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alicegunther
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| Posted: Oct 13 2005 at 9:05pm | IP Logged
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One of our two well-loved pet praying mantises just laid a perfect jewel of an egg case at the top of her terrarium. Her adoring keepers are fascinated and thrilled, and speaking to her in gentle tones of pride and admiration.
Mantises die by late autumn, so it will be quite a comfort to my Mantis loving girls to have new babies to watch for in the Spring--sort of like the ray of light at the end of Charlotte's Web!
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Love, Alice
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MacBeth
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| Posted: Oct 13 2005 at 9:34pm | IP Logged
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Cool! ( <--the verb, not the adjective  ) Cool the egg mass!
Put the cage outside, Alice, or they will hatch in the warm house and eat each other. 
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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Kelly
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| Posted: Oct 13 2005 at 10:45pm | IP Logged
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Also, I've heard from my professional butterfly breeder friend that the interior of a house is like Death Valley to an egg case---'way too dry. At least for butterflies, that is. Not sure if it applies to Praying Mantises, but would hate to take a chance and dessicate the mantis babies before they have a chance to eat one another...
Kelly in FL
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alicegunther
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| Posted: Oct 14 2005 at 6:15am | IP Logged
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Many, many thanks for the advice, MacBeth and Kelly. I would not want fifty to a hundred mantises hatching in the kid's room the middle of winter! This will work out well, because my husband has requested that our beloved egg case be kept in the garage to avoid any escapes! Our garage is plenty cold, and, thanks to a leaky roof we have yet to have fixed, it's plenty moist as well.
>but would hate to take a chance and dessicate the mantis babies before >they have a chance to eat one another...
Laughing out loud at this one, Kelly.
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Love, Alice
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Sarah
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| Posted: Oct 14 2005 at 4:24pm | IP Logged
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I thought you could also put them in the fridge. They say when they hatch you have to get them out right away or its like Macbeth said, they eat each other. We had a great time with our "Mandy" this fall. We learned that if you put them in a small jar with a stick to crawl up on and then put in live flies they grab them real quick and feast, then clean themselves off like a dog or something. THe jar has to be small. Great to watch! All those stupid little flies that come into the house in the fall provided great feasting. Then one day we couldn't find any flies in the house. I actually found myself saying to the kids, "leave the door open so the flies will come in!" We finally had to let him go. He was skinny so I assume he was male. I think females are fat with eggs. The egg case siunds exciting, Alice. Keep us posted.
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Kelly
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| Posted: Oct 15 2005 at 8:43am | IP Logged
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I know with butterflies, the frig is a good spot if you want to slow down development of the chrysalis, and it IS good and moist. For a mantis egg case, that's on a different seasonal schedule, and needs a nice, cool, moist spot, it probably would work!
You know you've sunk low when you're trying to ADMIT flies to your house to feed your mantis. That's very funny, Sarah.
Kelly in FL
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Mantis Mother
