Praying Mantis...

[Barracuda_41]

8) Well awhile back i found a praying mantis egg case and gave it to my daughter to see if it would hatch, since it had gone thru a long nasty winter and was soged soaked from rain i wasnt to sure it would hatch.. So i told her how to set it up and to keep it on top of the fridge as its warm there and humidity escapes from the fridge moisture.. Well she just got off the phone with me and sure enough shes jumpin for joy as the case hatched... wooooohooooooo ;D ;D She says theres sooooooooooooooo many babies, some are brown and some are green.. shes like Mom what do i do now, what do i feed them?? Well its always mom with the goods.. I told her they need few days to shed and harden up and shes gona transfer them to a larger cage with more plants and some soil and im gona supply her with pin head crix, man im glad to always have tons of them on hand or she would have to use friut flies.. Cant wait to see the little boogers tomarrow shes bring them over here.. I think its great they hatched.... ;D ;D Way To Go Andrea!!!!!!! b27.gif b27.gif

[sclark]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Very cool Cuda,

I miss having one as a pet.. Used to have this huge green on a few years back.. Very cool..

Steve

[Red]

Re:Praying Mantis...

cool those are funny... we have them around here all the time... hundred just show up one day... it is crazy...
Eric aka....Red

[sclark]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Wish we had more around here Red.. I like getting a twig and watching them figt it. It is kinda cool. They look like alians..LOL
\
Steve

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Praying Mantis...

8) Yeah the only place ive seen um around here was down in the horses pasture.. not up here by the house, as soon as my daughter gets here we are gona try to count them and put few in seperate homes but then we are gona turn few loose in the woods out back and then whats left put them all in a critter keeper with a nylon over the top and the ones that are the strongest will survive, most will more than likely eat each other.. these things are very tiny when born... good thing i got lots of pin head crix for them.. LOL!!!! I dont have enough small jars for all these guys.. :-\ : The thing i havent seen in yrs is a Walking Stick, i miss seeing them around, now they are cool... ;D

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Praying Mantis...

8) well andrea came over and we are now checking out all the new baby mantis, they are sooooooooooo frickin tiny and theres about 10 to 14 so far as the egg case hasnt hatched all the way yet... Im gona keep a few for my self and andrea is gona see if the rest will hatch... There soooo cute and wow i think my pin head crix may be to big.. il have to pluck out the tiniest of the pinheads... :-\ when they all hatch we shall get a total count, gona go outside and work on seeing how many are really in this jar and move a few of them...

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Man these babies are hard to work with there so tiny you can crush them just by lightly pushing them with your finger tip... There was more than i saw most was hidding under leafs she had in the jar, we got out a bowl and did a count, so far 37 plus the dead 4. The case still has many more to go, so we put that in another container and the new babies in containers, she turned 8 loose out back the barn and i got 10 and shes got the rest.. we got to watch one molt its cool.. We managed to pick out the tiniest of the pin head crix and i used only 4 and she took 7 so that incase the mantis babies are to small we wont have to be digging out tons pinhead crix, and i think even the pinhead crix maybe to large... :-\ Well see how things go and if they cant eat within the week then il turn them all loose out back.. There is deffanetly males and females....

[sclark]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Hey Cuda,

OK now your talking one bug I do know somethings about..LOL.. The best foot for baby mantis is tiny flies. When I had mine as a new born we set up a jar with some tiny holes in it with a little sugar water, and daily we would net the whole jar and take the top off, get the flies in the next, re lid the jar, and move the flies into the mantis baby's house.. Worked like a charm during the warm months..

Glad they are hatching.. I was reading that each eggh contains about 200 mantises and we know they will eat their sibs..

Get some pics..

Steve

[___LEE___]

Re:Praying Mantis...

very cool cuda!!

LEE

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Praying Mantis...

;D WoooHooo well i watched one of the baby mantis snatch a tiny pin head crix and it was struggling with it but managed to hold onto it and eat it then i noticed another one had a crix to... wooohooo maybe we will have some that do very well.. gona have to throw few more pinhead crix in the container so the rest can eat to..... ;D 8)

[sclark]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Glad they started to eat and not each other cuda..

I want pics of them.. They will grow crazy fast, so get some pics..LOL

Steve

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Mantis's are so kool!!!! We did that a few years ago. We found an egg sac in one of our lilac bushes at my parents house. We let them hatch and came home that afternoon and found hundreds of baby mantis's all over my mother bed and wall!!!! Boy was that fun to clean up!!!! We have manis's and walking sticks all over the place around here.

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Well Andrea always was into the mantis and other bugs such as wierd bettles and things and she always wanted to hatch out a mantis case and JR was cleaing out around the side of the barn and thats when i saw it and brung it in the house called her up and asked her if she wanted to try and hatch it out.. You should have seen the look on her face when she got here, Then the min they hatched she was calling me, mom i have babies... That made her day.... Now all she has to do is keep um well feed and alive... ;D ;D I just poped a few more pin head crix in with mine, hope few grow up all the way... ;D

[sclark]

Re:Praying Mantis...

Cuda,

What time of the year did you find those? I never seen a egg case of those..

Steve

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Praying Mantis...

8) Usualy you can find them twaords the end of summer close to fall just befour it gets below 50 at night.. I found this one about 3 weeks ago. Aparently the nymphs can survive in that case right thru a bad winter and still hatch come warm weather.. the warmer it is thats when they hatch, we just kept having super cold nights durring spring and thats why it didnt hatch till i found it and gave it to Andrea and the warmth from on top the fridge did the job.. Heres a neat link for yaz... if ya scroll down twaords the bottom it has all kinds things on mantis... ;D Its Prayingmantis.com

http://home.att.net/~kyleontheweb/links.html

This one gives good info but no pics..

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/courses/en507/papers_1999/feldman.htm

Now if i do find anymore egg cases i can send um to ya if ya want.... 8)