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I'm late to the party, but thanks for the fun!

Yes, I expect an occassional death, but was disturbed by identical style deaths on two consecutive days. I've been a bit rash with my crickets, feeding them romaine lettuce for only 24 hours prior to feeding them to the mantids. I'll slow down and expand the menu for the crickets. Gave all...

Yes, that would be the natural timing, but my ooth didn't hatch until July 1 and these are not adults. Though maybe there is some seasonal trigger to die regardless. Seems unlikely. Thank you for the response.

Oh. The temperature. I know they prefer it warm, but it is November. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it is getting down into the mid-fifties at night where the mantids are. But all the others are, thus far, healthy, so I doubt this has anything to do with it. I've no heat source for them...

I've seen Rick's posting of Sep 18, and others, so am not necessarily looking for advice. You've already given me information to work with, but I thought it worth posting anyway. Got a dozen Chinese, most in fourth or fifth instar. Yesterday I found one of them all but dead, laying in the...

Good to know. Thanks. I did try searching first but didn't find anything. Guess I wasn't using the right keywords.

Hi all. I'm an ooth with twelve Chinese. They are all in their fourth or fifth instar. After a molt, two of them appear to have weak abdomens. When hanging from the top of the habitat, thier abdomens hang straight down, giving them a folded look. It doesn't seem to bother them at all. I...

They seem much happier now, or at least more active. In the habitat and in the small jars I have observed them eating fruitflies, and once today in the habitat I observed a snatch, with the preliminary side-to-side shimmy, which I understand from reading has to do with their attempt to judge...

Welcome indeed! I only just joined myself. Sounds like you've done your homework and have an exciting time ahead of you.

"In my limited experience, the newborns wanted water before food. Mine started eating fruit flies on the 2nd or 3rd day. Are you feeding yours the small melanogaster flies or the larger hydei ones? I read somewhere that you're supposed to start with melanogaster, but I already had my hydei...

Thanks. Geno Oneill? Are you pulling my leg? No, my last name is not Oneill. Geno is a knickname. Irish kid named Eugene, with Italian friends that insisted on calling me geno, and it stuck.

Thanks for the feedback. I've been removing the dead on a daily basis. They are always whole and I have not noticed any separate limbs, though I have not been looking for this. Tomorrow I will take a closer look. Also, the fruitflies die after a while and the floor is littered with them...

The Chinese mantid ootheca started hatching one week ago. The next day I counted over 150 nymphs. After that, new nymphs appeared slowly, with one appearing just two days ago. But as far as I can tell they have not eaten anything yet! About a third of them have died. I put flightless...

Hi everyone. Name's geno, home is Oakland, California, U.S.A. I stumbled, unprepared, into raising Mantids by buying a habitat through one of those odd-things catalogues. My first Chinese mantid ootheca started hatching one week ago and the latest nymph emerged just two days ago. This site...