# non enclosure mantis



## okstrat (Apr 1, 2010)

Would it be crazy to pick a decent sized plant and let a Mantis loose on it in my house? Would they stick around if well fed? I'm considering this in my music studio - none of my cats or dog is allowed in there, it's bright (two skylights) and very warm (converted attic). I know an enclosure is the standard, but has anyone had any luck doing this? Or is this one of those newbie idiot ideas?


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## massaman (Apr 1, 2010)

If you can be certain the mantis will not find a way to escape the room maybe it can work but have to make sure there is noting in the room that would harm or kill the mantis but kind of hard to keep a food supply for it in a open room if it is eating crickets or large food items!


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## ismart (Apr 1, 2010)

If you plan on starting off with a small nymph this would be a bad idear. You could easily lose it. It would also be much harder to feed. If your going to do it anyway, you should go with a mantis species that grows big. A chinese or giant asian mantis would be a good choice for this. Even if these guys leave the plant they would be much easier to find. Even with these larger species i would not let them free roam until like L5 or bigger. Also at any stage they will most likly end up near or on your sky lights at some point. I myself currently have an adult female Rhombodera sp. living in a house plant for last two weeks now. To my own surprise she has not moved yet!


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## okstrat (Apr 1, 2010)

ismart said:


> If you plan on starting off with a small nymph this would be a bad idear. You could easily lose it. It would also be much harder to feed. If your going to do it anyway, you should go with a mantis species that grows big. A chinese or giant asian mantis would be a good choice for this. Even if these guys leave the plant they would be much easier to find. Even with these larger species i would not let them free roam until like L5 or bigger. Also at any stage they will most likly end up near or on your sky lights at some point. I myself currently have an adult female Rhombodera sp. living in a house plant for last two weeks now. To my own surprise she has not moved yet!


Thanks for the replies. Heck, might be fun to put some twigs at the bottom of one of the skylights - the skylights are fairly low and angled because it's the attic, so that might make a neat habitat. Hmmm... and I would never do this with any mantises that weren't adults.


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 1, 2010)

I gotta disagree, much as I don't like to, I have a lot of nymphs loose and they do fine, they usually find one place to stay, especially if the food it there, and I think the skylite will be quite a nice place esp if u put some sticks up there, I say go for it!


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## JoeCapricorn (Apr 2, 2010)

It's a music studio? What kinda music do you record?

I've always wondered, loud music, especially in a live environment, can that harm a mantis or any insect?


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## PhilinYuma (Apr 2, 2010)

JoeCapricorn said:


> It's a music studio? What kinda music do you record?
> 
> *I've always wondered, loud music, especially in a live environment, can that harm a mantis or any insect?*


No. Last year someone put on a particularly vile sound track to test mantids' reactions and I played it loudly to the Chinese adult that I was keeping on my computer desk at the time. It upset my dog, Tucker more than it did the mantis.


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## massaman (Apr 2, 2010)

mantids have only one ear and can only hear high freq sounds like bats!


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## Rick (Apr 2, 2010)

There is no guarantee it will stay on the plant.


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## ismart (Apr 2, 2010)

hibiscusmile said:


> I gotta disagree, much as I don't like to, I have a lot of nymphs loose and they do fine, they usually find one place to stay, especially if the food it there, and I think the skylite will be quite a nice place esp if u put some sticks up there, I say go for it!


Yes, this could work for you, me Katnapper, yen, and a handful of others that breed mantids on a large scale. We may lose some mantids on ocasion, and twice as many feeders. For someone who lets say has a couple of lose mantids this would make no sense to let feeders free for them to try and catch on there own. They may starve this way. These mantids would have to be handed food regularly to sustaine them properly. Being he is going with adults they would at least be easier to feed a cricket, roach or fly to. Good luck! Keep us updated on how they do?


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## okstrat (Apr 2, 2010)

JoeCapricorn said:


> It's a music studio? What kinda music do you record?
> 
> I've always wondered, loud music, especially in a live environment, can that harm a mantis or any insect?


Band Demos, originals... guitar oriented rock stuff. It's really a converted attic with a lot of guitar gear and a digital recorder, it's not a 'real' studio in the sense that I would have a control room and stuff. I do have a drum set there now, 32 track digital recorder, 40 or so guitars, a dozen tube amps or so, etc. here's a pic showing the skylights. I can reach the bottom edge easily (it's about 6 feet up), figured I could hand feed prey there.


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## okstrat (Apr 2, 2010)

ismart said:


> Yes, this could work for you, me Katnapper, yen, and a handful of others that breed mantids on a large scale. We may lose some mantids on ocasion, and twice as many feeders. For someone who lets say has a couple of lose mantids this would make no sense to let feeders free for them to try and catch on there own. They may starve this way. These mantids would have to be handed food regularly to sustaine them properly. Being he is going with adults they would at least be easier to feed a cricket, roach or fly to. Good luck! Keep us updated on how they do?


Not sure if I'm going to do this or not, was just an idea. Would hate to lose a mantis that way. I would hand feed the little guy if I did something like this. Thanks for the replies guys, just thinking (literally) outside the box!


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## revmdn (Apr 2, 2010)

Nice collection there.

I have done this a few times. I, like Ismart said wait till later instars, although Rebecca and Rick have much more expirience with this than me. I had the best luck with doing this with ghost. They roam, but not too far. Also I would do this with a female, I think males like to roll about (don't we all). Good luck


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## Opivy (Apr 2, 2010)

wow awesome collection! My studio consists of my computer and a few microphones =0

I wondered the same thing as you. Actually started a similar thread a few months back hehe-

I don't think sound does anything... My piano is right next to my little guys and they seem to like it. I watch them dance =-p


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 2, 2010)

haha, Ameircan Imantis!


