Hey, does anyone keep them? I have a one i caught outside a friends house and i'm lookng into breeding them. How does this process work? It is very fun watching it hunt in it's ten gallon enclosure, i've had it for just a day now and i believe it's a carolina mantid(it's green) and is still a nymph with undeveloped wings. Does anyone have any info on them, something i should know?
Mantids
- Thread starter Herp13
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Lots of humidity, ventilation and food. I currently have 7 for a breeding project.
Keep the female very well fed when you mate them, you don't want the male to get laid and then eaten.
Keep several sticks in the enclosure with the female after mating, she'll put her ootheca on this. She often makes more than one, not all viable usually. The ootheca looks like a styrofoam ball.
Keep it humid (I'd mist once a week, too)
when the mantidlings come out, there will be some cannibalization. You can either seperate all of them into vials individually or let them cannibalize till you have the desired number.
As with any bug species, you will have die offs.
I always leave an egg case or two outside to re-seed the area.
Keep the female very well fed when you mate them, you don't want the male to get laid and then eaten.
Keep several sticks in the enclosure with the female after mating, she'll put her ootheca on this. She often makes more than one, not all viable usually. The ootheca looks like a styrofoam ball.
Keep it humid (I'd mist once a week, too)
when the mantidlings come out, there will be some cannibalization. You can either seperate all of them into vials individually or let them cannibalize till you have the desired number.
As with any bug species, you will have die offs.
I always leave an egg case or two outside to re-seed the area.
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Pop Bottles.
Although I do not usually breed I do end up collecting egg cases from the wild. I only take egg cases from plants in environments which will be made unsuitable for the mantids anyway (future construction sights ect..) and I always relocate as many cases as I keep. I find about thirty percent of the cases hatch. I have tried raising in three different containers; Baby food jars, gallon storage jars with substrate, and sticks containing many nymphs, and (gasp!) plastic pop bottles of varying sizes with tiny slits in the sides. The pop bottles definitely have worked the best for me, but I have to feed almost every day. Rather than buying food I take an extra critter keeper outside near a wall in the shade, and put canned peaches inside. Within a few days I have fruit flies. I gather them by bumping the Critter Keeper, and putting the end of the pop bottles over the flies as they land on the wall. Good luck.
Although I do not usually breed I do end up collecting egg cases from the wild. I only take egg cases from plants in environments which will be made unsuitable for the mantids anyway (future construction sights ect..) and I always relocate as many cases as I keep. I find about thirty percent of the cases hatch. I have tried raising in three different containers; Baby food jars, gallon storage jars with substrate, and sticks containing many nymphs, and (gasp!) plastic pop bottles of varying sizes with tiny slits in the sides. The pop bottles definitely have worked the best for me, but I have to feed almost every day. Rather than buying food I take an extra critter keeper outside near a wall in the shade, and put canned peaches inside. Within a few days I have fruit flies. I gather them by bumping the Critter Keeper, and putting the end of the pop bottles over the flies as they land on the wall. Good luck.
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What I do with all my mantids:Herp13 said:
Care:
1: I mist the enclosure once a week
2: I feed them 2-3 times a week
3: I make sure the enclosure is clean and tidy
Husbandry:
1: I make sure my mantids have plenty of foliage and climbing sticks.
(Mantids hang upside down when molting so that they can literally drop out of their old skin. If they don't have anything to hang on to they wont molt and die)
2: I house both the males and the females seperately
(Cannibalism will occur more often in adults than nymphs. Especially when hungry)
3: I keep the room they're in at 75-80 degrees (F)
(The warmer you keep them the faster their metabolism will be and the shorter their lifespan. The cooler they are will lengthen their lifespan and lowers their metabolism. Any extremes in temperature (High or Low) will kill them)
Breeding:
1:I usually feed the female a snack to grab her attention and place the male behind her. The male usually gets the idea and does his business.
2: After copulation remove the male and repeat (if more than one female is to be mated) until the male is through or eaten. Then Setup a nice thick stick in the enclosure for the female to mount the ootheca (eggsack) to.
All of the above recommendations are based on my experience. All results can vary from species to species. Feel free to PM me for species specific info. All I ask is for the scientific name of the species in question.
Brian
How do you feed? The one i have ate half a cricket. I just finished up the new enclosure, ground up walnut shells for substrate, a huge chunk of driftwood, and a fake bendable vine that is twisted around the 5 gallon critter keeper. How does that sound?
danielthelefty
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They sure are hoppy little bugs when they're little.
Be gentle with them. I've been bitten (I dunno if I should say "bitten", since it wasn't really the MOUTH that got me) by adult mantids before, and it can be very painful... and bloody. As always, exercise common sense when handling. Poking, prodding, smacking... not good for things with big claws. Pinchers. Forceps? Heh...
Anyway, I may get a bit of flak for this, but 'cause I'm a wildlife photographer I gotta say it... most things born in the wild do better in the wild. I know if I was a little mantid, I'd be happier hopping around my natural habitat than being cooped up some cage. And I'd also be less hostile towards people.
But that would just be me if I was a mantid.
Be gentle with them. I've been bitten (I dunno if I should say "bitten", since it wasn't really the MOUTH that got me) by adult mantids before, and it can be very painful... and bloody. As always, exercise common sense when handling. Poking, prodding, smacking... not good for things with big claws. Pinchers. Forceps? Heh...
Anyway, I may get a bit of flak for this, but 'cause I'm a wildlife photographer I gotta say it... most things born in the wild do better in the wild. I know if I was a little mantid, I'd be happier hopping around my natural habitat than being cooped up some cage. And I'd also be less hostile towards people.
But that would just be me if I was a mantid.
