# Hiya



## nub3 (Sep 23, 2007)

My real name is Dan, the name nub is just an online identity I use for gaming and stuff. Im 20 years old from England.

I wasnt gonna make an introduction post because I have nothing interesting to say really but hibiscusmile bullied me into doing it (no she didnt really, she sent a nice pm to me  )

i'm not a proper breeder or expert like some of you guys but I have a general understanding and some experience keeping a few of the common species.

I used to keep mantids, other inverts and lots of reptiles when I was younger. I kept my first mantids when I was maybe 10 years old, back then I really knew nothing about them, I thought they looked poisonous and didnt even know they grew wings until I successfully kept one alive til adulthood.

So basically i've had mainly the common African species and chinese, but also I remember obtaining a few unknown species from local pet stores. I had one of those Long thin ones (I think the shop called it "Indian rose Mantis" ?) , I remember they told me they were social with eachother but their legs kept falling off mysteriously.

Also I remember some adult small green species I paid like £20 for when I was about 14 and it died 2 days later, I assume because it was about to die anyway.

I bought an ootheca from some shop not really knowing what I was in for then one day in my outdoor reptile house I saw like 150~ nymphs emerge from it. Thinking about it now, I think they looked like chinese nymphs. I did manage to get some fruit flies but still most of these ate eachother, or massacred eachother.

I sold and gave away some but the disabled ones I fed to my bearded dragons. I guess that was a bit heartless but I saw some people on here put their dying mantids in the freezer  . Thats gotta be worse  .

So anyway I kept some nice female african mantises for a few years as I got older. Im totally prejudiced of males unless for breeding purposes also I prefer green colouration and I like to purchase them from their 1st instar.

I enjoyed handling them all the time and putting them on plants in the summer and watching them catch stuff. I used to take them out places too, they were so docile. One of them used to live on my curtain when it was an adult and I'd just hand feed her crickets.

Then when I was about 16-17 my parents decided they didnt like getting £300 a month electricity bills anymore with all my lighting and heating in my reptile house. (This was really just an excuse to have a go at me  )

so I was forced to sell all that and I didnt get anymore exotics pets for a while.

I had no mantids for years until now, last week I decided to buy 2 giant asian nymphs from www.virginiacheeseman.co.uk who i've bought stuff from in the past.

hibiscusmile, your bugatorium is really nice and I may start a much smaller collection of different species like that now that I have spare time and money. It would be nice to keep a few different species of different ages.

So the other day I was looking for orchid mantids on the web. Most mantis websites are really bad and outdated, I found a few but this species seems to be quite desirable so its out of stock on most.

Then I found this awesome forum www.mantidforum.com which has loads of breeders and hobbyists and loads of pics to look at.

Also I found a guy selling orchid mantid nymphs, in the USA but he is able to ship them here. So my plan is to buy a few of these and possibly breed a pair.

The end.

P.s nice to meet you


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## Rick (Sep 23, 2007)

Welcome. I thought your accounts were spam accounts due to the format of the email address and no posts had been made. That is why you had some problems.


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## Deutschherper (Sep 23, 2007)

Welcome!


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## hibiscusmile (Sep 23, 2007)

Hiya Nub!


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## Andrew (Sep 23, 2007)

Lol..."Nub"

Welcome.


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## robo mantis (Sep 23, 2007)

Welcome


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## OGIGA (Sep 24, 2007)

Welcome!


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