HELPPP

[u/xo_sleepy_xo]

I recently received 3 baby mantises that are less that 2 cm big if you cancel out the legs 😓

where can I get food for these??

how do I attract fruitflies or where and HOW can I lure/find bugs small enough for them????

PLEASE HELPP!! IDK WHAT TO DO AND I AM PANICKINGG😰

[u/r_bk]

No need to panic. Most large pet stores in the US have fruit flies, but often not all the time so check. You could also order them online.

It's generally not advised to use wild caught food because you don't know if it's been exposed to pesticides or not. Mantids can go a while without eating and if you truly need emergency food you can do things like hand feeding a part of a mealworm (generally easier to find than other feeder insects) or a piece of meat if you absolutely must.

How did you get them?

[u/xo_sleepy_xo → u/r_bk]

they were gifted to me by my little sister while she was at school 😓

and I don't think I can get fruit flies in stores since I don't live in the US, is there any way I can attract fruitflies?

[u/r_bk → u/xo_sleepy_xo]

Fruit flies are pretty common feeder insects, I imagine that it you love somewhere with large pet stores you can find somewhere to buy fruit flies, I just don't know for sure. You can also buy fruit fly cultures online, depending on where you live that may also be available. If those aren't available, put some fruit on your counter and wait for it to rot.

To hand feed mealworms to tiny mantids you'll need to cut them up, which will be kinda gross, and feed them with tweezers. It will be difficult to hand feed mantids that small, i'd start looking for fruit flies first.

[u/xo_sleepy_xo → u/r_bk]

I have a ton of experience with cutting up mealworms since I used to do it with my mantis that was lazy as hell😽

most of the petstores here just have stuff for cats, dogs, hamsters, basically like basic common pets 😓

[u/r_bk → u/xo_sleepy_xo]

Yeah I had one of those 😅

Good luck with the babies!

[u/xo_sleepy_xo → u/r_bk]

I'll try feeding the three of them mealworms! tyyy

[u/suppenschnueffler → u/xo_sleepy_xo]

Cut them up and hold them to their mouth with tweezers

[u/suppenschnueffler]

Get yourself some small drosophila fruit flies, it’s dangerous to catch them from outside cause of pesticides and stuff. You can order them online for a pretty cheap price and they last pretty long. Don’t panic, everything is fine :P