Recent content by Thrillhouse

Mantis mouths aren't like the mouths of mammals. They don't have teeth or fangs for biting. Instead, they have a little trash compactor mouth and delicate little mandibles to help the food into it. You're too big, too large a surface, and can move away too easily for them to actually bite into...

When my mantis die, or dying, I put them in a little box and put it in the freezer. You can take them out any time and let it sit for a few minutes, and they'll be hydrated enough to pin and mount properly.  I've never worried about the abdomen. But I think it probably is a good idea to clean...

Here's the video for anyone interested.

I think people get into the hobby initially because of their memories of how cool praying mantis are, but get really involved when they discover the range of really cool exotics available. If you were to show some of the more exotic species people weren't as familiar about, which ones would you...

Let me know what you guys think, and how you feel about the way I keep my mantis. I've only been doing it for a year or so, so I'm sure there's still a whole lot I don't know.

I actually think keeping up with more than a couple is a little exhausting, because I'm always checking where they are in the habitat, humidity, how big their abdomen is to know if they need more or less food, cleaning out the cages, etc. It gets much more difficult when they're different...

If they don't eat for a day or two, they're probably going to molt, so that's the time to just leave them alone outside of misting the habitat as long as it doesn't disturb them. Mine usually molt when I'm asleep or at work, so I've never actually witnessed it.

I don't think so right now. I'll have to just keep watch and check in the morning.

Well, I'm not sure what to do now. I got home after work expecting it to be dead, but it was still kicking. It's missing one left back leg, and the foot of the other back leg. It's head was still attached to its raptors, and after I cut the molted chitin and separated its head from its raptors...

There might be a resource here already, but we need something easily available for how to deal with bad molts. People ask about it all the time, but I never had to personally deal with one, until this morning. One of my orchids chose a pretty poor spot to molt over the night, and I came down to...

If you don't let it drop below that you'll be fine. Ghosts are popular because they're hardy, and a species that's fine at cooler room temperatures. I've got a basic table lamp with a moon bulb. I suggest getting a lamp, and putting an Exo Terra Night Heat Bulb Reptile Lamp with a 50 watt bulb...

I ordered orchids from him, and was able to get them shipped well packaged and healthy. While he'll answer emails, he's not super communicative and can take a while. That makes some people a little nervous, but like everything in this kind of trade, it's all on the honor system and you just...

I got confirmation that my order is on its way this morning.

When I first got into mantids as pets I didn't think very much about pinning them. Then, after they passed away I started looking into it and was kinda shocked that there were so many tutorials on pinning online, but almost nothing on pinning praying mantis. The biggest lesson I learned was that...

I'm also waiting on USMantis. It's only been a week, so I'm okay with waiting. I'm more concerned they're backed up with orders because of the weather.