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In Ontario, both Mantis relgiosa and Tenodera sinensis are legal. Mantis religiosa occurs in the wild and Tenodera sinensis ooths are sold to the public as biological control for gardens.

I kept the substrate relatively moist and sprayed once a day as soon as I knew she was in premolt so I would ensure her molt was successful. I had a couple more females molt soon after and their wings formed perfectly.

I was thinking too that maybe the issue was simply that she fell while pumping her wings and climbed back up with her tegmin twisted from the fall.

This mantid came from the ootheca of a wild-caught female and I know I didn't inbreed the wild-caught female so I believe inbreeding isn't the cause. people inbreed mantids with no problems too I've heard. It doesn't affect the overall health or behaviour because the mantid still acts and...

Does anyone know why the wings may not expand properly after a molt? It happens to me with some of my mantids of both genders when they mature, even when the molt was successful. As you see in the attached inage, the mantid has all of it's limbs but the wings are all ruffled. The mantis had a...

I raise Mantis religiosa on crickets as a staple and they produce large ooths but I noticed that not as many nymphs hatch compared to wild ones. Despite that, a lot of nymphs do still hatch from my ooths anyway, enough that I can keep the species going and be able to sell some. I feed my...

I know that ghost mantids prefer to eat flying insects but will also take other small insects such a crickets. I am wondering if ghost mantids can be kept on a diet of crickets as a staple. Would this be okay for this species? The reason why I don't want to deal with flies (besides fruit flies)...

Keepinginsects.com states that if the ooths aren't diapaused for a minimum of 6-8 weeks, the nymphs will hatch out weak. That means that diapause is mandatory for Mantis religiosa. Maybe this applies only to mantids collected from an environment that experiences cold winters that drop well below...

I live in southern Ontario and Mantis religiosa is the only species that can be found in the wild here. Tenodera sinensis ooths are sold as biological control for gardens but I don't believe that this species has successfully naturalized here. I always diapause the ooths of M. religiosa because...

12 weeks eh? That probably is better because when I do it for 6 weeks, I only get like half of what normally hatches out under more natural conditions like when I collect oothecae in the Spring from the wild. Wild M. religiosa will hatch tons of nymphs from ooths collected from the wild but I...

I use paper towel in deli cups for young nymphs and I clean them at least once a week or two weeks depending on the age of the mantis. Younger ones take longer to soil an enclosure than an older one. I do this because I don't like seeing it get dirty and don't want any smell when I open up the...

That's pretty cool that I don't need to diapause them. That gives me the option with whether or not I want to store them for later or let them incubate and have them hatch as soon as possible. Does anyone know if Mantis religiosa can be hatched healthy without diapause? I know this species is a...

I have read from a few different sources that diapause is not required for Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis) oothecae. I know in the wild that they do go through a natural diapause so I am curious of how the ootheca can hatch in captivity if the winter diapause wasn't broken. Is it true that...

I just looked at my culture and noticed that there are tiny larvae in and around the medium. I guess I didn't wait long enough to judge the success. This is basically my first time breeding fruit flies and so I assumed that D. melanogaster bred and grew quicker than I thought. It's good to know...

D. hydei does take longer than D. melanogaster to grow and reproduce. I have never seen tiny black things crawling around through the culture medium but if you post a picture, I can help you identify it.

What percent should the humidity at? and how moist/dry does the medium have to be?

I started the culture about a week ago and I see no larvae or evidence of them. I have it this moist because I had it dryer before and read that it was too dry and needed to be wet enough that the surface was moist because I had to production on the drier medium but when I soaked it, I got a new...

I bought a Drosophila melanogaster culture and it reproduced once for me after starting a new deli cup for them but now I cannot get them to reproduce again to start another generation. The medium I use is Repashy Superfly and I keep it moist enough that the surface isn't dry and when I tip the...

Thanks to everyone for discussing the topic. It's good to know that inbreeding isn't a big problem with mantids. Rick is right about it being impractical to worry about breeding mantids from different ooths. It would be too much work for something that isn't really an issue for the most part...

I am wanting to know if it is okay to breed mantids that hatched from the same ooth. Is this okay? and if so, how many generations can you go through before the mantids start to fail? Is inbreeding an issue in breeding mantids? How many of you breed mantids from the same ooth? I would like to...