Search results

Gizmo, You are having so much fun with her! Do your friends think you're strange having a relationship with a mantis? My husband definitely thinks I am! Maybe he'd think differently if he found one sitting on his golf ball! And I live about 2 1/2 hours from Portland. It's time we took a day...

I showed my grandsons how Gizmo plays Pokemon. They were in hysterics! She seems so personable. Is she the mantis that has a video typing LOL over and over? Too sweet. Thanks for sharing. Nancy

MantidBro, Update: She molted this morning! Yay! I'm possibly a worry wart :blush: Thanks for the feeding idea. Yes, it does sound gross, certainly beyond the breaking necks and yanking off legs that I have done! Hopefully she will get an appetite soon and I'll try "stirring" her food...

I recently rcvd a couple of these---if the above photos are correct, they are P. affinis as they are very dark brown---I had assumed they were P. agrionina since Orin mentioned in his book he hadn't seen affinis for ten years. Oh, well. When they arrived, they were L4-L5 (like which is it?)...

Thomas, All my nymph cups have organza fabric as the lid cover. Nymphs are between L3 and L5. One molted on his stick, one molted on the side at the top (budwings) and the Hierodula molted this morning but I don't know where as her molt was on the ground. All nymphs molted perfectly. As...

As far as pet stores go, I have only bought FF cultures at PetCo. What they have here in Tacoma are made by the Fruit Fly Company in Port Angeles WA which is only a couple of hours away. They sell out quickly, so they have always been fresh. I have only seen melanogaster but I was told last...

I have ordered roaches, beetles and food supplies from this company several times. Everything has come perfectly wrapped, and clean---I especially appreciate that the Dubia come locked up in sturdy cloth bags! I will certainly use them again.

That all makes sense. I'll certainly try that next batch. Thanks so much, Nancy

This looks like a great idea but how do you get the flies, especially BB flies into the bottle? I see you use a funnel but why don't the flies get away at that point? Maybe I just don't hatch the pupae in the proper container? (I have them in a small critter keeper and I have to put them in...

Yeah, for me right now, it's still about loving the little triangle faces. And having perfect success. Then, maybe something more exotic looking :) I take the blame for my T. sinensis's last molt and hope to be more observant this time around. Thanks for the input, Nancy

Ranitomeya, I always enjoy your answers (to everyone, not just me.) I just have to ask...are you an entomologist? It seems I'm always getting educated because I have to look up your technically correct terms. Keep it up :smarty:

Happy1892, thanks for each of your suggestions. I was not at all offended with your comment about sickly/shy mantids. It was more an aha moment actually. :balloon: I have avoided the net cages for the reason that maintaining humidity seems more difficult, but mostly because I have cats with...

Received my package from Thomas last week. The contents were generous and the price unbeatable. Great guy to do business with!

Thomas, thank you for digging up all the caresheets on T. sinensis. They really were/are nice mantids---maybe I should stick with this specie and I'd do better next time with what I've learned through my first experience... :angel: Nancy

Mantisman 230, Sorry you went through this also. My girl made it almost a month but not long enough---can't figure out what to do with her so she's still in the freezer... :( My male is now fourteen weeks old and not doing so hot anymore so maybe I'll wait and bury them together since they...

Fredstrong, Thanks for your ideas. Would you consider the D. lobata a "beginner" mantis? Looking at a photo in Orin McM's wonderful book, Keeping the Praying Mantis, they look like there's lots of corners to have problems molting. Orin writes that, "this specie has been the most common in...

Happy1892, none of the mantids you listed are on my growing list of possible "beginners" so no worry there. You are absolutely correct that my two Chinese mantids are/were not healthy. My mated female had a bad final molt (probably my fault) and wound up with a floppy abdomen (she was fine...

Thanks, Sticky. I've been thinking about H. membranacea---I just like its simplicity and size. My B. dubia colony finally got old enough and I found my first adult male tonight---he was still all white and absolutely beautiful with his long wings (and I never thought I'd say that about a...

Mrsbos, I'm new at this, but it looks like a European mantis (Mantis religiosa). Does she have a yellow and black oval (looks like a cat's eye) on the inside of her front arms? The book, Keeping The Praying Mantis by Orin McMonigle says this mantis comes in green or brown, but a neighbor found...

I have the roaches but I need the right mantids to eat them. My first mantids were T. sinensis but they wouldn't eat these roaches. Now I'm looking for another specie of mantid that will. Any in the beginner league?