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Praying Mantis in tent?

HighLife

New member
So found a praying Mantis in my yard and caught it. Anyone have experience putting one in their tent to help with fungus gnats?
 
Ive had a mantis in my veg room for the last 10 weeks. No issues. Always on plants. Had some bugs on my plants so she has been eating. Also have a ton of ladybugs, adult with wings and those in the earlier stage that look like a crawling orange and black critter. No issue. Doesn't look like the mantis is eating the ladybugs but who knows. It's a bit big so maybe. But she's still alive and responsive
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I think if you're not in flower, you may want to turn to an insecticide. Gwe has a few options that might work. I'll let a seasoned grower chime in. Or go buy more mantises.
 
I'm waiting for the post where the aphids got their shit together and destroyed the mantis and ladybugs. I mean, they outnumber them a zillion to one!
Aphids are so stupid.
 
With any luck that Mantis is about to lay eggs and they're all born super hungry. I opted against putting the mantis in my tent for fear of her being pregnant. I'm not ready to parent all those babies and actually afraid I don't have enough gnats to feed them all! I may not have the last laugh on that one. Right now DE seems to be working for me.
 
I don't do any kind of insecticide or spinozad. If I were to keep this plant for a longer period I would spray 99% ethanol with the lights off. But this is only on a couple of plants and next week they're going outside for flowering. Once outside the aphids disappear in a few days.
 
The most curious thing is that I have another 4 plants right next to those two and those have no aphids. Once I get those two outside to flower I'll bring more from propagation. I'm just waiting a bit cause flowering is full right now
 
The mantis does not look pregnant to me, but maybe. On the outdoor plants this happens maybe once a year but it's the first time I bring one indoors and I'm just waiting to see how long it survives. Once the infested plants are gone it's going to have no food so I may just release it to the outdoor flowering garden
 
Maybe it is a rare trichome mutation of some type. Have you checked to make sure those are aphids? Seems like a skinny mantis. Seems that would be a corpulent sonofabitch of a mantis if those were aphids.
 
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