Suddenly, a mantis!

[HeavyBeetle]

Found this little darling climbing on the bedroom wall last night! No idea where it came from, or how it got in the house, and there didn't seem to be any more of them. I've got it in a vertical container with sticks for it to hang upside down on now, will be looking up how to actually care for one of these guys later today. I've always wanted one, so funny that one just decided to appear! It's tiny, maybe L2? No idea actually, that's just a wild guess Anyhoo, behold, a new tiny buddy!

 

[kevink]

It'll eat small insects, fruit flies work well, and you could probably bait for them, you'll want to keep it in an airy cage, with maybe a branch.

I always gave my mantids a mist of water a few times a week, and anything they can hang on to, they'll eat. They motor around sometimes,

I caught one about that size when I spent a summer in Indiana, just on the run through the backyard.

 

[HeavyBeetle]

Thanks for the tips! I've got a fruit fly trap set up in our kitchen with an old banana in it, has been working well! Very cool to watch the mantis catch prey, they're so fast.

 

[kevink]

Good luck with it, a lot of mantid species to choose from, I've only raised our natives. If you run low on fruit flies, pet stores nowadays usually carry fruit fly

cultures, and some are flightless, as well as some of the insect selling websites like Bugs in Cyberspace, I've bought them from Carolina Biological as well,

and you can mix up your own fruit fly cultures, at some point, it'll need larger prey, just anything they can hang on to will be consumed, crickets, moths.

They can see quite a long ways too, I think the only insects mantids avoid are ants, although I've fed mine the flying termites before. They'll drink water too-

don't forget your mist bottle.

 

[HeavyBeetle]

Thanks! Great to know that pet stores often have fruit flies, I was wondering about that, and that I can order some if they don't. I mist its jar every day, seems to be doing well!

It just molted for the first time yesterday! I was shocked at how much bigger it got!

 

[kevink]

They grow right along, it's important to have a place for the mantis to hang from when molting that is free and allows the mantis to complete the molt

without touching the cage floor.