Thank you for pointing out all the lives are equally worthy! A creatures worth is not relative to how much they please humans. I have a mantis visitor that won't leave, I've been trying to catch him single fruit flies myself, not sure how long that can last, lol.

Love how you respect the preys life just as much so right

I'm getting a ghost mantis soon and it said to start off feed them these melanogasters. I got my culture cup from Josh's frogs and didn't even think about size, the one I got is about the same size as the one he has, one little mantis is not gonna need that many flies. Good to know for next time though.

you must be very refined. such culture. i got jokes bro

Hi there! First of all I would really like to thank you for all your videos, they are very informative, helpful and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. I'm new and I have a question if you don't mind me asking! How do you go about cleaning or changing out the coconut fibre? I currently use wet paper towels but I'm thinking of switching - I would love to hear about your choice of using this substrate for humidity! Thank you for your time. Cheers, May

@bugsincyberspace

2 жыл бұрын

Paper towel works just fine as a substrate. Coconut fiber is cheap and you'll usually get much more than you actually need for many mantises when you buy it. Simply discard the old coconut fiber (or mix it into your garden), and add in some new. Mantises tend to be kept singly and in small containers and so you don't use that much coconut fiber and it can last for a month or more if you're spot cleaning it a bit and pulling out the old exoskeletons, etc. One of the notable advantages over paper towel is that the frass from the mantis blends in to coconut fiber better than it does on paper towel. The shade of brown of the coconut fiber reflects how much moisture is in it which can be a helpful indicator of humidity.

@May-sf2wg

2 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace Thank you for your advice! Coconut fibre does sound better - the frass could be good for my plants too hmm. Will give it a shot, thank you so much! :)

Thank you!

@bugsincyberspace

4 жыл бұрын

👍

Cool video! You could start up a band with all the tapping and opening of lids! Btw, you need a catchy unique ending. 😉

@bugsincyberspace

5 жыл бұрын

I will be working up a cheesy intro and closing at some point. I actually had to learn a lot about the software I'm using just to create this third (new) video. I'm first instar with all of this and have a ways to go. Welcome, and thanks for commenting!

@Luzee75

5 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace Well we know with every "molt" you will undoubtedly be better and better.😄

@naughtyue7284

5 жыл бұрын

LUZ RUIZ-STOVALL heres a catchy ending to the entire world, entomology always wins

Tap, tap, tap in lol

First timer. We’ve had a few mantis egg cases Each spring but we usually let the mantises go in the garden. But now my boys want to keep and allow a few of them to grow. Unfortunately our egg case hatched much sooner than anticipated and we didn’t have any fruit flies on hand. We ordered some but they didn’t make it in time. All the mantises died :( now I have 2 cups of fruit flies and have ordered new egg cases but not sure how long it will be before they arrive and then hatch. How can I keep my fruit flies alive several weeks while waiting for the egg case to hatch?

@bugsincyberspace

3 жыл бұрын

There's definitely a learning curve in all this! I do have a fruit fly care video too, here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/q3pomZKMoJuYg6w.html&t

My daughter found a very small Nymph mantis . I got some Hydei species fruit flies . Are they too large for what looks like an L1 ?

Hi! I've learned so much from your videos. I wonder if you can offer some advice? I am a new mantis Mamma. I ordered a nice habitat on amazon and grabbed some flightless fruit flies while I was on there, newbie mistake I guess. It was prior to discovering your videos. I got my fruit flies in the container, the substrate is all over and they have a zillion small holes in the top, presumably for air, but the larvae are all escaping through the holes! I put it in a freezer bag over night left open a teeny bit for air and now I am glad I did because there is larvae all over the inside of the bag (but not all over my living room thankfully!)! Is there anything I can do to sort of fix this messy situation? Thank you so much in advance!!

@bugsincyberspace

2 жыл бұрын

I do have to chuckle because I've seen emails like this a bunch of times and it really is a whole new world that people enter into. It's hard to give you advice w/o seeing the specific cage. I generally recommend a large piece of wax paper or sheets of paper towels pinched between the lid and the container base. Paper towel is preferred if the cage is small enough since that can also work as a molting surface for the mantis. I wasn't exactly sure in your letter above whether the holes were in your mantis habitat or the fruit fly container.

@quirkyblonde5584

2 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace oh sorry yeah the fruit fly container. lol I ended up using a paper towel and rubber band over the top once I cleaned it up a bit and since then I have been using your "tap tap" advice to great success! but thank you! Im on a whole journey of learning and loving it!

@bugsincyberspace

2 жыл бұрын

@@quirkyblonde5584 Where would we be without paper towels, eh? They are such a necessary tool for so many insect applications! Yeah, the tapping them down is not always an intuitive part of the purchase for many people. Perhaps a lot of people think it will kill the flies or something, but it's definitely better than our family members killing us because we told them our pet bugs would always stay inside the containers! ;)

@quirkyblonde5584

2 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace definitely! and glad to say the whole confusion with the fruit flies hasn't affected my mantis, she had her second successful molt with me last night! I had a feeling she was going to as she was very mellow yesterday and she is usually rather headstrong. lol

Hi there, what do I do? I put a few fruit flies(the large fruit flies) in my mantis enclosure and it has trouble finding them, because the flies run away from the mantis and my mantis just likes to hang all day. My mantis is L2/3.

@bugsincyberspace

3 жыл бұрын

It may not be necessary but some people will pull the mantis out and place it in a smaller cup for feeding. Once it is done eating, they move it back into the larger/home enclosure. It should also be taken into consideration that sometimes a mantis will not feed if it is about to molt and uneaten feeders can knock it down, which is never good.

