have some space they do not bother each other. So, now what? Start more fly cultures!!! Luckily I had a couple just peaking. Anyway that's too much writing. Here are some baby photos.
John
John
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