Praying Mantis Eggs?

Question

Hi,

Can anybody help me with this...

I have some Praying Mantis Eggs, i have had them for some time now like 4 months, does anybody know when they are due to hatch? As im just curiuos, and i want to know when they are going to hatch so i can be there to tend to them...

Thanks

Howard

Answer 1

you would need to know when they were layed. sometime during the fall I am sure and they hatch in the spring. this reminds me of a story of mine. please indulge me. I was about 10 and I found 2 egg cases I took them to school and kept them in my desk. well they hatched when I got to school about 10 kids and 5 teachers were standing around my desk trying to figure how they were going to get 5000 babies outside. ahhh good times good times. when they do hatch put them in your garden they are outstanding pest controllers they eat only meat no veggies so your garden is safe. have fun take plenty of pictures during the birth because you will be the proud parent of 5000 little guys. here is a website with some good info.

Answer 2

Praying mantis are beautiful insects with a voracious appetite, and a delight to have in the garden. Being strictly carnivorous, they'll eat almost any insect of a size they can overcome. Waiting in quiet ambush for hours at a time, when an insect comes wandering by they suddenly jump out and attack - always biting the neck first. At rest, they seem to be "praying", holding their "hands" together.

Each praying mantis egg case will hatch about 100-200 tiny mantises, all at once. In order to hatch they'll need several weeks of warm weather, so they can "sense" that summer (and pest insects for food) has arrived. Attach the egg cases to a twig or plant about a foot or two off the ground where there's cover to protect the babies. When hatching, the young crawl from between tiny flaps in the cases and hang from silken threads about 2" below the case. After drying out, the long-legged young disperse into the vegetation leaving no evidence of their appearance. This happens within an hour or two, and it's very difficult to know hatching has occurred unless the elusive, well camouflaged young are found. (The egg case does not change appearance in any way, which means you might not have any babies at all.) If you'd like to see when the mantis have hatched, place the egg cases in a paper bag, fold the top and seal shut with a paper clip or clothes pin. Place the bag on a window sill in direct sunlight. Periodically open the bag carefully, and when you see tiny mantids running around inside, take them outside and sprinkle them throughout the garden. Be patient - sometimes it takes up to eight weeks of warm weather for them to hatch.

Once hatched, praying mantis begin feeding on small insects, such as aphids. Later on, they'll continue advancing up to larger and larger prey. By summer's end, praying mantis can reach several inches in length. In the fall, females produce more eggs, deposited in a frothy secretion that hardens to protect the eggs from predators and severe winter climates. Egg cases are attached to twigs, leaves, fences, etc. Several egg cases may be laid before cold winter finally sets in. This new generation of praying mantis will hatch when warm weather returns, to repeat the process.

Good Luck :-)

Answer 3

If they're old oothecas which have hatched already, you should find a roughened side with visible holes. If it's still smooth all over then it hasn't hatched yet - but it might not be fertile, it depends on whether the female mated or not.

Anyway, I'd recommend the following;
when Spring is approaching (obviously this depends on where you live,) put the oothecas in a plastic container with a few holes punched in the top, and stick it in the salad drawer of the fridge for about 2 weeks. This is because most mantids (except tropical varieties) NEED a Winter to hatch successfully.

Then suspend the oothecas by a piece of thread from the top of a netting washing bag, or a netting lid on a jar or something - they need at least 3 or 4 inches in height (beneath the ootheca) as dangling space for when their new exoskeletons harden after their first moult, but because they're so tiny they don't need a huge area widthways.

If they're in a netting bag, hang it securely where it can get the sun but won't be damaged by the wind. If in a jar, put it where it won't get flooded but can be warmed by the sun. As someone said, it will take a few weeks of proper warm weather before they'll hatch - our Chinese mantids didn't hatch until the nights were very warm too. That was early June!

The reason I suggest a netting bag or a jar is so that you can check them easily each morning - they hatch very early in the day! They'll have to be released after a day, otherwise they'll eat each other if you can't provide food for them!

Incidentally, I've got several oothecas from September/October (and later!) which I'll put in the fridge in late March. Keeping them indoors deprives them of their Winter, and if they don't get an artificial one they might not hatch at all.

When they do hatch, if you intend keeping some of them make a fruit-fly trap - or make one in advance and keep creating fresh ones in preparation! Put a teaspoonful or so of mashed banana in the bottom of a jar, make a cone out of paper that will fit the top of the jar, cut a small hole at the point so that flies can get in, then invert the cone and tape it securely to the top of the jar. Then just place it where fruit-flies are likely to hang out, and when you've got a few they'll lay lots of eggs in the banana mush.

Then you just have to find a way to let them out into another jar without letting hundreds of flies loose in the house!
; )
(Of course, you could take the easy way out and buy micro crickets - also known as pin-heads!)

Answer 4

I would be curious to know how the oothecas have been stored. The proper incubation method depends on the type of praying mantis that are trying to hatch. Many of them need humidity and a certain temperature. Most praying mantis oothecas take between 3 and 6 months to hatch.

Answer 5

Depends where you got them.
If you found an egg case, much like I recently have, it could be an old egg case or a new one. The only way to tell is just to be patient. I doubt that the one I just found has any babies inside of it; I work for a museum right now so if no babies hatch, we will keep the egg case itself for display.
So, it's not necessary that you will have any hatchlings at all.
I'd wait a good six months to see, especially now because it's February.
But the egg case is a beautiful construction of mother nature--those are certainly worth keeping!

Answer 6

fantastic.. a chick it truly is no longer all wimpy about insects!! and praying mantises are the coolest!! now on your question.. actual I even do no longer know how contained in the international it laid eggs with out mating.. they oftentimes mate with a male and eats his head off (sucks to be that guy lol) and that i have not heard something about them A-sexually reproducing. nor have i considered any of those i have stuck do any such ingredient with out mating.. atleast so a lengthy way as i undergo in options.. all mine did replaced into devour, shed pores and skin and sit round lookin cool and stuff lol.. sorry i could not help ya..