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i use vermiculate, it holds moisture well and is clean paper towels are a good idea except for if you use crickets or roaches to feed... they hide between the bits of paper towel where the mantis wont go!!! the same goes for fruit flies too, its ok if you keep it quite wet, but as it dries it...

i found that potatoe flakes, pinch of yeast, a little bit of honey and a little bit of vinegar works fine for fruit flies i give the fruit flies fruit juice on cotten wool to keep them lively when i take them out of the culture prior to feeding the mantis

yes! i have it! the plankton phase at the beginning seems a little rushed, the creature bit is great though anyone like to post thier creatures?

i dont like this talk of vertibrates being "more advanced" than invertibrates, the evolution of animals isn't hierarchical, its simply a process of creatures adapting to fill unfilled niches, if, in order to do that they need a spine and to dispose of the exoskeleton then that is what they do...

one of mine did the same thing... its still alive but i have often spotted watery sludgy trails on the side of the containers and wondered what it was, my chinese mantis did the same thing but it grew up big and strong, i never witnessed it "vomitting" though, but a few days ago, i saw one of my...

haha! 32 degree's! thats roasty toasty! maybe you could try cooling the female down?

of course traits can be bred into any creature that reproduces sexually, that is the advantage of sexual reproduction itself, how do you think so many species of mantid evolved in the first place? honey bee's have been kept by humans for a loooong time, the monks and buckfast abbey have been...

wow those are really light in colour, do you keep them in the dark alot?

the only time i find my mantids on the substrate is when they are hungry and looking for food, or if there is something wrong with them to give them a drink i just give the container a good squirt with one of those plant misters, they will drink from the edge of the container if they want to...

I think the crickets must eat their own eggs, and pinhead crickets, they are predators afterall, and often nibble each other i found that wetting the substrate in the cricket container is an invitation for mould to develop and usually the moisture just kills them off i read on a website...

of course you can selectively breed insects, they've been doing it with honey bee's for a long time now look at the "killer bee's" that are like honey bee's but with a more agressive temperment due to crossbreeding

i'm going to vote for plastic too, i have an exo terra tank but i find its a bit heavy to move about, plus you've got the worry of it getting broken, the other thing is, i live in a hard water area, and i get a gradual build up of limescale on the sides of the tank from when i mist it, i filter...

that is a FANTSTIC idea, i would have never thought of doing that! doesnt it create an unfavourably hot area right under the heat mat though? i mean doesn't it quickly dry out?

i had the exact same problem with my first african mantis, i second third and fourth the idea that its caused by contact with the holding container, as when i bought my african mantis it was in a pet shop, and in retrospect i remember that the mantids were in a darkish corner and would peer out...

technically ants do not have a venomous "bite" as they have no fangs like arachnids, the venom, if any is located in the abdomen, usually formic acid, which they swing around and basically coat the wound with poisen, i think some species actually have a stinger? whether the small black ones you...

they look great! were they expensive?

LOL! i've never been bitten by a praying mantis! though my mum had once, but i think it just mistook her for food, they often whip out thier front claws at me, sometimes to rebuff me if i'm getting too close to thier mouth using the "backhand" of thier claw, sometimes they seem to do it to greet...