I hate to ask--Praying Mantis?

[sdheli420]

The one thing I will NEVER feed my cham is a mantis. I had one as a pet when I was in middle school, coolest creature! Fun fact, did you know a preying mantis is the only bug that recognizes humans and different people??

the only reason why i dont breed them to feed off..they are my absolute FAVORITE insect..they really are a chill bug and get used to seeing you..

i currently only have a "violin mantid"..but no way could i feed her off, shes too unique!!

but on the other hand, they are excellent feeders, they take quite awhile to grow to size and eat arounf 400 times their body weight in a few days..if you hatch them they are basically a double size pinhead cricket, and will take around 4 months to reach a "good size" for feeding..

 

[VeiledChams]

the only reason why i dont breed them to feed off..they are my absolute FAVORITE insect..they really are a chill bug and get used to seeing you..

i currently only have a "violin mantid"..but no way could i feed her off, shes too unique!!

but on the other hand, they are excellent feeders, they take quite awhile to grow to size and eat arounf 400 times their body weight in a few days..if you hatch them they are basically a double size pinhead cricket, and will take around 4 months to reach a "good size" for feeding..

But they are awesome for feeding tons of babies

 

[Citizen Snips]

My panther appreciated the 50 chinese mantis that paid a visit.

 

[sdheli420]

But they are awesome for feeding tons of babies

ya truthfully i only like them when they are large so feeding off babies (sounds soo evil..lol) is no biggie..its just when they are big and you can see the 3-d pupils..just sooo cool, but they are waaaay easier than pin head crix, or fruit flies..also they usually hatch in like a week or two when you buy an ooth..

 

[VeiledChams]

ya truthfully i only like them when they are large so feeding off babies (sounds soo evil..lol) is no biggie..its just when they are big and you can see the 3-d pupils..just sooo cool, but they are waaaay easier than pin head crix, or fruit flies..also they usually hatch in like a week or two when you buy an ooth..

but the ooth itself takes about a month or so to hatch right?

 

[sdheli420]

but the ooth itself takes about a month or so to hatch right?

like right around three to six weeks right after beeing layed, but all depends on temps and humidity..i keep mine at 85 with 75 humidity (well give or take a lil on both) but ive had a carolina mantid ooth, from a female i had, that she laid, only take two weeks from actual lay..this was when i also lived in north carolina and its hot as hell and humid as hell!!

 

[VeiledChams]

I wanna catch some chinese mantids here in south florida.. that's also a suggestion for the OP, try to catch wild ones.

Any idea on how, though?

 

[icegecko]

I know this is about feeding off mantids (which I will never do), but here's a few pics of Amaya, My Java Shielded Mantis

 

[sdheli420]

I wanna catch some chinese mantids here in south florida.. that's also a suggestion for the OP, try to catch wild ones.

Any idea on how, though?

well when i was 15..wow 15 years ago..haha..i would find them by one or all three of three different methods..

first: i use a long stick , go to smaller shrubs, like long grass shrubs about three to four feet, and slowly swipe the stick back and fourth (like you would on a dark trail to eliminate spider webs, lol) and most of the time they will jump out and land on your shirt..

second: look around for the left over moltings..if you can find a "spot" where you see quite a few of them, you are close!!

third:walk up to any large bush or small tree and shake the sh** out of it! lol like you would do to your wife for buying another car on your credit card, LOL..and usually it will rain mantids..at least it did for me in nc..maybe i was just super lucky and found a mantid "spot" in "cary n.c."

 

[laurie]

Now I want that one too!
I have no clue where to get these types, but if I ever figure it out, I will so be doing it!

Give the mantis forum a try.

 

[VeiledChams]

well when i was 15..wow 15 years ago..haha..i would find them by one or all three of three different methods..

first: i use a long stick , go to smaller shrubs, like long grass shrubs about three to four feet, and slowly swipe the stick back and fourth (like you would on a dark trail to eliminate spider webs, lol) and most of the time they will jump out and land on your shirt..

second: look around for the left over moltings..if you can find a "spot" where you see quite a few of them, you are close!!

third:walk up to any large bush or small tree and shake the sh** out of it! lol like you would do to your wife for buying another car on your credit card, LOL..and usually it will rain mantids..at least it did for me in nc..maybe i was just super lucky and found a mantid "spot" in "cary n.c."

hahaha, I'll give these methods a try around here. They like more secluded areas, right? where not much human commotion goes on.

