How to hatch a mantid case?

[Cindy]

HELP!! I just received an egg case in the mail! Haven't got the slightest idea which species it is yet (until friend comes online) but the case looks kinda dry.

Can I keep it inside the terrarium where the N. adnata is?

Thanks loads!!!

[swords]

Can you post a picture of the egg case?

It should be fine in a Nepenthes terrarium as long as it's nice and humid, some people say to mist the egg case every day but I don't cos if it gets too wet it can rot. As long as there is condensation on the glass it's humid enough. Mantid oothecas can be problematic, too warm, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc. and they don't hatch. But give it a few months (or until it looks bad) before giving up on it.

Just incase nobody told you, look for the little "zipper" or knitted groove on the front of the egg case and hang it or hot glue it to a stick so the groove faces downward so the babies can use gravity to "slide" out of their cells in the egg as easily as possible.

[thez_yo]

Wouldn't hot glue like...kill the ones from heat that are closest to the hot glue?

[swords]

I should have explained that technique better: put hot glue on the stick (not the egg case itself) let it cool a tad and set the rear of the case slightly into the cooling "hot" glue. There is mostly "foam" (padding) on the rear side of an egg case, the little ones are usually in the front half of the case so emergence is easier/faster. They won't be harmed by the tiny spot of glue - you don't need to slather it on, just a chocolate chip sized spot. You can also use superglue if you're fast but the egg case will sometimes just soak it up if it's a real "foamy" egg case without a smooth surface to adhere it to.

[DETHCHEEZ]

If the ootheca has a piece of stick/branch that it's stuck to glue that part or tie some string or thread around it & hang it from that
If it doesn't have a piece of branch attached to it you can take a needle & thread & thread it through the top / No reason to go deep
Like Swords said it's just foam

A few ways I use to like doing them

Hang it from the lid of a tall deli cup
I liked to put something like a piece of screen of some twigs in the cup so they had something to cling to once they hatched
Instead of misting it you can put a wet paper towel or cotton ball in the cup to keep the humidity up

Another method I liked to use was to was a paper bag {Small lunch type paper bag}
Use enough string so you can pull it out of the bag then roll the top of the bag close so the ootheca is suspended in the middle of the bag
Then I would just keep it on a warm window sill
You can tell when they hatch because you can hear them scratching & climbing on the bag

But honestly I would kind of wait till you find out what Sp. it's from as different ones will require different care / conditions

Good Luck
DC

[Cindy]

Thanks everyone for the help thus far. Well, friend said that he found it stuck to his car antenna!! And because I hatched some mantids from the common local species, he thought I should know what to do. Well, we live ~5000km away from each other. LOL

[Cindy]

OMG...I took a close look at the egg case and saw the babies/larvae/ probing from inside. Or was I imagining things?!?!?

Anyway, there seems to be a little "hook" on one end so I used a thread to hang it from the N. adnata vine. Please let me know if the method is fine.

The terrarium a.k.a. bread box.


The egg case. Anyone has any idea which species it might be?


Close-up

[swords]

Cool, I haven't seen an egg case shaped like that exactly but I don't have any Singapore species either. As long as the slit it is vertical or facing down it should be OK.

I've never seen larvae moving through the case, at least you know SOMETHING is alive in there. Are there any holes in the egg case? There are certain flies and things who will lay eggs on a mantis or mantis egg case and their larvae go in and attack the baby mantids or infect the living mantid and emerge later... eew!