How do I catch live fruit flies for my mantis?

Question

I have a praying mantis and I need to catch it live flies. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Everyone is on the right track with bananas, but to catch enough to feed a mantis, you can make a contraption that allows them to come in, but not go out. Take a small soda bottle and put a piece of banana in it (as mentioned in a few other answers). Then make a small funnel out of a piece of paper and secure it in the neck of the bottle. The opening at the end of the funnel should be just slightly larger than the head of a pin (just big enough for the fruit fly to crawl in). This makes it easy for them to get in, but it's hard for them to find their way out (a few will still escape, so just be ready to deal with a few fruit flies in the house). The only concern I would have (and I don't know what part of the country you live in) is that it's getting cold in most places, so you may not attract very many fruit flies.

You can get also fruit flies at most large pet stores, so you might try that--I've had luck with those (I've had praying mantids before). The other thing you can try if you can't get ahold of fruit flies is to buy pinhead crickets which are roughly the same size. When your mantis gets a little larger, it will be able to eat regular crickets, too.

Good luck--they're lots of fun to watch!

Answer 2

How To Catch Fruit Flies

Answer 3

Stephen H has got the right idea! I used to make 'fruit-fly traps' like that out of jam-jars when my mantids were tiny...! In Summer, it takes the eggs about a week to 9 days to turn into juicy fruit-flies! (Mantids will eat the maggots too, if you're short on food ...)
: )

It's a bit tricky getting the flies FROM the jar INTO the mantid's home though - but once you've got some pupating maggots on the side of your jar you can carefully take them off and place them inside the mantid's home. Then when the fruit-flies emerge a few days later, you don't need to do anything but watch..!

If you're living in a country which is approaching Winter, you'll need to find a shop that sells live crickets in various sizes for when your mantis is bigger..!

Answer 4

Peel a banana and leave it on the counter for a couple of days, until you see fruit flies around it. Then put the banana in a sealed jar. You will soon have a jar full of fruit flies.

Answer 5

i agree with the first person who answered your question. when i was in 4th grade, my teacher wants us to catch fruit flies (i forgot why). she told us to mash banana or any fruit in a petri dish (or bottle cap or any small dish) and put it in a tranparent container (so that you could see it without disturbing the fruit flies). after a day or two, check on it and cover it quickly so that the fruit flies wont get away. you'll have your mantis on a feast. ;)

Answer 6

Get a narrow necked bottle, like a empty water the size of a soda one. Drop a small piece of banana in it. When you see several, just cover the top with your hand and put the neck of the bottle into it's cage & tap on it.

Or put a small piece in it's cage. Fruit flies love banana.

Answer 7

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Praying mantids are purely insectivorous. They are able to eat essentially any other insect they get their claws on and do not face a threat of being eaten by insects smaller than them. Any flies, spiders, and other miscellaneous insects crawling around the house can be caught and thrown in the tank.

Answer 8

leave out some bananas. s they get a few days old they will attrack fruit flys . wait until morning and go into kitchen without turning lights on, and put clear plastic bag over bananas to catch fruit flys

Answer 9

get a can of fruit and open it . leave it alone in a warm room for a couple of days and you will have a ton of fruit flies.

Answer 10

Why don't you just feed it crickets? They sell crickets at pet stores and I think bait shops too...they'd be a more substantial meal then tiny fruit flies.