# Orchid Apt



## Ghostie (Jul 16, 2010)

Made my first mantis house today!

I found some pink orchids at the 99 cent store. Also got the low temp glue gun and glue sticks there. I cleaned out a big deli cup from the crickets from my chameleons and used the convenient lid that came from Mantisplace. I poked several holes all over the side in an attempt at cross ventilation and glued the fake orchids and stems in there. Then added some excelsior at the bottom.

Hopefully my orchid has enough room to molt in here! I fed it a housefly today and it chomped it down no problem.. so I figured even though it's only dime sized it probably won't have any trouble finding it's food for now in this container.

Let me know if this looks too stuffy or if you think it's OK!

Rather simple I guess but will be easy to clean and looks neat.  

Off to make more mantis houses.

My camera is broken but I'll post bad pics anyway.

Here is the orchid owning a house fly. Such a neat little creature. I watched "her" drink which was neat too.







Front view






Side view






Here's the rear view of my white back drop so the mantis has some privacy lol






top






Here you can see some of the holes I poked in the side hoping for cross venting.






It went from a lil cup..






To my Finger..






..and then into it's new house. I think it is still getting used to it's new living arrangements. Hopefully they are suitable. I realize I may have a bit too much mist in there right now but my chameleon mister flow adjuster kinda gets away from me.


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## lancaster1313 (Jul 16, 2010)

Looks like a nice place to live, for a mantid.


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## LauraMG (Jul 16, 2010)

I love it!



I'm considering puting my orchid in something like this because it's being a non eating picky pants! I'm thinking maybe something smaller like this would suit it better.


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## Ghostie (Jul 16, 2010)

I think I received one of those little creobroters too! :clap: 

It is like the orchid, let half the size and likes to poke at your with it's claws :lol: These things are so fun! I wish I would have found out about them sooner, but now I get to indulge in a whole new mantis world because I didn't. lol


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## LauraMG (Jul 16, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> I think I received one of those little creobroters too! :clap:
> 
> It is like the orchid, let half the size and likes to poke at your with it's claws :lol: These things are so fun! I wish I would have found out about them sooner, but now I get to indulge in a whole new mantis world because I didn't. lol


I love the creobroter! It's super spunky and it's colors are so amazing! I'm loving my little crazy colored baby mantids. I feel bad for my adult Chinese because she gets ignored more now....



I'm terrible, I know


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## Ghostie (Jul 16, 2010)

I wouldn't mind a few large ones myself.

I'll see where the little guys take me first for a few while I learn.  

They are fun and entertaining and only take 10 minutes to take care of.


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## Mr.Mantid (Jul 17, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> I think I received one of those little creobroters too! :clap:
> 
> It is like the orchid, let half the size and likes to poke at your with it's claws :lol: These things are so fun! I wish I would have found out about them sooner, but now I get to indulge in a whole new mantis world because I didn't. lol


I recieved the creobroter too along with the orchid!! Runs all over the place!!! I think its Gemmatus based on the youtube videos I seen, Pictipennis looks as if their stripes are darker and their eyes are purple, and the creobroter I have looks like the Gemmatus I seen in another video.


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## Rick (Jul 17, 2010)

It will be fine for now. I would remove the excelsior which isn't serving any purpose, and add a layer of paper towel that can hold moisture.


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## Ghostie (Jul 17, 2010)

Will do! Thanks Rick.

I noticed the misting from yesterday evaporated rather quickly with the cross ventilation even though I had sprayed quite a bit. The towel should do the trick.


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## Ghostie (Jul 17, 2010)

Mr.Mantid said:


> I recieved the creobroter too along with the orchid!! Runs all over the place!!! I think its Gemmatus based on the youtube videos I seen, Pictipennis looks as if their stripes are darker and their eyes are purple, and the creobroter I have looks like the Gemmatus I seen in another video.


Nice,

Now we can all be "CreoBrothers and sisters" haha.


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## LauraMG (Jul 17, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> Nice,
> 
> Now we can all be "CreoBrothers and sisters" haha.


LOL, I thought that was funny. My boyfriend asked me what I was laughing at, so I told him. His response: "Must be a bug person thing." I don't think he appreciated the joke


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## Mr.Mantid (Jul 17, 2010)

Ive been keeping mine in a 10 oz plastiac cup but i moved it to cage from mantisplace. I thought the 10 oz cage was a little boring.

I fed my little creobroter a bluebottle fly today and it ate the whole thing!! It suprised me!!


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## Ghostie (Jul 17, 2010)

OK I bought two Ghosts. I want to see if they can really live together so they have some company. I had a big plastic tub that I made a "Ghost Forest" from.

I used black fish rocks about 1" on the bottom, frog substrate about 1" patted down some, living frog moss (forgot actual name), bamboo sticks, dried sphagnum moss, and low temp hot glue. I also put some plastic leaves on the outside of the container to cover the old labels I pealed off and add backdrops for mantis privacy. With any luck that sphagnum will come back alive like my last batch. This is how my CP terrarium is working, only I put no carnivorous plants in my Ghost Forest.  

I used a line of low temp hot glue on the bamboo sticks then dunked them in the sphagnum to get the mossy coated sticks effect. Then glued the sticks into the cage. On the walls, roof and a diagonal one as well. Also used a bit of screen from a sample for ventilation.

