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I made a video of the fruit flies staying at the bottom of the cup for over 2 minutes so you can see how effective the powder coating method is. (They stay down a lot longer than 2 minutes but a 30 minute video of fruit flies crawling in a cup isn't very interesting.)

Wait at least 24 hours after molting to feed, this can also sometimes cause butt drooping/kinking if they eat a lot before they've dried properly. The condition should resolve with the next molt if he dries at the proper angle but until then there's not a lot that can be done to permanently fix...

A trick for controlling fruit flies I learned from a YouTube video showing how to prepare a fruit fly culture for frogs. They added a small amount of calcium powder to an empty deli cup, added a bunch of fruit flies then shook the cup to coat the flies in the powder and they were too weighed...

Probably a good idea. Glad you were able to get loose without hurting her. I got a surprise bite from an adult male Hierodula. My fault, it was his first day in my care. I tried to be nonthreatening, flattened my hand and allowed him to crawl on me but I guess he wasn't sure of my intentions so...

Also I wanted to add that flour is not a good choice. Earlier I watched a video on YouTube about eating raw cookie dough & why it is dangerous. Turns out raw eggs are not the main cause of food poisoning from cookie dough but rather the flour because bacteria grows very easily on raw flour...

Worth a try. Once you find some type of fine powder to weigh down the fruit flies it makes them a thousand times easier to deal with....many things would work but the trick is to find something that is also healthy for your mantis to consume.

Yes, this species acts a bit different than what is considered normal mantis behavior. For one, both nymphs like to sit on the floor of their cup or on a low branch right side up almost all the time instead of hanging upside down up high. They are both voracious hunters and will eat just about...

I am sorry your son was let down like that. I hope you are able to find his favorite mantis for him soon. Kevin supposedly has unusual colorations so finding a red armed venosa may be difficult. It looks like the most common variety is the golden armed venosa which I believe is what Panterrapets...

I have two S. aurea nymphs that are seemingly always hungry. I generally feed them every other day until their abdomen plumps up, the same way I feed all my other nymphs of various species. I try to avoid feeding too much at once because the breeder warned that overeating could be a problem with...

Great to hear they are doing well and that the male has started to grab at his "prey." He may eventually take whole or cut up insects from you if you offer with tweezers or feeding tongs. I have a couple of mantids that prefer to be hand fed rather than catching prey themselves but they will...

I wonder if baby cereal would work if you ran it through a coffee grinder to turn it into a fine powder? It has lots of vitamins. I already add baby oatmeal to a mix I give my feeder roaches, so it's something the mantids get second hand from gut contents. Baby cereal comes in these super...

It did take me a while to figure out what to substitute for the calcium powder but bee pollen is a good choice since it is full of vitamins and is in a form mantids would encounter in the wild since they prey on pollinator insects such as bees and butterflies. Bee pollen is pricey but as you...

Lol, yep. I try to get rid of all the loose pieces beforehand but it's not 100% effective, sometimes one or two will stay behind & show up on me later. However, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be before I took to shaking the loose pieces out. What I used to do when that happened I'd...

I know the feeling but it usually happens with cultures I bought from others. When I make a culture I roll the excelsior in a ball, shake out any loose pieces then push the ball a good 1/3 of the way into the medium and it does a pretty good job of staying put.

The humidity in the room is already 70% and you are misting twice daily? Sounds like overkill. Get a small humidity gauge, preferably one with a probe that you can put inside their enclosure with them. Knowing the humidity inside the enclosure is much more important than the room they are kept...

Breeders often include an extra for that very reason, shipping is highly stressful and some die even being sent overnight,  nevermind 9 or 16 days. It sounds like your other two might be ok, having an appetite & drinking is a good sign. Keep us updated if anything changes. 

First, if your ghost has wings she is an adult and won't get any bigger. An inch and a half is typical size for an adult female ghost. How long has she had her wings? Has she laid an ooth yet? There is really nothing in your description that sticks out to me as a huge problem. The temperature...

I am sorry to hear your ghost is not doing well. What kind of set up do you have her in and what humidity and temperature are you keeping her at? Also, when you described the bluebottle flies crawling on her...how many were in the enclosure with her? Since you said she ate part of a fly the...

I am sorry to hear you lost one but that is probably not anything you did wrong, after 16 days in shipping with no food I am surprised any of them even arrived alive. Good that you were able to get some food in the other two, hopefully they will be ok.

Even 9 days in shipping is excessive. Most breeders will only ship overnight or 2 day mail. I am extremely surprised one would think 9 days in shipping is ok. Do you live in the US, your profile says Indiana. If so there are many places you can buy hydei cultures and have them shipped to you...