# small fabric sided cage for baby gambians



## nympho (Oct 28, 2007)

thought i'd post some pics of the small fabric cage i made for some baby 'gambian' mantids. it was a bugger to make but the mantids seem much happier than in the crappy plastic sweet jar they were in before. even the fruit flies seem happy -for a while anyway  looks really good back lit [sort of glows inside and viwing is really clear]. dunno why i never made one before. cheap too  i just bought a frameless picture frame glass for £2 and some aluminium section and wood for the frame which cost about £5. i used an old shirt for the fabric in the end after looking for proper stuff- much the same as that cheese cloth material which you cant get anyway. it was much harder to fit the fabric in than i expected - dont try this at home folks lol -depends if youve got a spare 6 hours :blink: .

i now have about 16 gambian mantids in there. they seem very canabalistic as at least two were eaten today as i was too busy building the damn cage to feed them.


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## asdsdf (Oct 28, 2007)

Wow, very nice. You even made diagrams for it... :blink:


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## Andrew (Oct 28, 2007)

Wow, very nice! I recently moved my gambians(around 30-40 L1/L2) into a large net cage as well. I, however, am lazy and so I used the cyllindrical net cage that came with the butterfly pavillion kit I got from insectlore.

Hmm...looks like they sell pavillions by themselves now!

http://insectlore.stores.yahoo.net/butpavhabon.html

I'd really reccommend this one for the lazy people.


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## asdsdf (Oct 28, 2007)

I have one too from insectlore, but isn't the top too slippery for molting? :blink:


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## Andrew (Oct 28, 2007)

Nope, but they don't spend much time on the top anyways. I raised more than 40 unicorns to L4 in it with no problems. I also had some fake plants in it though.


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## asdsdf (Oct 28, 2007)

Oh, that makes everything different.  

Hmmm....I was thinking of maybe creating one, and adding specail features like real metal mesh and a light on top, but it would take too long to make a few....Rather get them at the pet store....


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## OGIGA (Oct 29, 2007)

Wow, nice! I'd like to make one some day too!


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## hibiscusmile (Oct 29, 2007)

Yea, that is cool, you did good!


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## Malnra (Oct 29, 2007)

Very cool on the cage Hibiscu .... and very nice of you to post the diagrams for those wanting to make one also. cudos to you for sharing.

I am also lazy and appreciate the hint on the butterfly one. In a couple months I will likely have to either rebuy mantis, or breed mine so things like this get filed into the (hope to) remember section of my brain.


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## nympho (Nov 4, 2007)

I'm going to start on a bigger version today, to fit inside a medium sized glass vivarium for heat/humidity retention - ( i live in uk where its COLD). hope to get a colony of those rose mantids or other non aggressive mantids if i can find anyone selling any but theyre pretty rare unfortunately. I luckily found an large piece of thick wood board which i can use as a base, and am looking around for a suitably sized bit of glass for the front. the other parts cost very little which is important as im cheap lol. i was at the tip or recycling center as it s now called the other day and this bloke obviously hadnt heard as he was just about to dump a perfectly nice glass vivarium into the skip for non recyclable junk. he was just casually chucking it away with a load of horrible plastic toys which had been bought and discarded after a few weeks when his brats were finished with them (like the earth isnt a closed system and this ###### just doesnt disappear!) he didnt even bother taking the metal lid out to put in the metals bin. did the guy not realise he could raise some mantids or something in it ! weird lol. anyway, free cage! i have another use for the tank for the time being - ordered some atlas moth caterpillars which need warmth and humidity, so it looks like i will need a heat mat from somewhere - damn ill have to spend some money lol. half the fun of this hobby is making stuff like cages (preferably as cheapy as possible) and looking at other peoples set ups, i will post a pic when its finished


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## Precious (Nov 4, 2007)

asdsdf said:


> I have one too from insectlore, but isn't the top too slippery for molting? :blink:


I use tents for nymphs, too. Mine molted hanging from the sides of the tent. I only use them for Chinese, though. It's the bazilllion bug cage.

This cage is grand. Sure beats the giant jar and coffee filter lid that I used for my Gambians!


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