Brunner's mantis hatchlings

lovebugfarm

lovebugfarm

Eleventh Instar
So I got some Brunneria borealis last year and thier oothicas are starting to hatch. Im wondering how to care for them they are insanely small. I got pin head crickets and they seem to be slowly eating them. Im wondering what else I could feed them? Fruit flys seem to large at this point. Any care advice is great im waiting on approval to mantidforum.net

 
Pin head crickets and fruit flies seem to be the best options, even if the fruit flies are a bit big the mntids should eat them.

 
You could probably feed them D.melangaster now, these mantids are supposed to have really weak jaws and I believe one of the only food they can eat by themselves are flies and maybe some young crickets. These should primarily be fed flies through out their life but if you feed them anything with a hard exoskeleton like mealworms it should be pierced before being fed to the mantis in order to give them a starting point to start chewing.

 
I hope my local shop has D.melangaster I know they have hydei. Do they need to be seperated? About how many instars till they need to be seperated if they do? Whats the softest bodied roach I think once they are a good size lateralis will work. About how many eggs are there in a brunners mantis oothica?

 
lovebugfarm said:
I hope my local shop has D.melangaster I know they have hydei. Do they need to be seperated? About how many instars till they need to be seperated if they do? Whats the softest bodied roach I think once they are a good size lateralis will work. About how many eggs are there in a brunners mantis oothica?
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They might be able to eat hydei now, but if not I'd say for sure at L2. I don't think they need to be separated until L3 as most mantids do, but I'm no expert and actually don't keep any mantids currently, keeping the nymphs together in a decent sized mesh cube seems to be the best option for keeping young nymphs together and bugsincyberspace sells some mesh cubes. Turkistans might work but I guess you'd have to experiment. I'm not sure how many eggs are in an ootheca, but I believe parthenogenetic species usually have lower hatch rates.

 
Thanks a bunch. I never planned on raising mantids they always seem like so much work but now that I have them I will do my best. We have a giant mesh cube chameleon style im kinda concerned about humidity as I heard these mismolt alot. I will try a few things maybe a plastic jar with mesh sides? I heard somewhere they have between 15-30 a piece but cant find where I saw that.

 
lovebugfarm said:
Thanks a bunch. I never planned on raising mantids they always seem like so much work but now that I have them I will do my best. We have a giant mesh cube chameleon style im kinda concerned about humidity as I heard these mismolt alot. I will try a few things maybe a plastic jar with mesh sides? I heard somewhere they have between 15-30 a piece but cant find where I saw that.
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The mesh cube should be okay as long as the mesh is fine. They like heat, so they could probably tolerate a little dryness, but if you want to increase the humidity you could lay some moist paper towel along the sides and top of the cube. I don't know how many nymphs you have but a plastic jar with mesh sides should be fine as long as it's big enough for the nymphs to stay away from each other a little bit.

 
Right now I just have 2 nymphs they are thin as mechanical pencil lead and about 1/4" long. I have 2 oothica and what I heard is they hatch one at time once a week for about 6 months. So I will have some of all different sizes. This is exciteing its like having predatory walking sticks lol. I think im going to try to supliment thier diet with a qtip dipped in honey and rolled in cricket flour. Should be easier for them then hunting. I also found some wierd tiny bugs while fliping rocks today. I cant tell what they are but they seem soft bodied.

 
lovebugfarm said:
Right now I just have 2 nymphs they are thin as mechanical pencil lead and about 1/4" long. I have 2 oothica and what I heard is they hatch one at time once a week for about 6 months. So I will have some of all different sizes. This is exciteing its like having predatory walking sticks lol. I think im going to try to supliment thier diet with a qtip dipped in honey and rolled in cricket flour. Should be easier for them then hunting. I also found some wierd tiny bugs while fliping rocks today. I cant tell what they are but they seem soft bodied.
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Cool, good luck with them! :)

 
I hope they do well to even though looks like I already lost one this morning. I think it was from misting them last night. I dont know how small lil kenyans are but im sure they could be small enough I will have to do a trade for some of them soon.

 
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