Accidental Mantis Raising
A mantis egg sac hatched on our Christmas tree either January 2nd or 3rd. I gave away 50 that I collected to local school teachers who wanted them for their classroom. This one I found lingering in our house a week after disposing of our Christmas tree and I tried to rehome him but it fell through and out of laziness, I’ve just kept him. So he’s a little over two weeks old now, he ate one of his siblings I had in with him. He didn’t eat for about a week as I was figuring out what to do and researching. Couldn’t justify spending $20+ on fruit fly cultures since I never intended on raising a mantis so I’ve caught 2-6 gnats/fruit flies around my house daily (occasionally missing a day). Any tips? He lives in a deli container with holes poked in it and natural materials from outside as you can see. I’d love for him to make it to spring so he can live in my garden. So far I’ve loved watching him catch and eat his prey, he’s a silly guy. He washes his face it seems which is adorable and since I’ve been feeding him bugs, there are tiny brown spots around his container that I assume are poop? That’s all I’ve learned thus far. Oh, and that they aren’t into spiders. I caught a massive spider and put it in there with him and quickly realized I’d have to save his ass lol.
A mantis egg sac hatched on our Christmas tree either January 2nd or 3rd. I gave away 50 that I collected to local school teachers who wanted them for their classroom. This one I found lingering in our house a week after disposing of our Christmas tree and I tried to rehome him but it fell through and out of laziness, I’ve just kept him. So he’s a little over two weeks old now, he ate one of his siblings I had in with him. He didn’t eat for about a week as I was figuring out what to do and researching. Couldn’t justify spending $20+ on fruit fly cultures since I never intended on raising a mantis so I’ve caught 2-6 gnats/fruit flies around my house daily (occasionally missing a day). Any tips? He lives in a deli container with holes poked in it and natural materials from outside as you can see. I’d love for him to make it to spring so he can live in my garden. So far I’ve loved watching him catch and eat his prey, he’s a silly guy. He washes his face it seems which is adorable and since I’ve been feeding him bugs, there are tiny brown spots around his container that I assume are poop? That’s all I’ve learned thus far. Oh, and that they aren’t into spiders. I caught a massive spider and put it in there with him and quickly realized I’d have to save his ass lol.