Mantis Egg Case

Description

Chinese mantises, Tenodera sinensis, are established through much of the US. These mantises are probably the most familiar species world-wide and the image that comes to mind when most people think of praying mantises.

For sale here is a mantis egg case (ootheca). These are commonly sold by garden shops as a beneficial predator of garden insect pests. Personally, I’m not a fan of releasing Chinese mantises in the garden because they’ll eat the native bugs that are feeding on your non-native plants but it’s completely legal to release these whether you hatch them indoors or outdoors.

Care can be a little tricky for some people. My mantis care sheet below discusses care. You might consider getting a mantis net cube and hatching the mantises in there. Simply hang the ootheca from the top of the cage by sticking a pin through cage and into the stick that comes attached to the egg case, or through just the edge of the foamy protective case (eggs are specifically located in the lateral strip that is a different color than the out case itself). It’s a lot simpler than it sounds. You can hatch them in most any container but you should keep them humid to some degree. Usually they hatch within 25 to 45 days but it can vary with temperature. Left outdoors they will hatch when the day/night cycle and weather is warm enough that they sense it is a good time of year to emerge and find other bugs (to eat). If you are going to hatch them in captivity and raise them, you’ll probably want to order a fruit fly culture THE MOMENT you see them hatch. They often don’t eat in the first day or two, but really need to eat no later than day 3 or 4. Usually 100 to 300 nymphs will hatch depending, on case size.

Click here for my mantis caresheet: https://bugsincyberspace.com/mantid_care.html