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Praying Mantis Egg Cases

P. Dreadie

P. Dreadie

I'm hoping someone can give some good true info on this. I want to introduce some Praying Mantis again this year. I know the basic ... keep them chilled in your refrigerator until you're ready to set them out. Place the cases out when you're ready for them to hatch out. That would be when you have plants growing and they can find the pests to eat.

I remember before when I ordered some I waited until my garden was doing well , by then they were hard to find.

On ebay , maybe not the best source , I saw many sellers. So after all that here's my question ....

Most shippers use USPS . I would think in most cases the areas there would be warm. So would the cases stay dormant thru shipping so you could put them in your refrigerator ?

Thanks & Peace ,
P.Dreadie
 
I do not know the true answer to your question but I will provide an example. Where I hunt I have found many praying mantis egg sacks and I find them all over my yard yearly. The example, I have hunted days where the day started in the teens and by the next afternoon it is in the 60's some recent cases of the 70's. The change in temperature alone did not cause the praying mantis egg sacks to start hatching. The amount of time warm or another factor must play into the hatching time.

I actually keep mine in a butterfly cage in the garage so they can keep their nature cycle. Last year I walked out to a few hundred running around.
 
Thank you sir ! I'm gonna wait for few more answers before I run off and order some , but thinking about I bet you're totally correct. Nature's temps don't stay constant and life goes on .

Thanks & Peace,
P.Dreadie
 
Any reason you would aim for mantises instead of ladybugs? I know ladybugs are a hell of a lot easier to find, at least in my Zone 7, but I also rarely EVER see mantises up here, last one I've seen here was in december oddly enough, before that, years ago. Just was curious what's the pros of PM's over ladybugs, since I know some places online sell 1500 ladybugs in a box, or at least I've seen them on deals.woot every so often.
 
Praying Mantis's eat many more pests than ladybugs. They eat much larger ones as well like destructive moths.

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Just a few of the ones I hatched.
 
Chris is right. Think about Spring weather patterns. You'll have some days early on where the temperatures get warm only to then drop below freezing. If the mantids emerged from their oothecas on the first warm day they'd end up freezing and dying. It takes sustained exposure to warm temperatures for them to hatch. A couple of days in transit wouldn't do it.

Nature works well on its own. Sure you could order and put them in your refrigerator. You could also place them in your garden (elevated off of the ground) and they'd emerge at the right time.
 
Interesting side note on mantids, despite them having compound-looking eyes, I've noticed they have a sort of pupil anyway, a black spot that moves around underneath, kinda looks like one of those old Magna-doodles when you used the magnet pent to move around the magnet shavings. I've had mantids and grasshoppers (which look similar in the face area, probably part of similar families) make direct eye contact with me, and my macro lens, lol.

Also Chris, if you can try to get your hands on some Devil's Flower mantises, you can probably start a small fortune breeding them, lol.

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JoynersHotPeppers said:
I love those things! I should find out if I can get them here. ...
Click to expand...
Make sure they get along with your babies before you introduce dem, what am I talking about ... I don't know anyting bout dem, hehe That thought just makes sense to me, but please share the info as I'll probably introduce some one of these years ....
 
The Devil's Flower mantis is really hard to keep in captivity. You really have to get temperature and humidity just right. If I remember correctly they are also finicky eaters. They're also exceptionally hard to breed in captivity. At the same time, they fetch quite a high price (assuming that you can even find a source for them) and wow! Talk about beautiful! They are incredible creatures.
 
As others have mentioned, it is best to keep the oothecae in a protected location (Like a screened cage) outside, so that they are more likely to hatch at the right time. I would also recommend keeping an eye out for adult mantids in the late summer early fall while you are out and about. If possible catch a few and introduce them to your yard/garden, that way you will have a species/gene pool of a locally adapted kind (whether native or introduced). I believe you may have native Stagmomantis (not sure which species though) around, they are typically more cryptic than the introduced Tenedora sinensis (of which the oothecae are the ones sold online) or Mantis religiosa. Good luck.
 
I've kept a few mantid species over the years. This is a Violin Mantid.

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They get up to about five inches in length and are one of the few that live communal.

I've kept Devils Flower mantids and the Captain is right, they are difficult to maintain. Most people fail due to too much humidity. That was my initial problem. They need just enough to keep it moist during the day but it has to evaporate by nightfall.

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I've also kept Orchid mantids but can't find any pics. I'll post one if I can find one.

Found 'em!

Orchid Mantid

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Patrick never ceases to amaze me, lol. Personally, some of the mantids are creepy as hell, lol.

I got that pic FYI from this guy Igor Siwanowicz. His parents were both biologists and I think he is too, but also an avid macro photographer. Check out his macro pics here, most of these insects I never knew existed.

Side note, Patrick's gonna enjoy the various spider pics.

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=768656

Enjoy.
 
What a great site! Thanks IamFCon. I could spend all day on that. Bugs and other creepy crawlies are so cool. I think it's time to start a "critter" thread in the lounge. Hope to see everyone there!
 
amazing!!! never seen these kind of mantis before.

(for a second i thought i was in a discovery/animal planet forum or something...)
 
Wow !! Thanks for all the info folks !!

As said above ... I like the Mantis because they eat more and when they get larger they can munch on larger pests. I've bought Ladybugs before and will probably do the same this year. Bad thing about them is they tend to fly away. So later in the summer I don't see them .

Things in my area sure have changed from when I was a youth . Besides the air not being as clean and I'll never see 50 cent a gallon gas , I use to see Horned Toads , Lady bugs , and the Pray Mantis , and all kinds of creatures that no longer seem to be around.

Peace,
P.Dreadie
 
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