They let me know how much they liked the mini forest by eating a bunch of fruit flies and one even molted and got way bigger with a wider flat tail and more leafy features! It's almost an inch now maybe. They grow up so fast!

Here's some pics of the Ghost Forest I came up with. All you have to do is add distilled water to the rock line/level and it makes it's own humidity beads. I think the mantids will drink from this since there is lots of moisture in the moss and bedding to make humidity constant. I will also mist daily. So far so good, I put them in there last night and no deaths yet. We'll see how it goes!


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## Ghostie (Jul 19, 2010)

Oohh! The orchid just molted too! She got bigger already! B) 

I see how it works now,

The more mantids you have, the more you can watch them grow! lol


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## Mr.Mantid (Jul 21, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> Oohh! The orchid just molted too! She got bigger already! B)
> 
> I see how it works now,
> 
> The more mantids you have, the more you can watch them grow! lol


My first orchid is at L5!! i think my other one is only at l2.


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## LauraMG (Jul 21, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> I see how it works now,
> 
> The more mantids you have, the more you can watch them grow! lol


That's exactly how I see it!


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## Ghostie (Jul 28, 2010)

New: orchid/ghost/L4-L5 shield house au la bugatorium stylie

Was: detergent container.

Used: Low temp glue gun and aluminum screen with a side of plastic flowers and leaves.

The flowers inside are NOT glued down, for ease of cleaning and I can swap the flower type according to the mantis species.


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## Ghostie (Jul 28, 2010)

Oh dang I keep forgetting I like sphagnum on the bottom too that seems to work pretty good.


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## hibiscusmile (Jul 29, 2010)

Looking good u guys, lot of imagination here! I would not use standing water though, it will quickly become a septic system and have mold. A nice cage should be allowed to dry out and then get rewet.


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## LauraMG (Jul 29, 2010)

hibiscusmile said:


> Looking good u guys, lot of imagination here! I would not use standing water though, it will quickly become a septic system and have mold. A nice cage should be allowed to dry out and then get rewet.


Agreed! A nymph can also drown pretty easily in a small puddle of water. I had one drown in a droplet that was too big on the bottom of his enclosure before I was using substrate. It was a sad day....


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## LauraMG (Jul 29, 2010)

hibiscusmile said:


> Looking good u guys, lot of imagination here! I would not use standing water though, it will quickly become a septic system and have mold. A nice cage should be allowed to dry out and then get rewet.


Agreed! A nymph can also drown pretty easily in a small puddle of water. I had one drown in a droplet that was too big on the bottom of his enclosure before I was using substrate. It was a sad day....


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## Ghostie (Jul 29, 2010)

Got some sphagnum into my container. Looks much nicer now.

Indeed mold will form around too much moisture. With the ghost enclosure above I have the one set up like a frog tank kinda. It's working on the frogs so thought I would see how the ghost does like that as well. He molted again last night pretty big! I'll have to get a new pic. They can't actually get to the water, since to them it is technically under ground under the fish rocks, frogs substrate and live sheet moss. I have also adjusted my orchid spraying techniques so not so much water accumulates.

Here is the final thing I made yesterday waiting for a mantis to "move in".


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## LauraMG (Jul 29, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> Got some sphagnum into my container. Looks much nicer now.
> 
> Indeed mold will form around too much moisture. With the ghost enclosure above I have the one set up like a frog tank kinda. It's working on the frogs so thought I would see how the ghost does like that as well. He molted again last night pretty big! I'll have to get a new pic. They can't actually get to the water, since to them it is technically under ground under the fish rocks, frogs substrate and live sheet moss. I have also adjusted my orchid spraying techniques so not so much water accumulates.
> 
> Here is the final thing I made yesterday waiting for a mantis to "move in".


Is that a kitty litter container?


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## Ghostie (Jul 29, 2010)

Some sort of detergent. I forget what brand.

I also have a paintball container like it but white and not clear. =p

Maybe if I cut it open and put a screen on it, it will work too. My shields are getting big I think I'm going to throw them in here. Already about an inch or so. Next molt I think will be too big for deli cup so have to move them.


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## LauraMG (Jul 29, 2010)

Ghostie said:


> Some sort of detergent. I forget what brand.
> 
> I also have a paintball container like it but white and not clear. =p
> 
> Maybe if I cut it open and put a screen on it, it will work too. My shields are getting big I think I'm going to throw them in here. Already about an inch or so. Next molt I think will be too big for deli cup so have to move them.


Very creative! I'm going to have to start looking at my household things a little differently!


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## eur0pein (Jul 30, 2010)

i just got some ghosts from yen_saw a few days ago they are doing great


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## Ghostie (Jul 30, 2010)

lol double post.. see below


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## Ghostie (Jul 30, 2010)

Cool deal.

It looks like Yen has some pretty exotic species in the classifieds.

I think I just spent my mantis budget for this week. Found a store selling 32oz deli cups and bought 25 of them and 50 lids. Now I have to design a good lid since mine are standard blank no holes lids.

Now I can rest easy knowing I have a couple extra emergency mantis deli cups on hand.

You really do kinda need a lot of supplies if you have a few of these lil mantids.

My sister just found and captured an Iris Oratoria (sp?) today in her back yard. She's going to look for more so we can maybe breed some. I'll try and get pics next time I head out to her house.


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