to catch a mantis?

[s.tan]

Thanks, Ray. Sorry to hear that you haven't caught it yet. I know its hard to be patient when you're losing livestock. I have a Peacock mantis that I keep in a species tank...so I know the damage that they can do to anything that they consider edible or in their way when they're building a home! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Just give me a shout when you manage to catch it.

[burrows14]

anyone have any other ideas for traps? the inverted pop bottle with bait in it has not worked for me Lost 4 peppermint now and there are cracked/empty hermit shells everywhere. I havent heard any snaps comming from my tank in 2 days now so i think he has settled into a new home but I'm not sure where in the tank that is.

[s.tan]

Hi Ray,

Sorry to hear that you're losing more livestock. If you haven't heard any smashing for the last couple of days, that's a good thing since it might mean that the mantis hasn't been killing and eating any more snails etc. Also it should be getting hungry so trapping him should be easier. As far as catching him, I was thinking that one of those plastic critter keepers (they come in all sizes, hold water and have a perforated lid with a small plastic window on top) baited with frozen clam in the shell, shrimp tail etc (things with nice odour and that I know my mantis loves) might be enough to lure him out. My peacock becomes more alert and goes into hunting mode when she detects food smells in the water. Leave the small door on top open and mantis should find the opening. When it goes in, you will have to have a chopstick or other stick ready to flip the door closed. You can also continue to leave the inverted bottle trap in the tank as a backup. Either way, don't leave it in the trap for too long since it might be able to smash its way out. Of course, if you are able to find its home and its in a rock or you see it in the open and can chase it into a particular rock, you can isolate and remove the rock.
Hope one of these methods work. Keep us posted. Good luck.

[ReefJunkie]

If all else fails and you can get the rock out that he lives in, you can flush him out with a baster and fresh water, if that doesn't work, club soda

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Check with your LFS, they may have a trap they can lend you.

We have a rectangular trap we lend out to people for just this case, and works quite well. Sits flush on the sand.

Ken - BWA

[Jyman]

Ok the way I got rid of the mantis out of the tank here. I ended up taking the rock out of the main tank and putting it in another tank with no other rock. and I was disturbing his home enough in the new tank that he left the rock he was on and tryed to find another.

When i saw that he left his rock i pulled the rock out and put it back in the main tank, only took about 1-2 hours to get him but it was easyer then trying to catch him.

[sitandwatch]

I also ended up removing the rock as he would not fall for the traps "Stupid Mantis"

Once I had the rock removed I poked him out with a stick then gave him away.

[burrows14]

I'll Buy some thick rubber gloves an pull out all the rock when I get home tonight. I think he has moved his home so this should take a while. Not only is it terrorizing my tank it has started to haunt my dreams ha ha another question I have is about cleaning up the aftermath. I was thinking about buying a kitty litter scoop to sift out all the shattered shells... Do you think it would be a bad thing to disrupt the sand bed like this?

Cheers
Ray

[prodogg02]

i always use gloves to move my rock since my arm went numb one day after moving some coral but i dont know if they will help with a mantis smash though good luck hope you get the nastysucker out