Search results

I disagree and so does the University of Florida.

Awesome thread, Rick. Congratulations on surviving your first winter! Please keep us posted!

Such a coy look on her face. ;)

Just get a T. sinensis ootheca if you want to release decent sized, legal mantids into your garden.

*gasp* !!! Wha?! Being in close proximity to my body or face is a bad thing!? ;) My fiance will get a kick out of hearing this. At any rate, but I have tried a skewer several times. She ignored it, regardless of the height, angle, etc. Most of my other mantids will pursue upward climbs...

Interesting, thanks for the tip. I have front-opening doors with my Exo-Terra terrarium (18x18x24), but I haven't equipped it for idolos yet. Right now I've got a bunch of L4s in a communal setup and then a sub-adult female in a netcube. The sub-adult hates it when I reach in, so I handle her...

I owe a large portion of my current mantid collection to a Seattle-area hobbyist that decided to dive into chameleons. With the recent pics from patrickfraser's veiled thread and the "world's smallest" cuteness, I too, am tempted. Someone please tell me how much they *don't* overlap...

My idolo nymphs don't like being handled. But as soon as I get an adult, I plan to interact with them daily and see if I can encourage a behavior difference. I hesitate to use the word "tame" as I don't believe it applies to mantids but I'm willing to put it to the test.

Congrats Precarious! And thanks to LLCoolJew for capturing the event, being able to see pics of the exhibit and response from visitors is very cool.

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing. Any guesses on how many nymphs hatched from the ootheca?

Good news for you: poinsettias are not poisonous. http://urbanext.illinois.edu/poinsettia/faq.cfm

I have nymphs approaching adulthood. If all goes well, I will have Gongy ooths and nymphs for sale this summer.

I was already skeptical of the "mantids + crickets = infertile ooths" claim and it appears that's now debunked. Well, at least for idolos, though I've recently heard it for gongys too.

I reluctantly agree with most of your post but I don't want to. The "never good enough" sentiment sadly applies to modern, general society and certainly isn't unique to this hobby. And though some folks obviously behave in the disdainful manner you cited, I like to think it's a minority.

Nice shot. Would you like some mantis with your order of antennae?

I like your list. :) And thanks for bringing this thread back on track vs. turning it into a discussion of the difficulties of raising idolos. ;)

+1 At one point Yen reported a ~60% success rate at getting an idolo nymph to adulthood. If someone like Yen (with years of experience with many different species) reports that success rate, what does that tell you?

That's awesome Roberto! I once performed a trumpet duet on CBS television (long before Youtube) but I consider that small potatoes compared to playing for the President of the United States. You da man!

I think it's very promising that she's still around and it sounds like you're doing the right things. Keep her warm and hydrated and be patient, healing takes time.

Very cool! I'm also an amateur magician. I did a lot of card tricks through my teenage years and early 20s but once I started working in software and earning a steady income, I later shifted to more expensive illusions, with my preferences shifting towards tricks for a mature audience, such as...