Recent content by Zapins

Oh God I hate roaches. I think I'd freak out like ace ventura when he thought there was a bat in his hair. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ONUe58qtjjs#t=121s

Oh God I hate roaches. I think I'd freak out like ace ventura when he thought there was a bat in his hair. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ONUe58qtjjs#t=121s

So I was showing my girlfriend my L6 Chinese mantis and how it likes to stretch out and wave as it tries to reach a taller object when it stops waving its raptors and pauses. The mantis cocked its head for a second as if contemplating its next move and then promptly jumped right onto her face...

Hmm ok I'll make sure to adjust my cage. Will the mantises with bent legs recover on their next molt? I think they have 2 molts left before they are adults. Also, if both hind legs are bent how will they be able to shed? I'm not sure the can secure their hind feed properly anywhere since they...

My Chinese mantises are mostly L5 or L6. I noticed that 2 of my 9 mantises have legs that bend backwards at the joint or are curved like spaghetti, they don't really use them. What causes this? I want to be sure they don't have this issue in their final molt.

The hairs are probably to keep water droplets off them. The hairs prevent the water from sticking to their bodies and drowning them. The same reason floating aquatic plants have hairs on their surfaces - to prevent the water from adhering to their top surface and sinking them. I like the detail...

The mantids are L3 now, when should I start separating them? I've got about 30 or so.

:) in dragon ball Z style they do seem to power up. They are doing great so far. Looking forwards to L3 whenever that happens... Another week or two?

So yesterday my chinese mantids transformed/pupated/powered up to L2 stage. They are huuuge! I can't believe they doubled in length in a few hours. They must have been like coiled springs in their old shells. One of the L2s ate an L1, so i suppose its molt or be eaten. I'm down to between...

Hmm ok. Good to know its nothing I'm doing wrong. So at some point they will stop dying off and stabilize? Also how long before they molt to L2? They are sooo fat right now they look like little sausages on legs.

They are Chinese mantids and they are about a week old now +/-

So I've noticed several dead nymphs. They don't seem injured in any way at all. They are just dead. I don't know why. They seem to be eating very well and I've been misting the enclosure. Its not too wet on one side of the tank (where the light is), the other side has ca bit of fog on it...

I bought 6 egg cases off ebay about 3 weeks ago, one has already hatched and I am inundated with more mantids than I can care for at the moment. If I chill the other 5 egg cases will it kill the developing mantids or simply delay them from hatching even though they might be close to hatching now?

Oh man it took me forever. But I got them. I think there are still a few around my room but I'll have to catch them over the next few days. Hopefully the FF will get here soon. I misted them and put them in a 2.5 g fish tank with some dry spagnum peat moss. I misted them pretty well. I have a...

Oh man... so my mantids hatched today 2 weeks earlier than I had expected. I noticed them all over my walls and ceiling, desk, window shades, fish tank, etc... They slipped through a tiny crack in the window screen mesh I had covering the tank. I had to wrangle mantids for about 40 minutes...