CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Who knows what flies eat? I only saw them landing on food but I didn't see them eating.

Who knows what flies eat? I only saw them landing on food but I didn't see them eating.

That's probably because it's not hungry. Flies have licking-sucking mouthparts, so they will eat anything that is paste-like. However, flies prefer smelly things, such as rotten meat, so if you want to raise them, you can give them some leftovers or some rotten fruits.

What do praying mantises eat?

In nature, they can eat as many as forty or fifty kinds of food, such as flies, mosquitoes, locusts, moths, butterflies, cicadas, crickets, pythons, ants, cutworms, spiders and the pupae and eggs of these small insects. They especially like to eat aphids, centipedes, cabbage moths, earthworms, mealworms, mealworms, etc. on crops in the fields.

Mantises are not vegetarians, they only eat meat, and they are not picky about meat. In nature, they can eat as many as 40 or 50 kinds of food, such as flies, mosquitoes, locusts, moths, butterflies, cicadas, crickets, pythons, ants, cutworms, spiders, and the pupae and eggs of these small insects. They love to eat aphids, centipedes, cabbage moths, earthworms, mealworms, and so on on crops in the fields. They are merciless and often go to the woods to eliminate these pests. I have seen mantises eating flies. The flies they feed them must be alive. They will not eat dead flies. They will attack and kill the flies in an instant, and then eat them from scratch. They chew very quickly.

For mantises, anything they can catch will be eaten. Someone has photographed a mantis catching a hummingbird and then eating it. In nature, some mantises also catch lizards, frogs, mice and other small animals that are slightly larger than them. You can imagine how brutal and aggressive mantises are. This is all due to their ability to pretend to be in movements and shapes similar to the environment, making it impossible for the opponent to detect them, so they can attack quickly and grab their prey using their large forelimbs with barbs.

What is most surprising is that mantises also prey on their own kind and even their spouses. After mating with male mantises, female mantises will eat the male mantises that came to mate. So if you want to raise mantises, you need to pay attention to these issues, feed the female mantises enough food during mating, and separate the male mantises in time after mating.