I got something in the mail today that I think is gonna be fun for us to do with
our grandson. And it's a Praying Mantis Gift Set from InsectLore.com.
And inside is actually a praying mantis egg case, and everything else you need to
grow these to maturity. So we're gonna open this right away and get the egg
case set up in its proper environment, so these praying mantises have the best
chance of growing to adulthood. And you can choose the date that this ships.
Because you wouldn't want it to arrive when you're away on vacation, and no one
would be home to get it in off of the porch. So let's see what's inside.
And they threw in a packet of seeds of wild flowers so you can grow something else
besides praying mantises.
Right there is the praying mantis egg case. And that has
all the praying mantis eggs in there. Looks like they broke it off a twig that
it was on. You also get this little stand. It kind of looks like leaves.
There are some little plastic pieces. Or like little plastic toys, more or less.
There's a praying mantis, egg case, some leaves,
And there's also a little pump bottle
inside. "Read Me" instructions...very important.
Praying Mantis Egg Case Quick Guide,
to get you started.
And then this is the actual habitat that you'll be
putting them in. So you can undo it and pop it out. It unzips. And then that egg
case and everything will go down here on the bottom. So now you're supposed to
take the egg case out of here and put it in this holder.
And I'm gonna pick it up
by the little stick that it's on. You're supposed to put it right in the middle
here, so it's supported. Looks like it's on there pretty solid.
And it says to
maintain this egg case at room temperature at all times.
And this is
actually a misting bottle. So you put a little water in this, and once a week
you're supposed to lightly spray the egg case to give us some moisture. It says
dehydration is one of the main reasons that these egg cases fail, and you
never get to see any nymphs.
So that's all you have to do at this stage.
And you can kind of push down on this habitat so it's easier to put the egg case
in there. And then let it come back up.
We're all set!
And besides just the
instructions in the quick guide, you can go to InsectLore.com, and there's
videos you can watch that show exactly what you're supposed to do,
step by step. And they go into more detail.
And our praying mantises are
still inside their egg case. Nothing has really changed with them. So we just keep
spraying the egg case to keep the humidity around them.
Its finally happened! Got up this morning, and was going to mist the egg case. And saw all these
little guys had already got out. There's a whole bunch of them in there!
They're real small. The thing now is to get them fed.
So it says to find some soft bodied
insects and feed that to them. If you can't get that, you might go to a pet
store and get some fruit flies. So I have to find some food for these little fellas.
You should also decorate their habitat with some sticks and leaves,
different types of foliage, for them to perch on.
There's another look inside.
They're moving around in there pretty good, some of them. And I'm waiting for my
grandson to get off from preschool so he can check these out too. He's been really
interested in these. Not sure he's ever really seen a real one!
There they are, grandma!
Wow! Awesome!
What's going on with them, Cohen?
Well, they just got out of their little thing.
And they kind of broke their way out.
And they're kind of walking around right now.
And they're climbing.
I see their little pinchers.
They kind of look cute. They're like little babies! Hello!
They are babies, aren't they.
What are they? What kind of bug?
Praying Mantises.
What do they eat? Insects.
Is this a good bug or a bad bug? Good bug. Yeah!
They can eat any bad ones. They can eat any bad bugs.
They eat crickets too, when they get bigger.
They're babies right now.
They're just gonna get bigger and bigger.
We need to keep feeding them.
They are moving a little bit.
One thing I'd caution if you're going to raise praying mantises, is to be sure
that before you get them, before they hatch, that you have something to feed them.
That you have a steady food supply for them. They eat soft bodied bugs, such as
aphids. So if you have plants that attract aphids, you'll be fine.
So, I didn't have any plants around my house that attracted aphids. and my pet
store didn't have any fruit flies, so I ordered some from Josh's frogs off of
Amazon. They sent me this fruit fly culture. And it arrived with some adult
fruit flies in it, and some that haven't matured yet. So this should keep them
going for quite a while.
Keep that in mind...don't order them, don't try to raise them,
unless you know you can feed them.
There you can see some fruit flies in there.
So I've got them outside, and I'm gonna take the lid off of it and just kind of
shake the lid into the praying mantis habitat. And see how well they like fruit flies.
And the praying mantises are doing fine.
They're running around catching the
fruit flies that are in there.
So they're getting well-fed.
And there are very good hunters.
I've just added some more of the fruit
flies in there, and we'll see if any of the praying mantises are actually hungry right now.
So we timed it pretty well. We caught them coming out of their egg case!
Here's some new ones just making their way out. Very cool!
Looks like quite a struggle
for them to get out of there and get separated from each other. But that
probably helps them get a little stronger, too.
We're going to have several
once they all get out of there.
That one there has caught a fruit fly.
And so has that one.
Cohen, I guess it's time to let them go. What do you think?
Why do we let them go when they're babies?
They're growing up, and they get bigger by eating. And we're running out of food
to feed them. So you think they'll find food in this bush?
I already see one...a spider.
You see one? It's a baby white spider.
They could eat that!
We're gonna release them out into some bushes that have some flowers and other types of leaves.
And insects smaller than them that they can feed on.
And this turned out really well.
The egg cases that we had produced a lot of praying mantises. And they've been
really fun to watch them grow.
Very educational and very cool.
And today's a nice sunny, warm day, so I'm just going to tip their cage over
and let them find their way out into this bush.
There they go. One of them just jumped.
Can you tell them goodbye?
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
That was a good goodbye. Goodbye, guys!
And I keep checking on them and this is about a week and a half later after we
released them. There are several praying mantises that
we see in the bush where we let them go.
They're growing. So they seem to be doing
pretty well out here. And I've seen one that's bigger than this one too. And I'm
looking forward to seeing them grow and watching them throughout the summer.
And this is a project that was fun and educational.
And you might want to try it too.