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Hi all,  I have 5 adult female mantids of different species and I always remove the ooths from their enclosures and discard, however when I went to removed my Giant Malaysian shield mantis ooth, it fell apart and exposed all these tiny black things. She and the others have laid ooths before and...

I have read so much on mantid and mantid care, however I realized this past week that I had no clue about ooths. There really isn't much mention on ooths and unmated females. My budwing laid an oooh then the next day laid another. Today my Shield mantis laid her first ooth. It dried and she was...

My first order of Blue bottle flies were huge and meaty, but the last 3 times I got them (from 2 separate sources) they were no bigger than house & stable flies! I don't believe 2 differently sources sold me the wrong flies, is this normal? 

So, I had an incident a few moments ago. I took my adult Giant Malaysian Shield mantis out like I do at least once a week since I had her as a tiny nymph. (She's the one in my photo). She's always been so calm. Tonight I had her out and when she went to step from one of my hands to another she...

The 3rd of my 5 mantids reached adulthood this morning, but I just realized that my first mantis (budwing) still hasn't reached adulthood and it's been over a month. His/her last molt was Jan 26 (approx. 6.5 weeks ago )...  Is it normal to take this long? I'm a bit worried. My creobroter was...

I've always used bottled water to spray my mantid's enclosures. This was fine when they were in cups, but since moving them to larger terrariums and now with the springtails and needing the soil to be so moist, I was wondering if bottled water is necessary. I'm not sure if tap water is safe for...

Velma Von Tussle molted early this morning. She looks quite happy about it  :lol:

So I'm mantis mom to my first adult! My Creobroter Gemmatus molted this evening and surprised me with wings! :o  She was so tiny that I didn't even realize that she was at subadult. This is only her 3rd molt with me and I swear she was the size of a large mosquito when I got her. She just had a...

When it comes to calculating the minimum enclosure size, it is based to give enough room for molting, correct? I was planning on keeping a Rainforest mantis in a 8x8x12 terrarium. Once it has substrate this will cut it down to less than 12 high. I was told I should have taller because they can...

So I've been setting up my Exo Terras with Eco Earth, and even tho I don't wish to live plant (I have a black thumb), I was still interested in adding some springtails, but I'm not 100% sure of what the steps or requirements are. If someone could help me with my million questions I'd really...

Mantisville in progress... Still in need of another larger terrarium, bottom storage, and under shelf lighting.

My subadult Malaysian shield, Femme Fatale, iis determined to roost on my head...  :lol:

I have noticed that my Shield mantis (due for molt any day) has been very thirst the past couple of days. I can give her water several times a day and she will drink and drink. Usually she'd take a drink occasionally but she seems to be very thirsty. She's very quiet as well and kind of resting...

I just noticed my shield has what looks to be wing buds, not sure. Does she look like a sub adult?  Also, when measuring the length of mantids (for proper container size), is it measured from head to anus? 

I received 3 nymphs on the Dec 10th. One molted on the 22nd, the other on the 23rd, but the third nymph (L2 or L3 blue flash) still has not molted. They spent 4 days in the mail, and I know she did not molt in transit, so the latest she could have molted would have been the morning of the 6th...

I had been buying both melanogaster and hydei.  I have notice tho that the hydei varies tho, which confuses me. The last few times that I purchased hydei they were gold color and of course bigger than the melanogaster (as in first pic), but the first time I purchased hydei they were larger...

I probably should have thought of this before getting into mantids, but can they thrive on flies, meal/max worms, and a few crickets? I have an irrational fear of roaches, so I don't know if it's something I'll be able to "keep" let alone handle - even with 10" feeding tongs!

Living in Florida, it's always humid. Even with the AC running constantly, the house is still always 50-65% humidity. I was wondering how that works for the mantis habitats before spraying. Would the cups & terrariums (when dry) be at least the same humidity as the house? Probably a dumb...

I recently purchased 7 exo terras (3 different sizes)... I moved my Malaysian Shield mantis to the small 8x8x8 since she's the largest and was outgrowing her cup. Eventually she'll move to the 12x12x18 and this will become home to my Jeweled flower mantis - but until then I was wondering if this...

Would it be possible to sex these nymphs?   AFRICAN: AFRICAN "BLUE FLASH"