# guess its time i registered



## echostatic (Sep 21, 2007)

well ive been reading around here for a while and figured id sign up.

let me tell you about how i came to be interested in mantids.

...well one day i just wanted one. it didnt take long before i found an adult green chinese praying mantis in our carport when i was leaving for work. (live in dallas, tx) i caught it and the future home for my centipede became its new home, a little plastic critter keeper. i had it for a week and enjoyed watching it hunt crickets. after a week though, i found a brown chinese praying mantis in the carport too. i caught it and looked up how to sex mantids. well lucky me, the green one was female and the brown one was male. both were full grown... so, i stuck the male in there hoping something would happen other than death. she eyed him and swatted him with her forearm. i googled and found that they should be well fed and so i decided to seperate and feed the male, and feed the female even more even though she was already quite fat. well in the short time it tool me to look that up the guy managed to get around her and mount up, again lucky me (and him!). it took all of 27 hours, but he survived the whole thing and got released back outside. a few days ago i got my first ootheca, which now resides in a large plastic jar, suspended so they can lower themselves when they hatch. ive got an order of d.hydei coming in hopefully tomorrow. if not then next week so they can get populated. i also have 10 more critter keepers coming in the mail for seperating later on. im ready to dive head on into this hobby!


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## Rick (Sep 21, 2007)

Welcome. Just a FYI, color is not how you determine gender. Not sure if that is what you were saying in your post but it kind of sounded like it.


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## Deutschherper (Sep 21, 2007)

Welcome!


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## hibiscusmile (Sep 21, 2007)

Welcome to the forum, Echostatic! The critter keepers will be to large of holes to start! Get you some plastic clear drink cups w/lids (fast food or strofoam if you have too). Wait till they are down to a managable size and seperate em. If your _Own Little World_ is warm all the time than you can release them back outside!


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## echostatic (Sep 21, 2007)

hello all, no rick i didnt use color to determine their gender, i counted abdomen segments. i mentioned their color because i thought it was cool to have a green and a brown. hibiscus, eyah those critter keepers arent for until they get bigger. i was going to keep them in jars until they were large enough to be transferred into them. i was thinking that, inbetween the jar and the kritter keeper, i would keep them in a cd case. you know the plastic kind that holds like 100 blank cds? if you take the base to that, unscrew the spindle, and screw it back in upside down, you have a good sized container with a handle that can be unscrewed for adding food and whatnot. ive kept caterpillars in these and thought mabye mantids would work too.


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## robo mantis (Sep 21, 2007)

Welcome


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## echostatic (Sep 21, 2007)

huh... well after reading a post about european praying mantises have black spots on their armpits it looks like i have a european. i also read somewhere that a euro ooth needs a cooldown to hatch. how long does this cooldown need to be? i did have it in low 30's for about a day but that really isnt very long.


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## echostatic (Sep 21, 2007)

*sigh* when my latest order came in the mail today, that being the fruitflies, my manager said i needed to get a girfriend :/


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## OGIGA (Sep 21, 2007)

Welcome!


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## hibiscusmile (Sep 21, 2007)

Yea a lot of people use cd cases, and a girlfriend is cool too!


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## lynnu (Sep 23, 2007)

welcome


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