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Post by ellsie on Apr 1, 2009 15:43:38 GMT -5
Hey guys,
I would have access to the "typical" looking Chinese Mantis (the green one in this thread.....please refer to Tom's pics) soon, if you're still interested in trying your hand at raising them.
Please let me know!!
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Post by vraev on May 31, 2009 1:52:55 GMT -5
Ellsie....I just saw this thread as I am once again interested in mantids. LOL! I would love to give a shot at one of those ones if you still have one to spare. Although...I would love to join in a group order for a devil's flower mantis, orchid mantis and a lichen mantis if they are available and if you are interested.
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Post by ellsie on May 31, 2009 12:19:16 GMT -5
Hey Vraev, LOL....I will definitely see about those typical mantids. You sure you want to venture into this new hobby?? ;D I started my insect hobby before my CP hobby. While I think that the CP hobby empties your wallet faster, one would still need to prepare for all the little insect mouths that need to be fed: (1) If you plan on starting with mantids by obtaining an eggcase (like me), you need to be prepared to feed anywhere from 50-350 little individual mantids. Each insect needs to be separated and housed on their own. As for food, I constantly have ~4 fruit fly cultures on the go; 2X D.melanogaster cultures, and 2X D.hydei cultures. (2) After ~3 weeks or so, most mantids would have out grown their frutfly diet and need bigger prey for food. I used to have a cricket culture for this purpose, which provided numerous different sizes for mantid food. However, I had to give this up since crickets were very noisy and extremely SMELLY!!!! From then on, I had to go to pet stores on a weekely basis in order to feed my legion of mantids. (3) As for housing mantids, the bigger the species, the more vertical or taller their housing needs to be, in order for them to molt properly. I once made the mistake and let about 30 of them roam free in my 4-tier greenhouse, since this greenhouse was so tall. Within ~2 weeks, they all became CP food!! So, I would be more than happy to send some mantids over, most likely in the #(2) stage, since they would have hatched sometime in mid-late April. I just wanted to give you some time to "prepare" for their arrival.....and perhaps reconsider what you might be getting into...... I'll also check around for those "exotic" mantid species. These are a bit more fussy to rear (they require high humidity and some species are picky eaters) but the typical mantids do well in room temperatures and will pretty much eat anything that moves!!
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Post by vraev on May 31, 2009 14:07:16 GMT -5
lol! I don't want an eggcase. LOL! I just want to try one bug. LOL! No problem with humidity. I plan on letting it loose in my nepenthes grow chamber. Humidity is atleast 60-70% and near the plants it should be higher due to the live moss around and ON them. I think all the pitchers are pretty small for the mantids to fall prey to. yeah lol! My concern is food as well....do they eat only live bugs?? or can u get a can of those exoterra grasshoppers or crickets?
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Post by ellsie on May 31, 2009 14:14:00 GMT -5
Yeah, mantids only eat live bugs!! I've even tried feeding them dried/dead insects by wriggling it in front of the mantids with forceps....the mantids would initially grab the food, then realizing it's not alive and then just throw it away while giving you a "nice try!!" look at you.....can be frustrating yet funny at times
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Post by vraev on May 31, 2009 18:43:08 GMT -5
baaah! LOL! How long can they go without food? LOL! or are they very voracious? need food everyday??
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Post by ellsie on May 31, 2009 18:51:21 GMT -5
Yep, all mantids are very voracious!! I usually feed mine once every couple of days. The general rule is, the more frequently you feed them, the faster they grow, the bigger they get, but the shorter their lifespan. Conversely, the less frquently you feed them, the longer their lifespan, but then you might get into the trouble of trying to find food for your mantids during the colder months (or having to spend $$ by going to the petstores to buy food for them!!)
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Post by vraev on May 31, 2009 21:06:21 GMT -5
either way I have to buy bugs for the mantid. I generally have no bugs inside my apartment. So I would have to get crickets for them.
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Post by ellsie on Jun 1, 2009 10:27:53 GMT -5
Would anybody else be interested in trying their hand at raising mantids??
I plan on ordering some entomology lab supplies for an upcoming course, and so I could easily piggyback this potential order on a larger one.
What I can do is hatch out an eggcase, raise the mantids until they reach the L2 stage (=after a couple of molts) so that they will be strong enough to survive in transit via Canada Post.
So, I would potentially have ~350 mantids........so counting Vreav, I have ~349 left!! Don't be shy, there's LOTS to go around!!
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Post by vraev on Jun 1, 2009 12:35:01 GMT -5
YAY!!! I am getting a mantid...I am getting a mantid. I am sooo excited. LOL! Ellsie....does it have a website?? I wouldn't mind getting a wingless fruitfly supply as well.
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Post by ellsie on Jun 1, 2009 13:25:07 GMT -5
Hey Vreav,
LOL.....not to worry, I was going to supply you with a starter fruitfly culture along with your new pet mantid!!
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Post by tom on Jun 1, 2009 13:30:46 GMT -5
what would be the species? sinensis?
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Post by ellsie on Jun 1, 2009 15:41:27 GMT -5
I am planning on getting one eggcase of either: Chinese Mantis (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis) or, the European Mantis (Mantis religiosa) or, perhaps one eggcase of each species, depending on the amount of interest
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Post by vraev on Jun 1, 2009 15:50:15 GMT -5
Awsome!! thanks Ellsie. WHich of those species is smaller?? LOL! Also.... do they not sell orchid mantids or devil mantids? How much would the culture last as well? I was primarily going to get the culture for my plants. LOL! Didn't think that fruitflies would be good enough or big enough for mantids.
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Post by ellsie on Jun 1, 2009 16:29:43 GMT -5
Chinese mantids typically grow to be ~4 inches and are the largest mantid species found in North America. European mantids grow to be ~ 2.5 inches. I haven't heard back about Orchid or Devil Mantid eggcases.....I suspect that they might be all out this time of year though As for the fly culture, mine can last for ~ a month. This of course depends on the container size that you rear the culture in. My cultures are in 1L containers; I just don't have the time to constantly inoculate new cultures every week or so. If you would like to start some fly cultures, how about asking around?? Especially if you work in a lab setting (such as myself), perhaps there might be people in labs that work with flies?? However, if you would like to wait until I order my entomology supplies, I would be more than happy to share my fly cultures with people on this forum (mine are the flightless strains!!)
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