What do you do with your mantids during vacations?

What the title says.

I'm going on a vacation soon and right now I'm thinking I'll bring them with since I don't have many, and it's a roadtrip.

We left the house for a couple days a while back. I put my cups in a fish tank with a clean wet towel. Gave everyone water to drink, and away we went. 

Longer than that, and i'd have to ask a friend to come tend.

For three or four-day weekends, we feed and hydrate them well, leave a little food in their containers, and make sure they have moist substrate/proper humidity (especially if we’re expecting molts or ooths). Anytime  longer, we leave them with a friend.

The biggest challenge we had was last December, when we went on a two-week vacation. We had 9 Carolina ooths inside an 8x12 Exxo Terra that were due to hatch in the Jan-Feb timeframe, and as far as I knew, they needed to have the proper amount of humidity as not to dry out. The subtrate could only keep moist for a day or two before humidity levels dropped low. So I made a small drip humidifier tailored to my container and tweaked it intil I consistently maintained the right humidity.

well, we either got lucky, or it worked (or it didn’t matter) because by mid-Jan, we started seeing our little nymphs come out

@Sean_N that's cool! 

For a few days, they are ok to be left alone, but I have a friend who can come to the house and check on them and such daily for longer vacations. All of my mantids come camping with me all summer long.

- MantisGirl13

I get a mantids sitter. A few days its ok.

Last summer I had only 2 mantids. I took them with me on vacation. But now I have more mantids that doesn't fit in a caravan, I need to find someone who wants to care for them. I know someone who would like to do it. We take care of their animals too when they are on vacation.

Maybe I will take a few with me. 2 weeks whitout mantids, nah

For those of you who have taken mantids with you, do you just leave them in their normal enclosures? I'm going to be leaving in a couple days and I want to be sure I'm doing everything well.

MintyWood826 said:

For those of you who have taken mantids with you, do you just leave them in their normal enclosures? I'm going to be leaving in a couple days and I want to be sure I'm doing everything well.

Click to expand...

It depends on what enclosures I have them in. I'm not gonna bring a 10 gal tank with me, but a net cage or smaller plastic enclosures are easy to pack and bring along.

- MantisGirl13

MintyWood826 said:

For those of you who have taken mantids with you, do you just leave them in their normal enclosures? I'm going to be leaving in a couple days and I want to be sure I'm doing everything well.

Click to expand...

Mine are in plastic boxes turned into mantis homes. They stay in there if I take them with me. Their homes i put in a crate that is open at the top for journey.Filling it up with socks, sjawls and other small stuff againts moving in the crate.  Leave only a towel on top. Later they will be put on the table so I can see them and take care of them. Feeder insects I take with me too. But everything that I catch alive in the caravan I feed to my mantids too

I just realized that I don't know of they spray/have sprayed for pests at the place we are staying at. I don't want to leave the nymphs alone though, so I'm stuck in indecision.

MintyWood826 said:

I just realized that I don't know of they spray/have sprayed for pests at the place we are staying at. I don't want to leave the nymphs alone though, so I'm stuck in indecision.

Click to expand...

Are you staying outdoors or indoors? (Camping or hotel?)

- MantisGirl13

I cant imagine tenting with mantises.

MantisGirl13 said:

Are you staying outdoors or indoors? (Camping or hotel?)

- MantisGirl13

Click to expand...

It's a cabin we are renting. I don't know if they would spray cabins so I'm probably being paranoid. At this point, I'm bringing them with pretty much for sure. I hope none of them decide to molt while we're driving.

If they are in their enclosures, I don't see what the fear is.

✌

MintyWood826 said:

It's a cabin we are renting. I don't know if they would spray cabins so I'm probably being paranoid. At this point, I'm bringing them with pretty much for sure. I hope none of them decide to molt while we're driving.

Click to expand...

My mantids were fine after the drive and the way back too.

I think they'll probably be perfectly fine. If you are worried about pesticides, just don't feed wild insects to your mantids.

- MantisGirl13

One of them molted before we drove and another the day after, so they had good timing not to do it during the drive back. 

Great! Congratulations on the molts!

- MantisGirl13