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@rantology i agree, it is a very scary read.  Just to confirm, though, he was convicted because of the purposeful deceit in his packaging, right? And because he was taking them from the wild, and smuggling in the country? I mean, I ordered some orchids from England, and they passed through...

@Synapze No, I wasn’t able to raise any as green as that one. He’s my last molt as well, so I definitely finished on a high note 

Thanks! His name is Casper? That gave me a good laugh. It’s a perfect name for a Ghost mantis ?  I think I might be ordering a couple ghosts here in a little bit, so I’m pretty excited. Are they as easy to keep as everyone says? 

My female orchid, now a L7, (which is a sub-adult, right?) just molted a bit unexpectedly. The pic speaks for itself (it was taken at 4:00 in the morning, so sorry for the bad quality) She just molted 18 days ago, and I wasn’t expecting her to molt for at least another few days or so. I got...

Whenever a mantis molts to adult, it’s wings are always a little messy at first. Usually by the next day (or the evening, if the molt was in the morning) their wings will straighten out. If they do not look good after 24 hours, it may have been a slight mismolt, but if it’s only the wings, it...

@River Dane I bought mine from England

@Aristalochia She is a L6, as of August 5th. 

“This is the ootheca or egg case of a Preying Mantis“ They can’t even get the name right. Yeah, I would agree, it’s the fear of the unknown that is the root of many issues. Too bad mantids aren’t more widely known. 

I was talking to some people about my mantis collection (*cough* obsession), and a few of them thought that they were nasty pests ?. I really wanted to slap them across the face, but I’m pretty sure that is illegal ?. I spent the next hour describing how amazing mantids are, and how much variety...

@Synapze thanks! I already moved them over to the new culture, and I was just wondering if it was worth the trouble. It’s definitely some good news! Now I hope I can get 2-3 cultures going

@sschind Good catch, I forgot to mention what kind. Thanks!

I have recently made a good media (that isn’t molding) and I have a question concerning D. hydei FF. When they lay their eggs, are they done? Are they nothing more than a feeder at that point? Mine have already laid eggs in one of my cultures, which are pupating right now, scheduled to hatch...

As long as it doesn’t look like it’s torn, and there aren’t any exposed guts or anything, it should be fine. 

It is definitely a male.  I’m not sure what you are referring to, when you ask about the split. If you are talking about the dark stripe, that is nothing to worry about.  Here is a pic of my subadult male Chinese (Tenodera sinensis). He has the same stripe, it’s perfectly normal (also, you can...

My males don’t accept food any more than once every two days, depending on the size of the prey. If it is a big grasshopper (the flying kind, if you know what I’m talking about) it is usually on every two days. If it is a big katydid, it is usually every three days, since there is a lot more...

That sounds like a good routine. Good luck!

Just feeding him normally is all you can do. Usually the female lives much longer than the male, but I had one male (caught in May) live until February of the next year. He was my only male to ever live through winter. Anyway, I just kept feeding him every other day or so, and gave him plenty of...

That was probably a really good idea to move her. Are you planning on breeding her?

That looks like a pretty ingenious solution. Personally, I’ve only had the droopy butt issue once nor twice, I think the key is keeping them well fed, so their butts stay plump. I usually feed every two days, giving my Chinese some decently sized grasshoppers.  They usually recover quite well...

Nice! She’s a beauty. I just had my final female molt. Now I just have another male, and then the breeding will commence ?