 

[camimom]

Give the mantis forum a try.

Hehe there is actually a post in this thread that has the site where you can buy them.
Is there really a mantis forum?
wow they make forums for everything these days!

 

[icegecko]

I got my Shielded at mantispets.weebly.com - much cheaper and better customer service than Mantisplace. Carey is really informative!

 

[Ozzie2011]

Could whoever emailed me on here about selling some Praying Mantis to me Please send me another message as I had so much going on at the time that I deleted my emails because I couldn't get anymore and I forgot your user name Thanks

 

[clarkrw3]

Not a huge fan of Mantisplace. I ordered a bunch of supplies from them along with a couple of FF cultures and worms and they all came DOA and the box smelled so bad that it stunk up my whole office. When I called them I got a call back saying don't throw them away they will start producing. I can tell you these were DOA and I could not possibly leave them inside anywhere and in AZ they aren't staying outside that is for sure. Glad I didn't spend the money to get any expensive Mantis from them.

 

[BocaJan]

If your cham is small, you can hatch them out. My baby deremantis and my pygmies love them, but they would be way too small for my veileds. They like big food.

I buy mine on eBay. 10.95 for 3 and I usually end up with 4 in the box. They hatch out several hundred. They come out a hole in the pod so it's not like an explosion all at once. They are fun to watch, but they are small.

 

[icegecko]

Clarkrw3: I got a bad feeling from that place, glad I didn't get anything from them. Sucks that you got everything DOA.

 

[xanthoman]

freshly hatched mantis are pretty small for even an adolescent cham, there is not much to them. it would be like using anorexic mosquitos as feeders.
why not just raise blue or green bottle flies? they are super easy to raise and you can have 1st generation flies in about a week. they are probably one of the all time cham favorites, which makes them an excellent strike breaker.

how long mantis take to hatch depends on species/ooth temps/ storage etc. i get my chinese from the local garden store for $5 ooth. they just leave them out in there shop and whatever ones dont get sold in time just hatch out into the shop. i have actually had them hatch out in the car on the way home from the garden store lol.

cf member colorcham427 sometimes has mantis for sale.
anyone seeking mantids of any kind are strongly recomended to try the classifieds of
http://mantidforum.net/forums/
you can usually find anything mantid there, even rare ones if you are not in a hurry. you could place a wanted there or just subscribe to the classified thread tag you are interested in and you will recieve an email when somebody posts what you are looking for.

there are some truly smokin deals there. most mantids can be found for a fraction of commercial mantid places. winter before last , i got 7 orchids for $40 shipped, from a lady username katnapper, (i dont think she is doing it anymore) thats like $300+ elsewhere.

mantis are truly great pets, the only problem with mantis is that by the time you get super attached, they die, so if you dont get an ooth to show for it, it can be a real bring down. i never did get an ooth from my orchids, and it was a real heartbreak when they all eventually died 1x1. i probably wont do orchids again unless i can get really serious.
orchids are truly beautiful, like a ep said, "the pink aliens"

youtube has a lot of really great mantis videos, a couple of my favorite examples of just how beautiful hymenopus coronatus can be;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL7BTkh3gHU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL7BTkh3gHU&feature=fvst

 

[xanthoman]

if you really want one

You know, I thought the regular green ones were cool. Now you tell me orchid mantis and here I've found one. Now I want one!!

I wonder where I could find one?? LOL

Pink alien mantis!

not sure if these links are allowed but the mods are welcome to take out if they want

if they are still available, brian a. (colorcham427) has a recent ad for some in the cf misc classifieds;
https://www.chameleonforums.com/orchid-praying-mantis-64160/


most mantis dont need a fancy setup, but if $ isnt an issue (they are only $30 anyway) exo terra has recently released a nano wide terrarium 8"x8"x8" which would be the perfect size to raise a pair of orchids in (with a divider of course, and you would need to keep the female side warmer than the male side)
http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/natural_terrarium_nano.php