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## PhilinYuma (Apr 2, 2010)

ismart said:


> Yes, this could work for you, me Katnapper, yen, and a handful of others that breed mantids on a large scale. We may lose some mantids on ocasion, and twice as many feeders. For someone who lets say has a couple of lose mantids this would make no sense to let feeders free for them to try and catch on there own. They may starve this way. These mantids would have to be handed food regularly to sustaine them properly. Being he is going with adults they would at least be easier to feed a cricket, roach or fly to. Good luck! Keep us updated on how they do?


Yes, I agree with you Paul. I could do the same thing, not because I have so many mantids but because my apt is such a mess that it can easily accommodate a dozen stray mantids or so. If they live, I congratulate them on their independence; if they die, I might not find their little corpses for years. Also, my kitchen (as well as bedroom, bathroom, living room) is a fly friendly area, and there is plenty of room for strays, but I would hate to leave out valuable --to me -- mantids without being able to keep a regular eye on them.


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 3, 2010)

Hi Rebecca - I am writing with a funny story. Seems that at least one of the mantids from the last ootheca is still going strong. We came in and looked in the lizard cage the other day, and there was one of the mantids - big, and strong - eating a cricket. When he was done - he crawled right out of the cage and up the shades! He is apparently still living and thriving. So that is 7 months and going strong! Hope this msg finds you well.

This is in my blog from a customer last month wrote to update me!


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## Krissim Klaw (Apr 7, 2010)

You could always go for the best of both worlds and set up a nice cage in the corner to use as needed. I regularly let have mantises loose on plants in my room for hours/good portion of the day. At the same time however they also have cages which I place them in before going to bed at night and where I feed them their meals. If you have a mantis loose you need to take a little extra time when entering the room to locate the mantis. Last thing you would want to do is accidentally step on one if for some reason he ended up crossing the floor. If you have a younger mantis there would also be some added concern about making sure the humidity in the room is high enough for proper shedding.


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## okstrat (Apr 8, 2010)

Krissim Klaw said:


> You could always go for the best of both worlds and set up a nice cage in the corner to use as needed. I regularly let have mantises loose on plants in my room for hours/good portion of the day. At the same time however they also have cages which I place them in before going to bed at night and where I feed them their meals. If you have a mantis loose you need to take a little extra time when entering the room to locate the mantis. Last thing you would want to do is accidentally step on one if for some reason he ended up crossing the floor. If you have a younger mantis there would also be some added concern about making sure the humidity in the room is high enough for proper shedding.


Excellent points, thanks. My current concept is to wait until they are fully grown to get around the molting issue and also the bigger they are the more easily seen.


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## Schloaty (Apr 8, 2010)

While there are never any guarantees with bugs, I had success with an adult ghost and and adult dead leaf (lobata) on hanging plants _outside_. Now, granted, these were both females, and neither ever flew that I could tell, and I don't think, at their sizes, they could easily navigate the way up the hangar.... But there were OUTSIDE, man! They lived there, happy as clambs (may I mention - hanging flowering plant, so plenty of "food to go") for several weeks, until it got too cold outside. I then had to put the plants in the greenhouse, and the dead lead stayed there until her dying day at least two months later.

I don't think I would try this with males, though....they wander more in my (limited) experience.


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## Krissim Klaw (Apr 10, 2010)

Schloaty said:


> I don't think I would try this with males, though....they wander more in my (limited) experience.


Yep, the adult males I've had always tend to move about more than their female counterparts. Guessing it is an innate drive of theirs to wander in search of girlies. Species also has the potential to play a part in how much the wander. I've noticed at least certain species seem to hang around in one spot more than others. For instance my Ghost mantis would find a spot amongst the sticks and leaves and be content to hang around all day. My Chinese mantids, male or female however always seem to be constantly on the move. Wasn't unusual for me to set them down in my room, look away, then look back a few minutes later to discover they had managed to crawl across my room, up a wall, and were perched on top of my TV or nestled amongst the blinds. They always kept me on my toes, that is for sure. :innocent: There is nothing like carefully shuffling across your room while calling your mantises name once you loose them either, which happened all the time with my Chinese mantises. Thankfully however since they move so much and are clumsy I would often find them by listening for the sound of them moving about, often loudly trying to get a grip on something too slick for their clunking bodies.


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## sk8erkho (Apr 13, 2010)

Well...I must say I have lost a good number of nymphs just letting em hang out for a few minutes while i service tanks and such!! Just recently with a batch of Chinese my friend Paul sent, 3 got lost in the flat and just two days ago I found one of them in my bedroom closet hanging on a hanger in plain sight molting!!!! With the boys, my new nephew now 3 and the traffic from family I don't know How he made it through but he did!!! Then I finally found a second escapee dead from poisoning laid down just before we moved into the new unit. Damn I felt bad for that guys it was hard as a nail and all discoloured.  Anyway, in past times i have lost mantids that I just let hang out on the curtain or window screen during the day but at night I put them all in enclosures. Though my larger females I let hang out regularly as they don't seem to roam as much. I had an orchid male which just could not wait to use his newly acquired wings and I really had to keep him on lock down as he would fly right out of the enclosure as soon as I opened it!!! HE was difficult to keep up with so he just had to stay enclosed!! But, I say if they are larger and there is no poison you are unaware of and other such dangers...Go for it. Just keep tabs on em from time to time when your are home. I find when they do get lost I tend to find them hanging :angry: from stuff. Seems they like to climb and hang there like bats!!!


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