When Mantises come out in Tucson

Here is a clip from a newspaper when the Iris oratoria, or Mediterranean mantis begins to hatch in Tucson in the spring (with the day I noticed hatching of multiple ootheca circled). In the winter Tucson and the surrounding foothills generally experience 55-75˚F highs and 32-45˚F lows with a few weeks that can dip as low as 28˚F. During the summer, days are between 90-110˚F during the day and 65-85˚ at night. Spring and fall are incredibly short, only lasting 2-3 weeks (with the occasional 4 weeks) in which the temperature ranges from 70-90˚ during the day.

The majority of the rain (and humidity) occur during two times of the year. During the winter, slower more steady rain that cover large areas can fall anywhere between October and April. During the summer Monsoon season, very heavy violent rains fall in generally isolated areas any time between the beginning of July to the middle of September. Otherwise, humidity in Tucson and the surrounding areas is generally low (if outside of a canyon or wash). I hope this helps anyone wanting to hatch mantis ootheca that are native to southern Arizona.

Reviving a Hobby

After previously giving up this hobby for family reasons, I have decided to come back to it, at least for a while. We will see how long this lasts. So here we go.

The reason why I felt compelled to give up this hobby earlier was that it took way too much of my time. To reduce the amount of time spent in this hobby I have decided to do several things:

First: Raising only communal mantids that can be kept together. This will decrease the amount of work required to open and close lids and will hopefully decrease the amount of time required for me to maintain my mantises.

 

Son with Ghost Mantis (a communal variety)

 

Second: Making the mantis setup require less maintenance. By putting in more initial investment and time, I should be able to keep the maintenance required to a minimum. This includes being able to access the mantises from the side. Mantises tend to go to the top of their container, which means they require more time to put in and take out if being accessed from the top.

My old Mantis Setup. Hopefully, the new one will be much more simple!

 

Third: Keeping smaller mantis varieties. Smaller mantises take up less space and can be easy to raise (as long as they do not require very small prey, such as springtails). I am not opposed to raising springtails later, but for now I am pretty sure I can handle raising the larger and smaller fruit fly varieties.



Egyptian Mantis Nymphs

Fourth: If it is possible I am hoping I can slowly make my Drosophila Hydei larger by screening the small ones out. Though this would exclude some males, this method should – over time – result in larger fruit flies. With larger fruit flies I would need to take less trips to the pet store for big feeders, such as crickets.

 

Adult Female Egyptian mantises (notice they are small).

My hope is that by I can raise praying mantises I can feel more engaged in a hobby while maintaining a balanced life, including retaining a healthy relationship with members of my family. Wish me luck!