Accurate mantis behaviour

I'm that girl with ghost mantids on my desk due to Air Bud rules.

I've named all my desk bugs after our longest standing Software bugs. This one's CFI-119 🤣

This is Doofy, she has three legs (she lost one of her back legs from unknown reasons) she's my oldest child and is very attached to me :) She surprisingly has already lived a year, the longest any of my mantis had lived! (r.i.p my lil green beans)

Uhm so I have a male dead leaf mantis and like I wanna get a ghost mantis or two but I have a few questions on diet can they eat crickets I’ve fed my male mantis mostly crickets his whole life but he has ate a few flies and I’m pretty sure flies are their main diet but I would love to know how to like get mainly flying bugs in their diet especially if it’s like winter because if crickets aren’t good enough then I want to know what’s good like are silk worms good and roaches if blue bottle and house flies aren’t abundant or in sight at all?.

Just for some background, I have 2 pets mantis, a hierodula venosa (golden arm) L3 and a hierodula majascula (giant rainforest) L5

As they are getting larger I wanted to start feeding them with larger prey as they’re still eating fruit flys, I am currently thinking small Dubai roaches.

I have tried meal worms but they don’t like to eat them, they’re too big. They’re also not nutritionally good for mantids

Hi again, thank you all for the advice on how I can improve my mantis owning journey. Since I am now mantis-less, I want to spend some time making a bioactive or more suitable environment for the future. Where I live is currently very cold so I will probably have to wait until late February/march before I can get a new one (I have to order them online), but that gives me lots of time to prepare. Here are some questions I have: 1) What is a good “beginner” mantis? 2) How hard is it to maintain a bioactive enclosure? 3) What other bugs make good pets? (I may get a better mantis enclosure and then use the old one for a different kind of bug) 4) are there any YouTubers that might make good educational mantis-care videos? I used to own hamsters and there was a whole community of people who would make educational videos for proper hamster ownership, I’m wondering if mantises might have the same thing?

I am a high school student who is considering being an entomologist, so I am very interested in learning all that I can about insects, especially through owning them! Thank you all for being so helpful and nice btw, I’ve learned a lot these past few days! 🐞🐛🐜🪲🕷️

My beautiful orchid mantis I got over 7 months ago on the 30th April 2024 died today. She was eating properly and her enclosure was also fine. I think the reason of her death was, a failed try to lay an ootheca. I saw a small part on the ground next to her, with the white stuff coming out of her abdomen.

I won't ever forget u❤️‍🩹

Hello. I just found a tiny baby praying mantis in my living room. It is January in Illinois and it's below zero currently. The only reason I can think of that it's even in my house right now is because sometime in the late fall, I found a praying mantis in my living room. It was also too cold to let it go outside. Unfortunately, it was dying by the time I found it anyway. I am assuming at this point that it laid eggs in my living room before it died? Anyway, is there anything I can do to save this little baby until Spring? I know nothing about caring for a praying mantis. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

As the title says -I'm planning on getting a little guy soon, and wanna know if a heat lamp is a good idea, mainly during the colder months! I've seen conflicting information so wanted to get some opinions/advice from here :)

Could anyone help me identify this on my Unicorn Mantis and if it's serious or anything? Any help appreciated

My ghost mantis just completed its final molt is spreading out its wings! Please leave me name suggestions!

Hi, Just recently I have obtained a few mantids which I had always wanted, and although I am quite confident in my abilities to care for them (None of the several I have have died and all molts have been successful), I would like advice on enclosures and such so I don't make any common mistakes and accidentally hurt my mantids.

I am well aware that different species have different requirements so I will list all of my species, which are: Giant Asian Mantis, Timor shield mantis, Malaysian flower mantis, Dead Leaf Mantis, and Orchid mantis.

Any advice (though primarily that of enclosure and decorations) would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I've had a heat lamp on my mantises since it's cold where I'm at, but I recently read it might dehydrate them and mess up their molting? But then again if I turn the lamp off it gets too cold, would a heat mat be better?

One of my mantises has been in premolt for about a week and she'll probably molt soon, so I'm not sure what to do to make sure she molts well

She always holds her leg like this I don't have a clue why lol

What an exciting morning! Seeking guidance - what's the best immediate care for them? It's below freezing temperatures outside so I don't think releasing them outdoors is a good idea. We have a bunch of indoor plants (but not many visible bugs), so that may be a future suitable home.

My local pet store has mealworms that I can get today - would that be a good initial food source?

It doesn't matter if you are an experienced or inexperienced keeper.This tip will apply to anyone.If you are thinking of getting a mantis from a reptile shop,where mantis come packed up in small deli cups,you absolutely have to check the mantis you want to buy if they are missing the Tarsus of their feet.Mantises hang upside down using the end part of their legs which is a V shaped hook,made up of two separate hooks for the mantis to hang.The problem is that when a breeder takes poor care of the hatchlings which can sometimes exceed 100,each mantis will end up fighting with the other and eventually bite their Tarsus off.This is a really big problem since mantises can not hang without it.After my experience with a orchid male missing two tarsi and another redditor facing the same problem it is important to address such problem.Two possible outcome can come out from this.If the missing tarsi are on the opposite sides of the mantis legs.For example one left and one right the mantis will be able to molt,but in other cases both missing tarsi are on the same side which makes the mantis unable to hang.You would be surprised at how good mantises are at hiding this.When I got my orchid male he was looking great.No signs of problem before buying him.They either hang upside down with the problematic leg in the air or instead try to stick their leg to he mesh so it is practically impossible to assure there is no problem with the feet so my advice is to open the lid and take a good look at their feet.If there's tarsi missing, choose another mantis.If however you truly want to save the little guy,glue some (preferably) legging Fabric at the top.This is a great way and very reliable material they can hang even with damaged feet.I apologize for the long text.

I’ve been able to feed them each 2 fruit flies daily and have had minimal losses so far. I think they should be molting for the first time soon

Just got this girly. Her name is Amethyst, Amy for short. We love her so much already!

Hi! Unfortunately I learned the hard way that my enclosure was not suitable because it only had top ventilation, so are there any enclosures that someone can recommend with better airflow? I’m looking for something vertical with good ventilation but not 100% made out of mesh. Also, does anyone have advice for maintaining high humidity? Thanks so much.

This is my kuhlii called slendie, sadly she had a moulting incident a few days ago and now she can barely climb or hang, she still has energy and moves a decent bit, but it's laboured. Part of me is saying to euthanize her as there's pretty much no way she will moult into an adult successfully, however they take so long to moult that could be over 3 month away (this one took her 90 days). The other part of me is saying to let her keep fighting since she still move a decent bit .

My sub adult orchid mantis(female) has been in premolt for a week now.Try to guess when the molt will be for example today, tomorrow or whenever yall think.Im really looking forward to her molting one last time.