# My first enclosures



## Eldur (May 27, 2009)

This is my first enclosure, I looked at the enclosure you have made here on the forum and then gave it a try.

This is a box from Mackintosh Quality Street candybox, made of plastic.

I made a big hole in the lid and on the side and put in some....mesh? can´t find the word, you can see it like a tiny fishnet to let air in and out.

I still want to make one opening near the bottom and put in some thing to climb on and then it´s redy. will post new pics when it is finished.







Then I made the other enclosure, I did the same here, some kind of mesh? in the lid and two little windows to the side to have a better view in the enlclosure. Have to finish this one aswell.






But this is a start, will add more pics when I finish these or make new enclosures


----------



## hibiscusmile (May 27, 2009)

I like them, like u said they just need a few tiny flowers to set it off! :


----------



## Katnapper (May 28, 2009)

Looking good so far, Becky! Yes, you might want to add another hole to use as a feeder port (that you can funnel feeders into, without opening the top lid). And you can use a piece of sponge or foam to block it when not feeding. I think you're doing great! ;


----------



## Eldur (May 28, 2009)

Katnapper said:


> Looking good so far, Becky! Yes, you might want to add another hole to use as a feeder port (that you can funnel feeders into, without opening the top lid). And you can use a piece of sponge or foam to block it when not feeding. I think you're doing great! ;


Thanks, do you think the hole should be big enough for me to fit my hands into it (to maby take out uneaten things etc.) or is it enough to have it just small?


----------



## Katnapper (May 28, 2009)

Sachiko said:


> Thanks, do you think the hole should be big enough for me to fit my hands into it (to maby take out uneaten things etc.) or is it enough to have it just small?


I'd make it small, like your others or maybe even a little smaller. You can use forceps to take out uneaten chunks of things, or you can just unscrew the lid and get in there to clean or whatever.


----------



## PhilinYuma (May 28, 2009)

Katnapper said:


> I'd make it small, like your others or maybe even a little smaller. You can use forceps to take out uneaten chunks of things, or you can just unscrew the lid and get in there to clean or whatever.


I wish you wouldn't do this Katt, right before I post! Here is the _real _information Becky:

I'd make it small, like your others or maybe even a little smaller. You can use forceps to take out uneaten chunks of things, or you can just unscrew the lid and get in there to clean or whatever.   

BTW, how big is your pot, in ccs or ozs?


----------



## Katnapper (May 28, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> I wish you wouldn't do this Katt, right before I post!


 :lol:


----------



## Eldur (May 28, 2009)

The measurement, I will convert it to inches

Bigger 29cm x 13cm x 12cm =

or in iches 10.6 x 5.1 x 4.7 =

Smaller 27cm x 10cm x 11cm =

or in inches 10.6 x 3.9 x 4.3 =

How do you calculate this, just multiply all the numbers together or? :huh:


----------



## PhilinYuma (May 28, 2009)

Sachiko said:


> The measurement, I will convert it to inchesBigger 29cm x 13cm x 12cm =
> 
> or in iches 10.6 x 5.1 x 4.7 =
> 
> ...


Yes, and how nice of you to give both measurements! I find it much easier to convert lengths to volume using the decimal system

To save you the time, I did the calculations: Bigger = 4.524L ~1.2 Gal.

Smaller = 3.44L ~3.6 quarts

That's comfortably larger than the 320z (~1L) pots that many of us use.

Just to save anyone the trouble of mentioning it, you accidentally used the 27 cm conversion (10.6") on the larger, 29cm (11.4") pot, but I used the metric values for the calculation, so no prob.

Thanx for the information!


----------



## Eldur (May 28, 2009)

Oops, see it now haha 27 and 29 cm are of course not the same length :lol: 

Thank you for calculating it, I always use totally different measurements so I have no idea what gallon or oz are big :lol: but good to hear that it is a good size, nice to see how many liters it is, now I can imagen how big your 320oz pots are  

Will finish the encloseures this weekend, can´t wait to put them in there. Then I just have to make 2 more so all 4 can have a confortable place to stay in  

For now they are living in big jars. When they move then I can maby just let the flies in the hole in the bottom instaid of having to put the flies in the freezer, have killed two flies that way now but I got them to eat them anyway


----------



## Eldur (May 30, 2009)

They are redy!!  






First one, put in a little leaf I had from a silk flower, silk flowers are the only fake flowers I have found and they are expensive so I only took two little leafs from my silk flowers that I have in my livingroom to get a little color in the enclosure.






Second one






Both together seen from the back

I put some soil in the bottom just to see how it works, only thing I had besides a tissue...which is a bit ugly/doesn´t fit in. The soil is organic and native, we don´t have so many bugs here so I did´t microwave it, will just have my eye on it.

I put nr.4 in the big one, and Crazyleg (nr.3) in the small one.

I just saw on the forum the other day that someone else here had a mantis called crazylegs, I didn´t know anyone had already used that name, I named mine that because she/he is a bit crazy, always jumping around and jumping on people, got the name from the movie: Don´t be a menace....(forgot the rest of the name, it´s very long, we just call the movie that for short).

What do you think, ok?

And if you want to know, this is a box from a candy named Mackintosh Quality Street, I just can´t find a picture of the box that I have but here is one of other packaging of the candy.


----------



## Eldur (May 30, 2009)

Double posted


----------



## jameslongo (May 30, 2009)

I think you've got it! Are you going to sell them? I'll take 10 :lol:


----------



## Katnapper (May 30, 2009)

They look great, Becky!  You did well.  

