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@GhostNRB Sure is. I never updated this thread with how this turned out. It worked wonderfully! The flies all pupated and hatched into flies with no issue in their cup of cocofibre.  I went an extra step and tried to culture them like you would fruit flies (same medium) and that was a...

Oh also take a look at this thread for ideas of how to limit fruit fly escape without the need to resort to smaller culture cups. My thread is FULL of broken pictures but CosbyArt's is where you want to look anyway.

I am not a fan of the those paper lids for the same reason you have stated. They get gross really fast and when you try to wash them they tend to rip leaving them useless. I took to cutting the tops out of normal lids of various sized containers and using my trusty glue gun to clue shear ribbon...

Congratz! The first few molts are always the most stressful on a new owner. Your mantises are looking beautiful! Here's too many good molts to come.

Have you been handling feeders or anything they might be interested in before handling the mantises? I have had a few nibble on me if my hands were not clean but all the biting incidents I have encountered have been from sick mantises. There was one female that just liked to bite people but she...

I got my first mantis from a work mate when he bought an eggsac from the hardware store (sold as natural pest control) as a fun project to do with his kids. Upon it hatching myself an 2 other coworkers demanded nymphs of our own. I was instantly smitten! Unfortunately Vansickle did not make it...

@CosbyArt Unfortunately I think the egg I produced did not hatch out very strong stock. I only had about 20 hatch from it and of those I now have a total of 4 left still alive and healthy. Its been a very frustrating and disappointing few months and is working on putting me off Tenoderas...

@Mantidkid As for getting in and out of your cricket bin. The cricket keepers they sell at the stores are horrible for that! The issue is that they are not deep enough, to ensure you can safely get into your bin without half of them escaping you need a deeper bin to keep them in. Many people use...

As far as I know the only thing you can do for a sick mantis is give it honey. Honey has antibacterial properties and is really the only mantis "medicine" we've got. Please be sure if you try this that you fine some unpasteurized and preferably raw unfiltered honey. The honey we usually get from...

@ignatz I updated the BSF threads so the pictures are back, just fyi. And funnily I had a wave of die offs after swapping my mantises to bottle flies so I'm going back to the solider flies. Its like we live in opposite land.

Fortunately this story seems like it will have a happy end but its and interesting complication so figured I'd share. My thistle mantis Grove fell just after completing a molt so she was still soft. Thankfully I found her soon after wedged in a corner amid her decorations unable to fix her...

Update on my angry Gecko child Sprocket. Its been about 6 months or so that I've had him and while I have not yet gotten him out of his cage I have been making progress. He allows me to watch him hunt bugs where he used to only hide until I left. I can hand feed him super worms from tongs now...

Welcome fellow Canadian!

Almost all of my adult Chinese mantises were more then happy to eat super worms either from a cup placed in their tank or after a bit of work/training I could just hand them one with the tongs and they would be happily munching forever. I found which such a large species the black solider flies...

@ignatz  Yup sure have! However it looks like I need to swap my pictures over to not photobucket finally. I'll try to get to that asap but I have a wedding to go to today so no can do. I can attest to my first setup working TOO well. I definitely had eggs being lain and massive population...

Yup crickets are just too risky, I have learned my lesson as well unfortunately.  Very interesting, if you ever find anything out about this I would love to hear it. Its true about the bottle flies being the nastiest things ever so it makes no sense at all that the BSF would be carrying...

I've been using BSF as a staple feeder for my Chinese Mantises for 2 generations now. Besides the fact they are not overly active and exciting for the mantises and leave extra litter with their hard exoskeletons I've had no problems personally. Almost every time I have had any sort of wave of...

@CosbyArt The second link you provided is the same one my entomologist friend directed me to when I inquired about pinning mantises. Her response about it was "as soon as you see them talking about how to properly preserve the genitalia you know they're taking this seriously and are legit" :P

Wow! That is one green Chinese mantis! I didn't even realize they could come in that green a green. I have had a few rather green ones but nothing nearly on that level.

Unfortunately that is not an option where I live. I have searched high and low and there is nowhere I can find to buy either pupa or spikes. At least this way I know what I put in my green bin, what they've been eating, and where they came from. They have started pupating and I'm very pleased...