# My Intro



## TheVesper (Oct 10, 2006)

Hi, my name is Kat and I am new to the hobby. I am out here in Southern California... I have kept Phasmids before in the past &amp; always wanted to start with Mantids. This year I moved to a new place that seemed almost to have a bit of a surplus of them... 2 or 3 males at almost every light in the area and that is alot when before I was lucky to see one!! No other complex had any really either, so I wonder if somebody bought ootheca this year?

So I figured it could be a good experience to start with a couple wild caught Cali Mantids (unless we have other species out here?)... Of all the males I only have seen 4 females, 2 of which came to me ironically... one outside on my ficus eating hoppers &amp; one on my garage who finished mating, had her abdomen open for awhile afterwards with black stuff on the inside &amp; died.. the others I found around the pool/rec area. One was sick with some sort of black rot on her legs when i caught her, but she chewed alot of it off and is right now seeming to be laying an ootheca (fixed position, abdomen pumping &amp; sporadically straining and feeling around a stick &amp; dragging her ab along it in ways i did not know they could move).

I used to breed show bettas (crowns, hms, dts)... and sell them. I'm a fish nerd as well as a bug nerd. I have a whip scorpion &amp; a mexican red knee tarantula with emotional problems (as most trans seem to have)...

Not nerdy things that interest me is : lit, art, music, photography... okay i guess some of those can be construed as nerdy as well  

I got my first ootheca a few days ago from Ficus Femme, it's beautiful... even if it's infertile I was actually excited at this point to be able to see one in person.

Is there restrictions on selling/trading/giving away cali mantids? I know California can be weird with the laws. I know probably not the place to ask.

Hmmm.... I think that about covers the intro yes? :twisted: :evil:


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## Rick (Oct 10, 2006)

Welcome. It has been agreed that selling, trading, etc of native us mantids is ok to do. But of course Cali is like a whole other country sometimes.


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## Ian (Oct 10, 2006)

Welcome to the forum Kat  

Speak to you soon.


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## wuwu (Oct 10, 2006)

welcome kat! i live in so cali too.


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## Butterfly (Oct 16, 2006)

wuwu and kat, Hi, Im in So. Cal too, San Fernando Valley area. Maybe we can trade some babies if your mantids lay some eggs.

I have 3 eggs from my European Mantis and dont really know what I'm gonna do with hundreds of babies! haha


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