The only thing I'm wondering about is the dirt. I'm not sure you'll like it, as it tends to get messy when you mist and then tip the jars to feed. Plus there's the issue that you've already thought about... native organisms in the soil that may or may not be there or cause problems.

You can try it of course, especially since you already have it in there! But in future if you do want to use paper towel (kitchen roll) instead... you can set the jar on a piece, trace around the bottom, then cut it out (keeping in mind you'll likely want to cut just inside the lines to make it fit well. You pop one of those in, give it a spray with the water bottle, and pat it down with your fingers or a chopstick to make it stay there nice (will dry that way, kind of molded to the bottom of the jar)... and you're good to go! I make a bunch of paper towel "inserts" or cage liners when I make them. That way I have a little stack ready to go when I need them, and don't have to fuss with outlining and cutting all of the time.


----------



## Eldur (May 30, 2009)

haha thanks Jameslongo

Thank you for your advice Katnapper  yes I was thinking about putting in a paper towel but I like to color of the soil so I just wanted to try, like to have it more natural. I will probably take it away if it bothers me. Not so much afraid of the micro organismis because we have rather few insects here I think so I doubt many things will come alive there, but if there is something I will change the soil for paper towel. I have already misted the enclosure and the soil was fine, wasn´t messy, mostly because I pressed it in the bottom. I tilted it to the side to make the mantis go in and the soil didn´t go anywhere. We will just see how this goes  

Am also thinkin about releasing the flies in the cage standing like it is, not put it on the side (not putting the flies in the freezer), because I have very nice little cups to keep the flies in and I can just put it against the side and release the fly that way.

But good advice about the paper towel to cut it to fit exactly and make many, will probably do that when/(if) I use paper towels.


----------



## hibiscusmile (May 31, 2009)

I would go outside and get some dried grass and cut with kitchen shears or fresh grass and make it 1" long and put it in bottom, will smell nicer than dirt and will still clean up easy.


----------



## jameslongo (Jun 1, 2009)

Sachiko said:


> haha thanks JameslongoThank you for your advice Katnapper  yes I was thinking about putting in a paper towel but I like to color of the soil so I just wanted to try, like to have it more natural. I will probably take it away if it bothers me. Not so much afraid of the micro organismis because we have rather few insects here I think so I doubt many things will come alive there, but if there is something I will change the soil for paper towel. I have already misted the enclosure and the soil was fine, wasn´t messy, mostly because I pressed it in the bottom. I tilted it to the side to make the mantis go in and the soil didn´t go anywhere. We will just see how this goes
> 
> Am also thinkin about releasing the flies in the cage standing like it is, not put it on the side (not putting the flies in the freezer), because I have very nice little cups to keep the flies in and I can just put it against the side and release the fly that way.
> 
> But good advice about the paper towel to cut it to fit exactly and make many, will probably do that when/(if) I use paper towels.


Thankyou! And it's just James


----------



## MingMing (Jun 1, 2009)

well done


----------



## Eldur (Jun 1, 2009)

Thank you for being so nice  

I have some foundings on the enclosure matter  

One, the lid on these containers is rather...what do you say...big?..they go so far town that you can´t see the mantis through the side when it is in the lid, you have to look on top and through the lid to see the mantis, so the enclosure looks emty :lol: BUT

I have found out that enclosure one may be better than the second one...maby...I have a large window with mesh to cover it, the mantis in there seems to like it and hangs out there alot  So I can see him/her all the time. I think it may be because the fly he got yesterday seemed to be in that area, will see better in the next feedings.

Will have to think about this regarding my next enclosure, I liked more enclosure 2 with two mini windows because I had more view from both sides through a clear plastic but now I am not sure.

Enclosure one: http://mantidforum.net/forums/uploads/1243...959_83_4250.jpg


----------



## PhilinYuma (Jun 2, 2009)

How many kilos of candy do those jars contain, Sachiko? Do you have to eat all the candy before you can get a new mantis? Let me see, if you get ten mantids....


----------



## Eldur (Jun 2, 2009)

Haha...the smaller one contained 900grams of candy and the bigger one more (didn´t check). This is just since christmas from me and my siblings.  

But when I see theses boxes back in stores (is often only available at christmas) I was thinking about buying them and eating all the candy just to have another mantis enclosure :lol:


----------



## jacksun (Jun 2, 2009)

Sachiko said:


> Thank you for being so nice  I have some foundings on the enclosure matter
> 
> One, the lid on these containers is rather...what do you say...big?..they go so far town that you can´t see the mantis through the side when it is in the lid, you have to look on top and through the lid to see the mantis, so the enclosure looks emty :lol: BUT
> 
> ...


Sachiko, on the lid issue you brought up, could you not just place a fine mesh cloth over the mouth of the jar and secure it with an elastic? That would allow you some better viewing and give your Mantis a surface to hang on.

I know Iceland has few native insect species, but soil is created and is fertile because of microbes and minute insects and other inverts in the soil that live in and off of it. You have it in their so give it a try but when you change your substrate, if you choose to go with soil again I would microwave it to be safe.

The enclosures look really nice, great job!!!!

Wayne


----------



## kmsgameboy (Jul 11, 2009)

Looks great. I wish I was that crafty. I am great at art but ask me to build something and it will end up in the trash.


----------

