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I used jute weave/burlap for my exo terra and it worked perfectly! The fibers are very grippy but Ripley didn't seem to get her feet stuck :)  

@CosbyArt Thank you, I was expecting her to live a bit longer than she did. She went like your Susanna, legs curled but raptors moving. It was pretty scary to see because I didn't know if she was even alive at that point. It was just so unexpected, since she was far too young and had eaten and...

Like @CosbyArt said, they generally aren't too clever about choosing spots to molt (I learned that the hard way). I'd hot glue some mesh of another material to the ceiling of the enclosure and maybe remove some of the decorations if your mantis has any molts left. Maybe loop some thinner sticks...

So this morning I woke up to find my Rhombodera, Ripley, on the floor of her enclosure. Her antennae were half gone and her raptors were twitching sporadically. I knew there was pretty much 0% chance she would make it but I tried offering her honey and water. Her mouth wouldn't move so I...

I'm not an expert but I wanna say the African ones are female, or at least I can only see 6 segments.

Whenever my Rhombodera is hungry she gets grumpy and tries to grab me, he might just think you're food  :D

@DefyTheNorms from what I remember when I was in Florida the humidity/temp should be just fine for a shield. Ripley does fine even when the humidity drops (as it often does in an exo terra unless you cover the lid with glass) and unless they're molting a mesh enclosure shouldn't be much of an issue!

@Ocelotbren Thank you! It's been updated since I made this thread. In the exo terra to the left I keep Ripley, my shield. Middle one is Elizabeth Bathory, Hierodula majuscula and to the right is Lady, my jumping spider! Lilith, the gongy, live on the floor by the radiator with a lamp and heat...

They seem to be fragile little creatures! I'm not sure what temp they're at but I'm guessing it's in the 80-85 range. 

I've decided to give the same food to all my feeders (crickets, mealworms and dubias). The mealworms were super thirsty it seems.

So me and my boyfriend got a tub of wax worms/moths/pupae so I could feed the gongy and also get a more varied diet for the other girls. Everything went fine at first, they were transferred as soon as we got home and he put them in a faunarium/pet box with ground oats/honey and some egg cartons...

What temperature/humidity is he at? From what I've read males aren't as hungry as females but I've only kept females myself so don't quote me on that. My Hierodula female was L4 ish when I got her and she did fine being fed every 2-3 days, so 3 days without food shouldn't be that much of a...

I've only used jute weave and mosquito nets but they've worked fine and tulle/mosquito nets are p much the same thing. If you wanna look around for materials I think hardware/craft stores are a good option. I think 7 inches would work for a giant asian nymph but it would need an upgrade as they...

Wow, congrats!

Thank you, I'm so proud of this girl!

Yeah when my Rhombodera was about to go through her final molt her wing buds were huge. I have a question though! How long should I expect her to still be attached to the old exoskeleton before she crawls out?

I wanna say sub but I'm honestly not 100% sure. I didn't know what instar she was when I got her but she is getting pretty big now, and the wing buds are looking good!

So I knew Elizabeth Bathory was due for a molt, it's been about 2.5 weeks since last time and she was looking "molty". But little did I know that I'd find her almost finished when I peered into her enclosure! She ate yesterday and I figured it might be time tonight or tomorrow but this girl...

Washing it with hot water and maybe some very diluted bleach should remove any contaminants, but remember that some mantis species have difficulty climbing on glass (I'm assuming the vase is made of glass haha). Even my rainforest species are having a harder time as they grow bigger, and I've...

Welcome! What a great idea to use mantids for education, they really are like the cats of the insect kingdom  :)