Unusual colonies

[jallen]

Ok i know this was about colonies/communal but

Mantids are very very fun to raise. If you get an ootheca and they hatch out you can have them live together for just a little while. At least until there are not many left and the strong survived its much easier than feeding 100 to 300 babies in seperate containers. I just think they are amazing to watch hunt and clean themselves alike. Not to mention I live in ohio and these chinese mantids are freaking huge. I personally have had them reach 8 inches and were strong enough to eat mice and anything else that didnt eat them first. I had some local tree frogs and my step son (who was 5) put a frog in the mantis cage and they frog got ate it was around 2 inches. Just something to ponder on.

 

[super-pede]

I used beetles that were a little less than twice the size of crickets. all I had to do to feed them is toss in some small crickets and they would rip through them. they were a little to aggressive for my taste though.I would keep about 100 of them in a 5 gallon aquarium

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

Mantids are very very fun to raise. If you get an ootheca and they hatch out you can have them live together for just a little while. At least until there are not many left and the strong survived its much easier than feeding 100 to 300 babies in seperate containers. I just think they are amazing to watch hunt and clean themselves alike. Not to mention I live in ohio and these chinese mantids are freaking huge. I personally have had them reach 8 inches and were strong enough to eat mice and anything else that didnt eat them first. I had some local tree frogs and my step son (who was 5) put a frog in the mantis cage and they frog got ate it was around 2 inches. Just something to ponder on.

To this day I have never had mantis nymphs cannibalize on each other. Why does everyone else's cannibalize???

 

[Scythemantis]

I've been trying to raise some earwigs, but the nymphs seem to have disappeared.

Hey Scythemantis,
The eastern lubbers are not animals that live in colonies (like ants or bees). They don’t even stay together in a group, although a food plant they like will keep them around. They simply are insects that don’t mind living together (like they will not really fight or eat each other) so it is ok to keep them in a group.
ZergFront,

I know, I was using the word "colony" in the popular hobbyist usage; an insect you can easily keep alive in an ongoing population

I would definitely consider buying some lubbers when you have them!

 

[Alex1983]

Firebrats!

datfrog sells starter colonies of various unusual items as livefood; icluding Thysanura.

They are a good supplier..

http://www.dartfrog.co.uk/livefoods.html

 

[zonbonzovi]

Sidnodendron rugusoum: http://s604.photobucket.com/albums/tt127/zonbonzovi/?action=view&current=P1010566crop-1.jpg&newest=1

&

Cryptoglossa variolosa: http://s604.photobucket.com/albums/tt127/zonbonzovi/?action=view&current=P1010568.jpg&newest=1

 

[Scythemantis]

datfrog sells starter colonies of various unusual items as livefood; icluding Thysanura.

They are a good supplier..

http://www.dartfrog.co.uk/livefoods.html

I have ALWAYS wanted to find a supplier of firebrats, and the flightless houseflies are awesome.

Too bad it's in the UK and won't ship to America. Can't anybody find me something I can actually get?

 

[cacoseraph]

I agree about darkling beetles (tenebrionidae). I personally like the blue death-feigning beetles the best of these. They are pretty active during the day, live years and require VERY minimal attention. Of course, they are not likely to reproduce in captivity, but you might get lucky.

i think i find these pretty regularily. these or diabolical iron-clads. i would definitely like to do a colony if i could get them to reproduce

Had a shrimp colony once but it got too stinky. Earwigs smell even worse than crickets in my opinion. I had a colony of those, too.

what were you feeding your wigs? how did you have them set up. i kept my little colony on dirt with rotting flowers on top and it was rather nice smelling.




i had flour and dermestid beetles in with my roaches. stupid easy to take care of in a N. cinerea colony. AND they kept the colony very clean which was a serious bonus. the tiniest live predation i ever saw was a 2i Vaejovis scorpling taking a flour beetle larva. it was awesome








it's always been my dream to set up a few non-standard feeder colonies

 

[ZergFront]

I used beetles that were a little less than twice the size of crickets. all I had to do to feed them is toss in some small crickets and they would rip through them. they were a little to aggressive for my taste though.I would keep about 100 of them in a 5 gallon aquarium

Sounds almost like tiger beetles. I would have loved to get some of those but I did some searching and it looks like they can't be brought to CA..

I had a small colony of ground beetles, once as well. I gave them a little pond (if you can even call a few inches of water a pond..) because I noticed these guys could submerge themselves for a very long time. I was trying to see if they would catch anything like aquatic larvae but I never observed any of that.

 

[ZergFront]

i think i find these pretty regularily. these or diabolical iron-clads. i would definitely like to do a colony if i could get them to reproduce


what were you feeding your wigs? how did you have them set up. i kept my little colony on dirt with rotting flowers on top and it was rather nice smelling.

I fed them on carrots, corn (they REALLY loved fresh frozen corn and nasturtium petals) and lettuce. I haven't kept any more since I was a kid.

I knew nothing I had would eat them because of the smell and the sharp forceps but they were some fascinating insects.

They were the European earwigs so they were quite easy to sex. I loved observing how tending the mothers were to their eggs. Once when I found an earwig female with eggs, I put the eggs in a little dent I made in the substrate; just enough to view them. In two nights, she had constructed a burrow and brought each individual egg into her burrow. Also, I did an experiment by putting one egg clutch in with another female's eggs and she didn't even notice. I did need to be sure they always had food each day. One time the three females I had ate the male when I spent the night at my cousin's house. All that was left was his forceps.

 

[cacoseraph]

the only thing i have found that was able to kill and eat the iron-clads was black widows. taras, huge african praying mantis, centipedes... nothing else could figure them out


the widow tried bite it quite a few times before finding either an antenna joint or knee joint where she slipped the fatal kiss in. pretty darn impressive










oh yeah, another thing i wanted to try (and am almost in range of) are the true social spiders