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Praying Mantises are really amazing insects if you are looking into keeping an insect as a pet. They are easy to care for and they have carnivorous diets. They feed mainly on other insects, but older praying mantises may even tackle small birds. In this article we'll answer the question "Do Praying Mantises Eat Spider?" so stay tuned and keep reading till the end. Praying mantises mostly eat small insects, but some stronger and older praying mantis may eat spiders and even small birds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDdtNeoezSQ How Do Praying Mantis Eat A Spider? Spiders are an important part of the diet for the praying mantis, and praying mantises know how to tackle a spider. Praying mantises usually tackle the spiders from behind, doing this they avoid a potential defense and the venom sacs. Spiders' venom is usually not toxic to them when eaten, it is only poisonous to them when injected. Furthermore, most praying mantises avoid highly venomous spiders such as a black widow, apart from that mantises also avoid eating spider legs. Are Spiders Poisonous For Praying Mantis? Most common spiders are not poisonous to praying mantises and are an important part of their diet. Praying mantis can easily eat common spiders and their venom would not affect them when eaten, but it might affect them if it's injected into them. Moreover, praying mantises know what is harmful to them and so they will tend to avoid highly venomous insects and spiders such as a Black Widow. When eating a comon spider, they eat it in such a way as to avoid the venom sacs of a spider, which keep most of the poison. So to answer your question, spiders are not poisonous to praying mantis and the species of spiders which are poisonous, praying mantis know to just avoid them. Do Praying Mantis Eat Hummingbirds? Hummingbirds are small birds and praying mantises will prey on them whenever they get a chance, but it is not a part of their ususal diet. Praying Mantis may attack a hummingbird while they are waiting for other preys such as bees. Only the larger species such as the Chinese Mantis, are capable of tackling these birds, because of the strength it requires to take them down. But it is very unlikely for this attack to be successful, they have to properly time it in order to knock out the bird. Praying mantises only attack birds when they are really hungry, they usually keep themselves to smaller insects but if they get a chance, they don't stand back. Do Praying Mantis Eat Ants? Yes, praying mantises feed on almost all of the smaller insects, but i won't recommend you to feed ants to your pet praying mantis, especially not an army of them. Ants can seriously damage your pet praying mantis, by biting them on the legs and what not. In the wild, praying mantis may eat ants but if it's up to you, be sure to not feed your praying mantis ants. Do Praying Mantis Eat Grasshoppers? Yes, praying mantis can and will eat grasshoppers, but younger praying mantis avoids them because they are unable to counter them with their smaller legs, usually larger praying mantises eat them. Do Praying Mantis Eat Plants? You might think that as they are a carnivore, they won't eat plants and you are absolutely right, but when the food is scarce during the fall and they can't find insects, praying mantis may feed on pollen. Pollen has a lot of protein and I think that is why praying mantis choose to feed on it. What Do Praying Mantis Eat? In short, praying mantises feed mainly on smaller insects such as fruit flies, crickets and bees. What Should You Feed Your Praying Mantis? The food you should feed to your praying mantis depends on several factors, for example, you have to consider the Instar in which your praying mantis is in, the size of the feeder insects, the size of the praying mantis, etc. Firstly, lets discuss some general foods for your praying mantis, then we’ll discuss the factors, and later in the conclusion we’ll summarize what foods you should feed your praying mantis based on those factors. Before you go on to read the later part of this article you have to know that mantises require live food, they will not want to eat something that is not alive and moving. Bees If you have been feeding your praying mantis bees and you have encountered no problems, you have nothing to worry as they are not harmful to your praying mantis. But I would recommend that if you don’t know much about bees you should steer clear of them, mainly due to two reasons, first of all, bees especially honey bees are quite important for the environment, secondly, while feeding bees you might get bit or worse they might hurt your pet mantis. So keep in mind these two facts while feeding bees and you should be good. Fruit Flies Fruit flies are, in my point of view, one of the best food sources for your praying mantises. You can buy them at an insect store, or better yet setup a fruit fly trap yourself at home. You can build fruit fly trap, by taking a jar and putting some fruit in it and then closing the lid with a few holes in it. As soon as you get a couple of fruit fllies, just close the lid properly and put it into your freezer for around 2 minutes, this will make them sleep. Then just drop them to your mantises. They should start moving about five minutes later, if not you probably cooled them a little too much. Nevertheless, they are a great food choice for your Mantises and you should definitely give them a try. Crickets Crickets are also a good food choice for your mantises, but you have to be a bit careful about them. If you get your crickets at your pet store, or even if you collect them yourselves. They should be transferred to a healthy diet around 48 hours before they are fed to your Mantis. You can do this by feeding them with oatmeal, some potato, etc. Ants Ants are a big NO for your mantises, especially if they are fed in batches, they can do alot of harm to your mantises by biting them, so steer clear of them. Apart from these common insects mantises also like to eat various aphids, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, caterpillars, and other soft-bodied insects when young. Later they like to eat larger insects, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and other pest insects. Factors Affecting Food Choice For Mantises. There are some factors that greatly affect the food that you should give to your mantises, these factors include the size of the mantis and the insect you are feeding it and the instar in which your mantis is currently in. Instar Instar is the phase between two periods of molting in an insect. In simple terms, it is like the age of a praying mantis. Mantises which are less than at least 3 instars require a lot of care and during these phases require regular attention. As the Mantises grow older they require less and less care. By the time they are in the third instar, mantises usually have shed their skins twice, and they shed their skins around seven times in their lifetime. Male mantises usually shed their skin 1-2 times less than their female counterparts, so that they do not in the breed. That’s all for the discussion, now let’s see how instar affects the food choice. During the 1st to 3rd instar you should restrict yourself to feeding your mantises, only smaller insects, these may include fruit flies, spring tails, small crickets or small cockroaches. In the 4th instar you should start to feed them with house flies, crickets and small roaches, in the 5th and 6th instar you should feed them the same insects as in the 4th instar, but they should be slightly larger as the instar progresses. In the 7th and 8th instar you can feed them larger insects such as bluebottle flies, adult crickets, and cockroaches. Conclusion Yes, Praying mantises can eat spiders but they avoid highly venomous spiders such as black widows, while eating a spider they make sure to attack from behind and avoid the venom sacs and spider legs. Praying mantis also eat ants, grasshoppers, humming birds and even pollen grains. Praying mantises mainly eat small insects but some factors such as instar and their size do affect their food choices. You can learn more about "What Do Praying Mantis Eat?" in this article.

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