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@roadglide16  more great camera-work!  The portraits are excellent. It's a reminder to get off my duff and take some macros of Hix, Photon, Jet and Liu.

CA: Photon seems just fine today.  Thanks for the words of experience. I may have to give him a little Milk of Magnesia, though   :blink:

While feeding Photon, a newly-molted L5 Tenodera sinensis, a housefly this morning, she got some dried hot glue strands wrapped up in the fly while grabbing the food.  To my shock and awe, she ate part of the hot glue strand left on her raptors.  I was able to tweezer most of the remaining off...

@roadglide16  Another great set of photographs RG.  I've raised a lot of different species, but never ghosts.  It's time to join the fray, methinks. I with my favorite species, Tenodera sinensis, I've generally found handling them (gently) with regularity and from a young age, gets them used to...

@Ocelotbren  ..and guess who lost  :tooth:

Cold months can be a challenge.  You can get feeders from trusted suppliers (referenced in various places on this forum).  Not sure why bb or houseflies would cause you a problem in your apt.  Just be careful with logistics (chill the critters in the fridge before opening the container to remove...

If you have a porch light and are living in a relatively warm climate..turn on the light at dusk. I have six L3 Tenodera sinensis and even at that small size they LOVE tiny moths or damselflies. Wild caught are more nutritious to boot.  Here's a small moth caught at my porch light last night. ...

I just gave Jet (an L3, soon to be L4) Tenodera sinensis his first fresh-caught wild moth.  A - "hold on for dear life" meal.  Had a fun soundtrack but it wouldn't translate into Youtube (I hate YT).

He's wearing a bow tie !  Time for a party. :rockon:

@Zeppy44  Certainly not intended to criticize Poodles!  The anecdote could just as well said "parrots" or "goldfish."  But you get the gist.  Once friends and guests actually see how mantids behave (particularly when many adults get used to you and hand feeding), they end up astonished.  These...

Terrific!  You should play some Beach Boys music and watch her dance.

Bah - I just posted how lucky Nemo was to have such a nice home.  Very sorry to read she died.  I just had to euthanize one of my L3 T. sinensis last night. I've had the ill-informed say, "well, why not just stomp on it?"  To which I reply - would you stomp on your sick poodle???  :angry:

Nemo's very lucky to have such a magnificent home !

I've been a life-long arachnophobe and these guys pretty much cured me of that.  :D

Fluffy, I've kept several Jumping Spiders ( Phidippus audax) as pets and found them fascinating and, ultimately, rather tame (even hand-feedable).  My last two were Abigal and Thumper.  A picture of Thumper is below, where I handed her a cricket.  I have never been bitten (why would they bite...

Hear hear, Rick.  However, for those of us who raise a very limited number of mantis pets, it seems the chain stores are the only viable source.  There, you can buy a handful of crix. I have found no specialty vendor that will sell a small number of crix (they can't afford to).  I agree...

So glad you didn't reply: Oh...just my iphone.  ^_^

Nice camera work, RG.  What equipment used?

Bumma, I've used commercial crickets for years (PetSmart/Petco). Rarely have had any problem with mantid illness or death possibly attributable to crix.  What I've learned is -- it is critical crix be properly gut-loaded at least 2 days before feeding the filthy little buggers to your mantids. ...

Derp, At that beginning instar, just a few Drosophila melanogaster every two days is fine. Say, perhaps, 3-6 fruit flies. Don't overwhelm the Idolomantis diabolicae with too many flies. It will stress the little guys unnecessarily.  They need very warm conditions and above average humidity...