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He wouldn't eat any food last night when I tried hand feeding. He has a blue bottle fly in his enclosure now he could care less about.  Additionally, his abdomen did not look like that even 24 hours ago. It seemed like a sudden onset, so not sure it's from lack of food.

Here is a picture 

 In early September I started with 4 L2 Chinese Praying Mantis nymphs. We lost 2 to disease of some kind, one at only about a month old, the other at about 4 months. The other two seem to have gotten less active over time. They both molted relatively recently into adulthood (1-2 weeks). Neither...

I have a Chinese praying mantis that molted recently into adulthood. It has had a flopped over abdomen since its last molt, which didn't seem to be effecting its behavior. When it molted last Sunday, however, its wings came out looking very strange and both its rear legs are non-functional. This...

Hi all, My assistant accidentally froze all my blue bottle fly spikes and pupae. Is this a death sentence for the pupae or can they survive this? I can't find the answer online. 

What do you feed the flies?

I think I'm finally figuring this out. Learning by mistakes. Now that I have flies more frequently, how may blue bottle flies should I be feeding my L6 Chinese Praying Mantids per week? I've noticed after ordering from several places that the size between flies varies significantly. Right now I...

So, blue bottle flies continue to be really obnoxious. Right now my Chinese Mantids are living with feast or famine. When I order them online I never know when they will arrive. Two shipments ago I got a tiny 8 oz container FILLED with already hatched flies; like literally hundreds. The delivery...

Looks like 75% is too much, so I will curtail that. 

Things seemed to be on the upswing, but now have taken a turn for the worse. After I isolated him in an empty 32 oz container (with paper towel substrate) he stopped vomiting/pooping that brown stuff. My students and I still haven't observed where the liquid is coming from. He seemed perfectly...

That humidity meter is on the way, so I will be able to check at that point. 

Also, I've moved him back into a 32 oz container for monitoring and every time I spray he drinks water off the sides of the container. Twice just today. 

I was spraying their 32 oz container twice every day before I moved them into a much larger enclosure. Wouldn't the change in size and the presence of coconut shavings, branches etc. mean I need to mist more in order to maintain the same level of humidity I had in the 32 oz containers?

For some reason my blue bottle fly pupae have just stopped emerging. My mantids haven't eaten in days. I've ordered another shipment of spikes that won't arrive until this coming weekend. How can I feed these guys until then if none of the blue bottle flies emerge? I've had the spikes in the...

I smelled the lid and there was no odor. I haven't noticed a smell. 

Hi all, My journey towards what feels like keeping Mantids alive rather than raising them continues. I have 3 Chinese Mantids, all at L6. The strongest one, who my son named "Bug" and my class of elementary students adores has developed an issue with vomit or diarrhea. The ceiling of his...

The one that was puking? He died shortly after he started vomiting. Our class held a funeral and the pallbearer dropped the body in the grass and we couldn't find it.

How does this look? The glue feels a bit tacky after about an hour of drying. 

I feel like I've seen the attached containers NOT recommended, but it seems like an ideal size and it has great ventilation. Couldn't I use these and glue tulle fabric to the lid and add some fake plants?

Are you saying put the pupa into a separate container regularly and then transfer them to the mantid enclosures as they hatch? I have been putting the pupa directly into the bottom of their enclosures.