Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: rober on May 06, 2013, 09:58:54 am
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some of you may remember lst year's hatch. this year i bought 30 egg cases. this is the 2nd hatch.
(http://s22.postimg.org/8zt92uyp9/mantid_hatch.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/8zt92uyp9/)
(http://s18.postimg.org/djcsykitx/mantids_2013_3.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/djcsykitx/)
(http://s10.postimg.org/xwbok9czp/mantis_2013.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/xwbok9czp/)
(http://s10.postimg.org/4z5r4unet/mantis_2012_2.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/4z5r4unet/)
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Those things are bee eating machines. They also make a big mess on your hive bodies when you smash them. :-D
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i'd move them before i'd mash them. they are one of the best bugs you could have around.
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i'd move them before i'd mash them. they are one of the best bugs you could have around.
Just not around your bee hives! I wonder how many bees one adult can eat a day?
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they are wonderful bug eaters...including your bees ;)
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Very cool pics rober.
We’ve got hoards of the things here. Egg cases all over the place. I have noticed more around since I’ve been keeping bees, but I haven’t seen them hanging around the hives. They’re probably getting bees on the flowers and such. I figure they’re a net positive though so I leave them alone.
I do have those gray tree frogs all over my hives though. I don’t smash them either since I figure they may be snacking on wax moths. X:X
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i'm sure the birds & skunks are eating more bees than the mantids. being nocturnal i'd suspect the frogs are eating more moths than bees. i have been live trapping & drowning the skunks. a friend had a secondary yard of 20 that the skunks ate down to 8. the landowner noticed the skunks & called my friend who then discovered the loss.
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I wouldn't think that Mantis could significantly hurt a colony. Wouldn't think of killing one on purpose. They are my second favorite insect.
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Awesome, I love mantids! We've got a pretty good stock of natives here and always liked to keep them as pets as a kid. Where do you get your eggs?
Scott
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I didn't dispatch the mantis on purpose. He was hidden between stacks on a pallet. :imsorry:
I was just putting stuff back together when I noticed this green stuff squirting out.
I sat in a chair last year and watched one perched by an entrance to a hive.
They move so slow, until it's time to eat. We caught one just about every summer when I was growing up too.
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do a search on flea bay for praying mantis eggs. i used to buy them thru a nursery but they quit handling them. i've searched the net & the best deals are on e bay. look thru all the buyers cuz' the prices can vart greatly.. i paid $2.10 per egg case but some are asking as much as $9.00 per egg case. i keep them in a vented jar & check them every morning.
the std procedure is to tie them to a tree or shrub branch but in the jars i know exactly how many hatched & i can put the hatching case somewhere reasonably safe from being eaten by birds. there can be anywhere from 25-200 bugs per case. the case in the photos probably had over 200.