Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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Oh yeah, they love them. One of my favorite memories of a large male Veiled I had was of him patiently waiting for an aggresive preying manthis to settle down so he could pop it. I usually buy Preying Mathis eggs at garden shops in the late spring. Half of them I turn loose in my yard and the other half are food for my juvi Chams. If you have any Chams that aren't eating a preying mathis or ther green prey will usually bring them around.

Are they not the best things to cut down on the bug population in your yard???

We've done this for a long time and we haven't had as many mosquitos or flys...since.
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Chris Vanderwees
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The problem with mantids is that they're highly cannibalistic and will eat you out of house & home if they don't eat each other. Stick insects (Phasmidae) are better if you can find them.
Ed

Hi: I asked this question before, but got no reply. Perhaps this thread will generate some. I understand that Mantids are very nutritious for the Chams and I've read of people raising up nymphs from an egg case they buy. But when I spoke with some nursury men, they would say what you said about them eating each other so you'd end up with just one or 2 big ones. My original question was how the Mantids are housed when young? I believe that I could make enough Fruit flies, pin heads crix, micro mealworms, Springtails, and I'm going to start experimenting with milkweed bugs raised on sunflower seeds so no toxins from the milkweed, but do you who raise them have to house each one separately from each other? That would make it quite challanging to do. How are they housed so they don't kill each other? Or is supplying enough food the solution? Thanks-Maggie

I did a google search for "mantids husbandry" and got lots of hits. See http://www.herper.com/insects/mantids.html

There are lots of people into raising insects. Their sites should answer your questions better than those of us who only see insects as food!
Ed

>>There are lots of people into raising insects. Their sites should answer your questions better than those of us who only see insects as food!
I keep pet insects, as well. These are my opinions.
Most insect keepers keep Mantids as pets, so their care information is geared toward keeping one or just a few mantids. They will tell you to keep them apart to prevent cannabalism.
However, we as chameleon keepers are keeping mantids as a food source. What we are after is the wholesale production of mantids, not necessarily as a single pet item. Therefore, I suggest keeping mantids together in a larger, all screen enclosure like a reptarium and feeding them LOTS of assorted sized prey items and giving LOTS of room.
Yes, there will still be plenty of cannabalism, but this should be okay. You'll be culling mantids anyways and placing fresh egg cases, so this shouldn't be a REAL issue.
Housing mantids together in a LARGE, well stocked, all screen enclosure will make keeping mantid feeders easier, and provide the best prey for our chameleons. Keeping them seperate is just too costly, expensive, and complicated for a feeder.
Merely my opinions. In all honesty, I haven't yet kept mantids as prey items, these are just my observations from the keeping of other prey insects and the keeping of pet mantids.
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

You make good points and I don't disagree with you. I just figure that what you (correctly) suggested would be very expensive in both time & space. If someone wants to give it a go, that's great. But stick bugs would be easier and a lot cheaper in the long run. Of course, mantids stick bugs would be better than stick bugs alone.
Ed

Hey thanks you guys! This was precisely the info I was looking for. This sounds like I might be able to do something like what victor was suggesting. Maybe I'll give it a try and then we'll all know what the difficulties are in raising them for feeders and we can together refine the process. I'm getting the Sticks going next week. What an adventure! Thanks-Maggie

Actually, a better site seems to be
http://exoticpets.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.earthlife.net/insects/mantids.html

But there are lots of others. THis site says that they need to be housed separately. Some species will be OK if fed VERY liberally but others are too aggressive and need separate housing.
Ed