Praying Mantis 101

Would you be so kind in enlightening us with your knowledge of this feeder or pet?
such important info like:

1. type of enclosure, size, material
2. its food/ gutload (if possible)
3. Typical size or age that is safe to feed to your chameleon (if you decide to
raise them as feeder)
4. Temp and humidity required for them to thrive.
5. its cycle and the interesting facts and so on.
6. how to care for them

---------------------------------------------------------------thank you very much-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the knowledge that I got from raising my Budwing mantids. From my understanding, they are a great starter mantid because it is hard to kill them.

1) Enclosure should Be 3 Times as tall as the Mantid in order to give it enough room to shed. It is Best to get an enclosure with a snap on lid. This is because Mantids Often Hang onto the top of the cage. A slip on lid might allow it to escape. Add Vertical sticks for them to hang on. Add moss on floor to hold moisture. Change moss every 6 months.
2) The Food should be any non toxic bug that moves fast. I feed Flies and Crickets. Feeder should Be Smaller than the length of the mantid. Gut load with Romaine Lettuce. Never use carrots to gutload because they are toxic to the mantid.
3)Feed mantid to Chameleon when mantid are Juveniles. There might be a risk to feeding them as adults.
4) Temp Depends on the breed of the Mantid. BudWing Mantids can live at room temp and a spray down every 2 days.
5) I don't know much about the life cycle except that they live for about a year.
6)Don't house them together or they will eat each other. Females are bigger than males. Males have 5 abdomen segments. Females have 6-7 abdomen segments. To breed them you should feed both until they won't eat anymore. Then throw the male into the female cage and watch carefully. They will get it on without fighting. But right after the male gives her the business, the female will kill him. If you are quick, you can rescue the male right when they seperate. The female will later create an ooth that will hatch out a bunch of mantids.

How long before the ooth hatches?

It depends on the species and temps.
I keep viable ooths in dispause in the fridge with a moist paper towel crumpled up in the jar to maintain some humidity.
Once one is pulled and placed under a heat lamp it will usually hatch in about 3 to 4 weeks. (Talking about chinese and euros here.)
I never refrigerated Ghost ooths and they tended to incubate quite a bit longer ... maybe 6 to 8 weeks or longer. Daily misting is necessary with the ootheca and around 85 degree temperature.
Low humidity reduces the success of the hatching and lower temps lengthen the incubation time.

-Brad

Hope I'm not hijacking this thread, if so, let me know and I'll start another. Brad, the one's I've saved are outside on some vines that were laid about two months ago. I saw one of them being laid so I know at least one should be good. Temps here have been fluctuating between 30's and 70's. Are they still viable? If I bring them in and put them in something protected inside my one of my chams cages, will they hatch? These are the ones from the common, big green, non flying, big butted ones. BTW, do you know what the name of these are? Remember Brad, I know KNOWTHING about mantids except what I've read here recently and when I used to keep them as a kid in my window. Thanks. David

They are probably chinese or European.
Google those and also carolina praying mantis to try and find a picture.
I wouldn't hatch them in my chameleon's enclosure though.
They will hatch at room temperature, but it will take a bit longer.
Keep them on the branch they are attached to and use a big pickle jar or rubbermaid container to house them.
Unless you want them to eat each other you're going to need to start some fruit fly cultures. The babies should be separated out or released at about 10 days old.
I have kept them in groups of 2 or three for a few weeks ... if you use decent sized containers and keep them well fed this can work for awhile, but eventually any you keep will have to be housed individually.

-Brad

Brad Ramsey said:

They are probably chinese or European.


-Brad

Click to expand...

Is this possible? These are the same type I've seen here and in Arkansas for the last 35 years. I'll google and try to find them. Thanks for the input. David

Just a warning for those of you who have not hatched an ootheca ....
When you go to separate the babies, just know that they will swarm to the top of the enclosure when you open it and before you know it there are little mantids EVERYWHERE! (2 to 3 hundred with chinese or Euros!!)
I like to do this in the garden so that the ones I lose are in a good place.
One of the reasons I only hatch them in the spring.
You could do it in the bathtub I guess .... but they can climb anything so it will only keep them contained for a few seconds.
I have had stray mantids all over my house from trying to do this indoors ... not really a big deal, but I thought you all should know!

-Brad

dectr6 said:

Is this possible? These are the same type I've seen here and in Arkansas for the last 35 years. I'll google and try to find them. Thanks for the input. David

Click to expand...

European Mantids were introduced to North America accidentally in the late 1800's. They arrived on flats of plants from a European nursery and have done quite well here.
Chinese Mantids were introduced on purpose as a form of natural pest control and are still regarded as a beneficial non-native species.

-Brad

Well, you are correct again. I googled them and the ones around here appear to be the European variety. Had no idea these were an introduced species. The brown flying ones I see in the spring appear to be the male carolina. Thanks for the info. David

cool..
where do you buy the hatchlings?
I can't handle 4000 at once. thus, i can't buy the ootheca.
I have no backyard at my place so i can't release them.

can i keep them in cricketkeepers?

They dont hatch 4000 chinese can hatch from 50-400 i can sell you one(ooth) or nymphs but i have no experience in sending nymphs but pm me and i can figure something out

ok hahaha/400 nymphs also kind of overwhelming.

most will cannibalise each other unless fed alot so dont feed alot and you will soon have about 20-50 or feed nymphs to chameleon mine love them. PM me

It would be nice to buy one of these on Ebay, but they sale them anywhere from 4-6 sacks and with 50-200 in each sack, holy cow that's a lot of Chinese Praying Mantis running around. Especially when I only want to feed one to my Chameleon every once in a while. lol Do any of the U.S. sites sale these in the spring in like a variety of 15-20 or something?

Mantisplace.com sells the ooths for about four dollars each. I just recieved mine about a week ago. Very nice lady also, very helpfull and will answer your emails usually within minutes, even on weekends. Name is rebecca. I'm just releasing mine in the gardens and out lots. Good luck. David

Call your local plant shop... Plant world, star... something like that... All of the ones here in Vegas now have lots of manti and ladybugs! 6 bucks for 3 ooth.

Cool, thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it. Just ordered a sack from Matisplace.com. This should be an interesting experience, but I want to be able to offer my Chameleon a wide arrange of feeders for him.

Mantis care sheet and good info

http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/bugclub/mantids.html

Mantids are my favorite insects. I was a poor kid and would keep them for pets. In Indiana they would live well into the cold months when kept indoors.

I'm pretty sure that baby mantises need to eat aphids or ants. I don't see how this could be easy to do in captivity.

Mantids are super cannibalistic and will eat each other if housed together. The female usually eats the male after breeding.

They are awesome predators and will eat about anything that won't eat them. When I was in Japan in the Marines we kept a mantis as a shop pet. He was huge, and nobody could find another insect or spider that was a match for him.

We put a GIANT banana spider in with him one day expecting to see a good fight. It was not even a challenge for the mantis.