Feeding baby mantises, nymphs, can be quite the challenge. You need to find prey that is suitable for their size. In this video I cover a suitable food source, flies. The nymph in this video is a Chinese mantis. It as a L5; this means it currently at the fifth instar. At this level the mantis can begin handling bigger prey insects. Starting at L4-L5, I include larger flying insects in their diet. Again, I am feeding Chinese mantises; if you have exotic mantises, please take precaution. When handling prey insects; yes, they will become food but do not mistreat them.

I used the small net to capture a common green bottle fly, Lucilia sericata. Adult flies have many diets, eating carrion and feces as well as pollen and nectar. This means they are important pollinators in their native range as well as important agents of decomposition. Flies may be gross; but they are beneficial insects.

At 1:47, I called this nymph a boy; but is he a he or a she? I will cover sexing in a future video. The constant blasts heard in the video; was indeed the wind.

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