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Are you assuming it's a carolina because it's green, or are you saying it's the green phase of the carolina? I've seen three different color phases here, gree, brown and grey. Depending on where you are it could also be the Chinese mantid (probably the most commonly SEEN species) which can be green or brown, or even the European mantid, Mantis religiosa, annother introduced species.
Here in central VA I mainly see the Chinese (Tenodera aridifolia) and Carolina (Stagmomantis carolina). The Chinese reaches a much larger size (4"+), and usually has a more slender abdomen (except gravid females!) where as the Carolina has a much broader abdomen (that is typically slightly curled upward), especially females. Adult female Carolinas have very short wings (they can't fly) and could be mistaken for a nymph. Adult Chinese mantids of both sexes have long, fully functinal wings although the female eventually becomes too bulky due to developing eggs and the enormous amounts of food she eats to actually fly.
The Chinese ootheca is roughly ball shaped, while the Carolina's is elogate and shaped kind of like a hot-dog bun with a point on the end.
Wade
Here in central VA I mainly see the Chinese (Tenodera aridifolia) and Carolina (Stagmomantis carolina). The Chinese reaches a much larger size (4"+), and usually has a more slender abdomen (except gravid females!) where as the Carolina has a much broader abdomen (that is typically slightly curled upward), especially females. Adult female Carolinas have very short wings (they can't fly) and could be mistaken for a nymph. Adult Chinese mantids of both sexes have long, fully functinal wings although the female eventually becomes too bulky due to developing eggs and the enormous amounts of food she eats to actually fly.
The Chinese ootheca is roughly ball shaped, while the Carolina's is elogate and shaped kind of like a hot-dog bun with a point on the end.
Wade
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danielthelefty said:Anyway, I may get a bit of flak for this, but 'cause I'm a wildlife photographer I gotta say it... most things born in the wild do better in the wild. I know if I was a little mantid, I'd be happier hopping around my natural habitat than being cooped up some cage. And I'd also be less hostile towards people.
But that would just be me if I was a mantid.
Well, you can make that argument if you like, but you might not find many supporters of that view on a site devoted to keeping insects as pets
I tend to doubt an insect with a natural lifespan of 8-9 MONTHS has much time (or the brain power) to develop much of an attitude towards people.As far as people worrying about depleteing the natural population by collecting wild mantids, MOST of the mantids observed in the US are not native. That's not to say there aren't a lot of natives, but most of them are either small or very cryptic. The Carolina (and others in the genus Stagmomantis) is probably the largest widespread native, and they rarely exceed 2.5" (there are some bigger natives but they have fairly limited ranges).
As I indicated in my previous post, the most commonly seen species in most of the US is the Chinese, an introduction from 50 years or so ago. I don't know if it's actually more common than S. carolina, but due to it's larger size it's easier to spot, especially the big adults in late summer as they don't seem to hide much! If you're in the US, that's most likely the one in your photo.
Collecting that species is certainly not harming the enviroment, as it doesn't really belong here in the first place.
Wade
danielthelefty
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Yeah, I know... that's why I said I'd get a lot of flak for saying itWade said:Well, you can make that argument if you like, but you might not find many supporters of that view on a site devoted to keeping insects as pets
As far as people worrying about depleteing the natural population by collecting wild mantids, MOST of the mantids observed in the US are not native. That's not to say there aren't a lot of natives, but most of them are either small or very cryptic. The Carolina (and others in the genus Stagmomantis) is probably the largest widespread native, and they rarely exceed 2.5" (there are some bigger natives but they have fairly limited ranges).
As I indicated in my previous post, the most commonly seen species in most of the US is the Chinese, an introduction from 50 years or so ago. I don't know if it's actually more common than S. carolina, but due to it's larger size it's easier to spot, especially the big adults in late summer as they don't seem to hide much! If you're in the US, that's most likely the one in your photo.
Collecting that species is certainly not harming the enviroment, as it doesn't really belong here in the first place.
Wade
The one in the photo wasn't very big at all... it was about an inch and a half long. And MAN I had to search hard to find it! Two hours of wading through ankle-deep stagnant water to find a mantid big enough to get pictures of, and as I'm leaving (as was the case with the wheel bug in my other thread), I see it sitting on a leaf.
Thanks! I just wish I'd had my 1:1 macro when I took it... I had to stack my close-up filters, which really killed the quality :-/Arietans said:That is a gorgeous picture
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A good website devoted to mantids is http://www.mantidforum.com/forum/index.php
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Three of mine moulted last night and I found one that's brick red
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Shortly before a molt, the undeveloped wing buds or pads will begin to look somewhat swolen and may be held a bit out from the body. The missed attempts at grabbing a cricket may not be attempted captures at all, but rather defensive strikes to keep the cricket away.
It is very, very important to remove the cricket if not eaten. Mantids molt while hanging upside down, and if that cricket knocks one of the mantids legs loose during the process it's pretty much doomed. Many are lost that way, so take care!
Wade
It is very, very important to remove the cricket if not eaten. Mantids molt while hanging upside down, and if that cricket knocks one of the mantids legs loose during the process it's pretty much doomed. Many are lost that way, so take care!
Wade
Yeah, she actually died this morning, she fell during her molt and i euthanized her, for something happend during the molt, and the fall damaged her badly, i simply put her in the freezer for 10 minutes to save her the pain. I miss her. Her wings were twisted up and floppy, most of her legs were damaged or splayed, and something was wrong with her eyes But i am ordering 2 budwing mantid oothecas from someone on another forum, and i'm also returning the Explorarium for a 10 gallon tank with a divider, and i'm getting a fruit fly culture too.
But i am ordering 2 budwing mantid oothecas from someone on another forum, and i'm also returning the Explorarium for a 10 gallon tank with a divider, and i'm getting a fruit fly culture too.