I kinda wanted to get a mantis but I’m terrified of trying to feed one-

@bugsincyberspace

3 жыл бұрын

Is it the process of watching it feed or the process of getting the feeder insect and putting it into the container with your pet?

@rebeccawilson399

3 жыл бұрын

Bugs In Cyberspace putting it into the container with the pet

@tabithawebb1785

3 жыл бұрын

I just picked up my first ghost mantis and I think it's L3 ... I got d. Melanogaster today (flightless but damn they jump fast and far) and I could barely figure out how to get them into my mantis' terrarium. I guess it would be better to stick him and the fly in a little deli cup?

I make a hole in my deli cups and plug it with a sponge so I don't have to take the top off every time, I use to be able to get round test tube sponges but can't seem to find them any more you know where I can find them?

@bugsincyberspace

5 жыл бұрын

I got you! Just type "Drosophila vial plugs" into a search engine. I agree, they are crazy hard to find by typing more obvious things into search engines. I've been down that road!

Hi i have some struggle to feed my slings flies since the flies i bought can fly what should i do?

Could you feed springtails to jumping spiders instead?

Feeding them with ease!!!

@bugsincyberspace

5 жыл бұрын

Hey, you were just a night or so early. Next time come on a Saturday. It's twice as easy with two people! ;)

Are there any species of mantis that can live their entire lives feeding on fruit flies? House and blue bottle fly larvae are not as easy for me to obtain.

@wojrb4872

5 жыл бұрын

There are only a few in the hobby, but they are extremely difficult to come across. Most mantids can eat crickets, moths, and roach species like small dubias and lobster roaches. Information that says flies are the only food you can feed mantids are incorrect, though I would be careful with what crickets you buy and some species of mantids will only take flying prey unless fed by tongs.

how do i hatch house fly larva do i need a culture

A culture of mine is doing something I wasn't expecting. The flies seem lethargic. I am feeding them to praying mantids and a surprising number of mantids are dying. Could the 2 problems be related?

@bugsincyberspace

2 жыл бұрын

They could be but I personally have experience of a connection like that. My first thought is that the flies are cold but that's probably unlikely.

@tomrobertson6747

2 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace If anything, they were too warm. We keep our house at 81 degrees. A long time ago, I kept a culture of fruit flies, based on rotting fruit, which could fly and put mantids in with them and the mantids rapidly died. I concluded that the foul air caused by the rotting fruit killed them. It might depend on what kind of mantis it is. I'm amazed at the differences between kinds. I keep Mediterranean Mantids and I'm surprised at how little information I can find about them and how many differences there are between them and Chinese Mantids.

@tomrobertson6747

2 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace Now, my fruit flies are dying. I have 5 Melanogaster and 2 Hydei cultures and they've all crashed. I keep them close to each other. Could the same thing be killing them all? I don't see any mites. I used Repashy. Could I have done something wrong with that? I keep them at room temperature, which is 81 degrees. Is that too hot? Could air freshener kill them?

had one of those get out of control. flightless my abdomen. fruit flies are cool though. my green tiger beetle delt with the issue ....kinda

@bugsincyberspace

5 жыл бұрын

haha, story of my life!

Thank you for this, for l3/4 mantids, how many flies do you feed roughly every 3 days?

@ZERO_Zero0

4 жыл бұрын

Cant find the answer online, googled non stop!

@bugsincyberspace

4 жыл бұрын

The care sheet on my website discusses the answer to this question with respect to "plumpness" of the mantis, which is really the only reasonable way to give a blanket answer on the topic since different species are different sizes at L3/L4. Generally most mantises will need a house fly sized meal or two in that time frame though.

@ZERO_Zero0

4 жыл бұрын

Bugs In Cyberspace that guide is fantastic, will use it from here on thanks mate!

@bugsincyberspace

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks a bunch!

@chellyyo6624

4 жыл бұрын

Really helpful video! I'm getting my ghost mantis tomorrow or the next day and I cannot wait!

Why does the fruit flies colony die eventually? Would it last like "forever" if I take care for them, change their food etc?

@modlich6067

3 жыл бұрын

Okay, in a other video you are saying that they hatch less and less the more time has passed. Why does it work like that? I m asking just becouse of curiosity becouse when I leave trash for 2 days longer that I should when its summer, I cant imagine their population decrease in my bin, its rather the opposite XD

@bugsincyberspace

3 жыл бұрын

Great questions and thanks for asking. There a couple things that happen. 1. the larvae consume all the media (food product in the bottom of the container) over time 2. the media sometimes dries up 3. if the flies are not used up quickly enough they may die and foul the media below It is best to start a new culture with fresh media in the bottom if you want to keep the culture going. So you just start a new one and add flies from the old one as it begins to dwindle in usefulness.

@modlich6067

3 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace thanks a lot

@modlich6067

3 жыл бұрын

@@bugsincyberspace so you actually can breed them over and over again as long as you change food and the container, feels like a good investement :D

@bugsincyberspace

3 жыл бұрын

@@modlich6067 Yep, you can continue the cultures simply by seeding new ones with flies from the older culture/container that is starting to slow down. Most people don't have a reason to keep fruit fly cultures year after year unless they tend to have a lot of small predators that need small feeders all the time. People only raise fruit flies to use them as feeders. Interestingly, nobody thinks of them as pets even though they are just as much an insect as all the mantises in the hobby, etc. ;)