Chinese Mantid Eggsac

xWARxPATHx

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 18, 2005
Messages
184
My Chinese Mantid just produced an ootheca . :) I've read a few things on how to keep it but if someone has had more experience with it can you please tell me the right conditions to keep it in. Right now its in a 1 gallon twist cap plastic jar with peat moss and a fake plant.
 
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Peloquin

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 27, 2004
Messages
178
Stick plenty of plastic plant in for the nymphs to climb/ hide/ moult on and get rid of the twisty on lid. Replace it with some fine netting and a laccy band and hang the ootheca from it with a bit of cotton or something. Make sure the humidity is kept up a bit to stop the ootheca drying out and keep the temp somewhere aroung 80.
In a few weeks you could be a daddy to a couple of hundred hungry babies.
Get some fruit fly cultures on the go asap as the young will eat like there's no tomorrow. You can keep them together for a few months but expect there to be less than you start with. The mortality rate is pretty high anyway but factor in cannablism as well.
Hope this helps a bit.
 

xWARxPATHx

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 18, 2005
Messages
184
Peloquin said:
Stick plenty of plastic plant in for the nymphs to climb/ hide/ moult on and get rid of the twisty on lid. Replace it with some fine netting and a laccy band and hang the ootheca from it with a bit of cotton or something. Make sure the humidity is kept up a bit to stop the ootheca drying out and keep the temp somewhere aroung 80.
In a few weeks you could be a daddy to a couple of hundred hungry babies.
Get some fruit fly cultures on the go asap as the young will eat like there's no tomorrow. You can keep them together for a few months but expect there to be less than you start with. The mortality rate is pretty high anyway but factor in cannablism as well.
Hope this helps a bit.
The ootheca is already attached to a fake plant I have in the jar. Would using a Large kritter keeper with mesh as the lid be fine until they hatch. I plan on putting some in vials I know the morality rate is pretty high. On the fruit fly thing would I be able maybe just to cut up some wax worms. If not how would I go about creating a fruit fly culture.

Thanks
 

Jesse607

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
716
Just buy several flightless fruitfly cultures from an online source or a local petstore, don't worry about making one yourself. Mantids only eat live moving prey (unless fed with forceps), so chopped up waxworms will not work.
 

Peloquin

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 27, 2004
Messages
178
Large K.K. is fine for them.
Fruit fly culture is dead easy to do.
Get a plastic beaker or 2 with screw on lids. Stick a hole in the lids and use some sponge/ cotton wool as a plug in the hole.
Get a cheap packet of mashed potatoe flakes/ granules and a sachet of dried yeast. Make up some mash. pot. in the beakers and sprinkle a little yeast [small pinch of it] over the top.
Stick in some plastic plant or something for the flies climb on and lob a few flies in from a culture from a shop. Just leave it for a week or two and there'll be hundreds of them in there.
If you time it right, you can actually put a culture in with the ootheca and the flies will hatch a day or two before the mantids. Loads of food for them.
 
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