What food do mantids like most?

[DomGom TheFather]

 

[Lucky123]

Their "pinch" is painless to me and I've seen them attack beetles and do nothing to the beetle, of course, beetles have a hard shell. And wouldn't the mantis have slain the earwig before it could pinch? But will it harm the mantis if you feed it a earwig?

yes it will, even if it doesnt there is always a chance it can and you dont wanna risk it, also i have no idea where you can get captive bred earwigs and wild ones might carry traces of chemicals, its best not to risk it and stick to conventional feeders.

 

[Brohamster]

what point would they serve if they aren't dangerous to the thing trying to eat them?

The pincers are for grabbing on to prey, not defending... I think.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Really? The earwigs where you live must be different

I grab them and let them pinch the webbing between my fingers. They're strong enough to hang on and make the kids laugh. That's about it.

 

[Lucky123]

The pincers are for grabbing on to prey, not defending... I think.

The only animals earwigs eat are much smaller than them so there is no need to grab prey with their pinchers, other than that they eat plants and rotting matter, also if you pick up a earwig it will usually try to pinch you, so yes it is for defense and even if its not. Would you attack a hunter holding his rifle just because its a hunting rifle?

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Oh, they definitely try to grab you the second you pick one up.

 

[Lucky123]

I grab them and let them pinch the webbing between my fingers. They're strong enough to hang on and make the kids laugh. That's about it.

Maybe its just they way they hold on, those pinchers were designed to cause mental trauma

 

[Brohamster]

The only animals earwigs eat are much smaller than them so there is no need to grab prey with their pinchers, other than that they eat plants and rotting matter, also if you pick up a earwig it will usually try to pinch you, so yes it is for defense and even if its not. Would you attack a hunter holding his rifle just because its a hunting rifle?

My point is that they can use them as a defense. But when they hunt they use them for grabbing on to their pray, rather then harming their prey.

 

[Lucky123]

My point is that they can use them as a defense but not for harming , but rather for holding.

why do you want to use earwigs so much that you are willing to risk your mantis health? Im just curious, if you like them that much why not stick to crickets and keep an earwig colony as pets.

 

[vicareux]

Mantises are super strong. I once had an adult female M.religiosa stuck in mosquito mesh on my window. As i tried to get her free,she grabbed my finger with her raptorial arms and began pulling. It almost felt like she's going to pull the skin off my finger. I cant imagine a scenario where an earwig would wiggle free out of a mantis' grip and even have a chance to use the pincers. That being said,i don't think they're a great food source and would be hardly detected by the mantis since they love to hide in tight spaces,which is usually out of the mantis' visual reach and they aren't that active. I always used small locusts and they worked without a problem.

 

[Lucky123]

Mantises are super strong. I once had an adult female M.religiosa stuck in mosquito mesh on my window. As i tried to get her free,she grabbed my finger with her raptorial arms and began pulling. It almost felt like she's going to pull the skin off my finger. I cant imagine a scenario where an earwig would wiggle free out of a mantis' grip and even have a chance to use the pincers. That being said,i don't think they're a great food source and would be hardly detected by the mantis since they love to hide in tight spaces,which is usually out of the mantis' visual reach and they aren't that active. I always used small locusts and they worked without a problem.

earwigs are really flexible they can bend almost in half to grab you so unless the mantis is holding the earwig bye the pinchers it may end up pinching it, sure the mantis might be fine 99% of the time but its similar to feed spiders to spiders, certain types of spiders will eat other types in the wild at will almost always survive, but why feed your animal something that has the potential to harm it when there are other options? I just dont see the real need

 

[vicareux]

earwigs are really flexible they can bend almost in half to grab you so unless the mantis is holding the earwig bye the pinchers it may end up pinching it, sure the mantis might be fine 99% of the time but its similar to feed spiders to spiders, certain types of spiders will eat other types in the wild at will almost always survive, but why feed your animal something that has the potential to harm it when there are other options? I just dont see the real need

It is kind of a pointless discussion indeed.You can always use standard feeder insects that pose no harm.
And i dont think anyone even breeds earwigs for feeder purposes lol.

 

[Brohamster]

I don't want to risk my mantis's life, that's why I askes.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Just feed roaches.

 

[Lucky123]

I don't want to risk my mantis's life, that's why I askes.

Yep just dont feed earwigs

 

[thesitarplayer]

The older beetles taste bad, they will take a few bites and let go. Freshly molted beetles are more palatable.

 

[chibicricket]

Depends. I have other animals that I keep, so I try to breed my own feeders and have a variety available. My nymphs are all on hydei fruit flies, they are small, and they won't attack a tiny nymph mantis. The larger mantids eat mealworms and crickets, and occasionally I throw in other types of feeders in, because my panther mantis gets picky if I only give him the same thing day after day. But generally they'll try to eat anything small that moves.

In my experience, no one likes those things. Sometimes my box turtles will eat them, but I wouldn't try to feed them to my mantids, and none of my other lizards would touch them.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Depends. I have other animals that I keep, so I try to breed my own feeders and have a variety available. My nymphs are all on hydei fruit flies, they are small, and they won't attack a tiny nymph mantis. The larger mantids eat mealworms and crickets, and occasionally I throw in other types of feeders in, because my panther mantis gets picky if I only give him the same thing day after day. But generally they'll try to eat anything small that moves.

Be careful with crickets, they can carry a bacteria where if fed carrots and then fed to a mantis, the mantis will literally melt. Also they need to be kept very clean otherwise they can transfer deadly bacteria to your mantids.
Just an FYI…

 

[Jimbob]

I've known a couple people that bred earwigs. I even have them living in my feeder dish(of all places) in my chameleon's outside enclosure. Probably ridiculous to worry about them hurting with their pincers, crickets probably have a larger chance of hurting your animal lol.

 

[Edan bandoot]

I had a mantis nymph that I tried keeping on a diet of beetles and it ended up dying (likely starvation)

The sizeable earwigs in my area have too long of an egg laying period and too small of clutches to be viable feeders IMO, aswell as being fairly skinny compared to crickets or roaches.