Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's an update on my raising mantis project. So far it's going well. It's a lot of hard work but I think it's worth it. I have had a about 20% die either from being eaten or unknown reason. These little guys are masters at getting out. I have 2 screen meshes over the tanks and yet they will still worm out. I can see 2 on the walls right now. lol Those that escape get put into a large clear plastic cup with a napkin cut into 4ths placed on top and rubber banded down. This seems the best way of keeping them, if you have a lot of space for the cups. Downside is that it takes a long time to feed them. For food, each mantis gets about 4 fruit flies a day when small. After first shed they get 5 and about 3 pin head crickets. They really seem to love the fruit flies more. When they shed for the first time, they double in size. I have about 10 on their 4th shed and they are about 1 1/2 - 2 inches. Twice a day the napkin on top is misted. This is key to help them to shed correctly. They're amazing little creatures. One was on my computer screen yesterday and chased the mouse all over! lol He thought it was a tasty bug. My chameleon just loves to eat them. Great for when he's tired of crickets and silkworms. I wouldn't really suggest them as a new feeder since it takes a long time for them to get to a good meal size and costs a lot to feed them all. But if you have a lot of baby chams, the newly hatched mantis would be awesome for them since between 50-200 hatch out. If anyone has any questions, feel free to e-mail me. More than happy to help anyone interested in them. macaddict_100@yahoo.com

Exactly what did you start the hatchlings in? I was thinking of using a 22-38 reptarium to start a few hatchlings, but sounds like the mesh would be too wide. I'm really curious, would like to start on this project ASAP.
BTW, if you have a source for mantid eggs, I would appreciate it. Someone gave the link before, but I forgot to bookmark the link.
Thanks again, and keep us posted on this project!
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

I started them out in a 10 gallon fish tank, usual screen lid on top. When one of the egg cases hatched, they got out everywhere. I bought some outdoor mesh material at the local hardware store that I attached to the underside of that screen lid. Either one on it's one doesn't do much good, but together, they overlap, making the holes a lot smaller. They can get in and out of reptarium mesh very easy. I had put a few in there loose only to see them pop out a few minutes later. They are now in the 10 gallon and 30 gallon tanks and about 50 plastic cups. The cup way seems to be the best way to raise them, they grow really fast (easy to catch their food), aren't in danger of being eaten, and have plenty of space to shed. They love to perch up high, so if you keep them in a tank, it's a good idea to have a sticks in there or fake plants. But not too many or else the "food" just hides. Mantis are ambush eaters, they wait for their food to come close (unless they're really hungry, then they'll chase it down). I got my egg cases here gardeningzone.com/cgi-bin/gardeningzone/RPMEC.html. They arrive in a paper bag. You can either leave them in it or take a bit of wire, thread it through the slit on one side, and hang it from the mesh top of container. Oh yea, they also like a heat source. I got a cheap dome light thing at the hardware store and a 75 watt bulb. Seems to help them grow a little faster.

On the plus side, it's easy and very cheap to keep fruitfly cultures going. I've had my cultures going for several years now and it costs next to nothing. All you need is some yeast & oatmeal. Of course, when you have baby chams the fruitflies need better stuff to guy load them but that's not a big deal either.
As for a cage for the baby mantids: Just get some plastic containers. Any size will do, from deli cup size to Rubbermain-type containers depending on how many you want to try to keep together. Cut out most of the lid. Then hot glue a piece of old pantyhose over the hole. This gives a screen with a very fine mesh from which they can't escape. It also gives a top that's a lot easier to remove for feeding (compared to cloth held in place by rubber bands. If you're using the deli cups, you don't even need to hot glue the pantyhose material in place. Just insert the lid (with the hole cut in it) into a toe of the pantyhose and staple the pantyhose closed.

Ed

I have a number of one gallon plastic containers with lids, semi translucent. They look sorta like ice cream tubs. Anyways, I've made a number of containers from these for baby chameleons. The pantyhose idea is a good one, would go PERFECT with these enclosures.....
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

Do you know whether they would eat baby mealworms and whether or not you can put the egg case in the fridge (to delay hatching)?
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Julie Williams
www.baskingwonders.com

I'm not sure about the baby mealworms. The newly hatched mantis are tiny and a fruit fly is a big meal for them. I've read that you can put them in the fridge, but not for too long. The ones I ordered took about 4-7 weeks to hatch. I used napkins because I don't have a lot of pantyhose on hand but had napkins. Cheap and easy.

I've been reading caresheets for the past hour. They really seem like very cool insects! We currently keep hissers that we bring to shows and stuff, along with some of the herps. A few adult mantids would drive kids wild, I think.

Anyway, I ended up reading that you can store the egg cases in the fridge for 2-3 weeks and that mantids do eat mealworms. But you're probably right, even the smallest mealworms probably will be too big for a baby mantid. I have a new mealworm culture going right now and the only evidence of mealworms in the bin is the fact that the bran flakes seem to move by themselves. LOL

Thanks for all the input. Looking forward to getting some egg cases! I gotta wait until we move, though. No space in this appartment for another project, but once we move into our house in two month, I definitely plan on getting going with mantid-raising. :-D
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Julie Williams
www.baskingwonders.com

Great! They are tons of fun. I feel kind of bad using them as feeders. I don't know if I'll have the heart to when they get big. lol Kids and Adults seem to like them a lot. My roommate asked for one as a pet. Good luck when you start them. Feel free to ask anything. I'm no expert but I might have had the same issue. lol

Fishercham20 wrote
I used napkins because I don't have a lot of pantyhose on hand but had napkins. Cheap and easy."

The advantage of panty hose is that they won't disintegrate over time. As for not having access to pantyhose: askl your mom or girlfriend or female acquaintences to save their old panyhose for you. If you're into herps they already know you're weird so this request shouldn't come as a big shock! <g> BTW, cheesecloth also works. It's real cheap and available in any hardware or car supply store. It's not as durable as panty hose but it's more durable than paper napkins.
Ed