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I have 2 adult females, the older of which is now about 18 months old, and the other one is a couple of months younger.    I tried breeding the older one back in June, but the first mating seemed to be unsuccessful, and she ate the male on the second attempt. I’ve now got a chance at getting...

I have an adult female orchid who moulted to adult about 4 weeks ago, and a male who moulted to adult about 4 days ago. As I was thinking about getting an adult male to try and breed the female, this feels like a sign! From reading up on it, the general advice is to wait for a month after the...

I’ve just ordered what’s just my second batch of housefly pupae. They seem to be gradually hatching if taken out of the fridge for a while, and I can then put the hatched flies into the terrarium for the mantis to catch. However, this batch are all coming out only able to crawl around, and some...

One of my orchids has lost a forearm at the elbow joint . Not sure if it gotten bitten off by a cricket(it was OK yesterday), he bit it off himself, or got it trapped somehow (he’s in a plastic pot with press on lid). From a quick read up, it seems that it may be able to regenerate the arm at...

My adult male orchid doesn’t seem to have eaten for a few days and I’m a bit worried about him being hungry. Normally I just pick him up, put him back down on the substrate, and then get a cricket or locust to run past him which he’ll grab if he’s hungry, but in the last few days he seems rather...

I had some new L2 orchid mantises turn up yesterday. The breeder warned me that they might start to moult to L3 as her unsold nymphs from the same ooth were moulting, Sure enough, one was lying on the floor of its pot when it arrived. I assumed it had died while moulting en route, but a while...

I had 3 orchids arrive today (ordered 2, got 1 free 🙂). The breeder messaged me yesterday that she thought they might be starting to moult to L3, and some unsold ones from the same ooth were moulting. Sure enough, one was lying on the floor of the pot when it arrived. I thought it was dead at...

After doing a fair bit of research and reading up, I decided I would start with an orchid mantis after all, which I’ll be picking up tomorrow. I think it’s a young male as I ordered a female, but it has a brown collar and the supplier said they were sold out of females. 🙁   Just thought it’d be...

Brought these two yesterday, so I’m on the way! 😎  I was going to put the heat mat on the back so it’s out of sight behind the background, but as this is polystyrene, I’m wondering if it might insulate the enclosure from the heat, and even if it might melt. Plus, what’s the most effective way...

Are these worthwhile bits of equipment for mantis keeping, particularly in the U.K. where it’s often cold and wet? And are automatic misters are useful, especially if you’re away for a few days? Thanks!

Hi, I’m thinking of getting a mantis (Probably an orchid) and am doing my homework to see what’s involved. The main issue seems to be with the needing live food. From reading up, the recommendation seems to be to mainly give them flies (houseflies or fruit flies depending on mantis’s age), and...

I’m considering the practicalities of keeping a mantis, with the main complication looking like their food (I’ll be posting in the relevant forum).