Bagworms (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) are one of the dominant defoliator pests in oil palm plantations. They have also been reported as pests on other crops and on ornamental trees. A generalist predatory bug, Sycanus dichotomus Stal. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), is one of the alternative means to manage the pest naturally. In this study, the suitability of different types of prey as food sources for S. dichotomus was evaluated based on the predator’s development duration. The cost involved in the simple rearing system of the predator under laboratory conditions was also calculated. Different food sources exhibited different degrees of suitability, for example, Corcyra cephalonica larvae significantly (P<0.01) shortened the developmental time of the predator’s various life stages compared with two other treatments (Tenebrio molitor larvae and a combination of C. cephalonica and T. molitor larvae) by 17.5% and 6.9%, respectively. C. cephalonica larvae alone represented a more suitable food source for the development of the first and second instar nymphs. However, the combination of both larvae recorded the shortest instar nymph’s developmental time (95 days) and improved the adult’s longevity (up to 69 days). The ratio of male to female adult predators was higher when fed with T. molitor larvae and with the combination of both larvae. The cost for mass rearing was approximately RM0.15 per individual predator, using laboratoryreared prey as food sources. The results show that this simple rearing system of S. dichotomus is easy to handle, and is cost-efficient. This will encourage the mass production of the predator for field release purposes to be established in the laboratory.