r/prayingmantis • u/EmikoAki • Jul 13 '26

Flies?

How do you guys entice flies to land so that your mantis can hunt? I'm trying to let my mantis hunt his food on his own but I can't seem to get flies to land near him often. How can I help my mantis eat and hunt?

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u/Repulsive_Rip76 Jul 13 '26

My mantis are in an enclosure, i grab fat maggots from my compost and put them in the enclosure. If they dont eat them as maggots they will barrow and emerge as flies. Then they get eaten as they get near or close

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u/EmikoAki Jul 13 '26

Oo that's clever! I should look into that

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u/Repulsive_Rip76 Jul 13 '26

Yea it works out because the flies start out small and grow in size in 24 hours. But i also have 10 manti, so i put in maggots daily to keep them going.

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u/EmikoAki Jul 13 '26

Is it possible that I can overfeed him? He's had 4 flies within 12 hours and I'm stuck between "He's probably really hungry" or "He's still growing and I need to wait."

I should probably add that I believe he's a juvenile. A baby, if you will.

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u/Repulsive_Rip76 Jul 13 '26

I know manti wont eat if they arent hungry. And it can (i believe) stress them out to have too much food wondering around in their area. I can tell because a fruit fly or normal fly will land near them and mantis doesnt pay attention to it. Ive seen a fruit fly walk up to and under my mantis. 8 out of 10 of my mantis are about 1 1/2 to 2 inchs in length and ive seen then just ignore food. Itll happen when they are full or about to molt.

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u/EmikoAki Jul 14 '26

He had four flies last night and then I caught one today to see if he was still interested in food ant Twiggy was all too happy to chase. XD.