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If you feed crix to your mantids, what methods do you use to capture a cricket and deposit it into the mantid's housing?  For years I've tried spoons, toilet paper rolls, tweezers, small bottles.  It's always a nightmare trying to capture them.  How do you securely capture your crix??  Many...

They is risen ! Easter Mantids hatch this morning (one of three ooths). Nice, healthy births. About 200 cute, hungry pups. Now the panic to get them food (didn't expect the hatch quite so soon). I've been away from the hobby for a couple of years; now scrambling to re-establish vendor...

I've used a beautiful butterfly bush on my deck as a natural "hangout" for a number of my T. sinensis this summer.  To my disappointment I've lost several (one had stayed on the bush 3 weeks).  My last girl, a very gravid pet named Photon, disappeared after enjoying the bush for just one day. ...

This is Jet.  Is it a He or a She.  Jet acts very much like a male: skittish and takes to flying (for the moment).  But this picture of her abdomen sure looks like an adult Female T. sinensis.  I'd appreciate opinions.  Thanks !  BTW:  Look at that huge ear !

After all these years, I still have some trouble determining the sex of many mantids.  This is Photon - a healthy adult Tenodera sinensis.  Female, yes?  I look at all the diagrams and drawings and still often get confused.  Thanks for any input.

Now that Hix is an adult, I took her outside to enjoy the sun in my patio petunia patch.  She took to the plants immediately.  So much more inviting than a sterile old Kritter Keeper!  The second photo is a distance shot somewhat emulating "Where's Waldo."  Where's Hix? (Not that hard).

Hix was getting restless in her condominium, so I put her out on a porch houseplant.  As you see, she very happy to bask in the hot afternoon sun.

This is Liu, one of four L6 Tenodera sinensis (my favorite sp.) on a butterfly bush on my deck.  I decided to let him loose (random choice).  Conditions are perfect at the moment here in southeast Pennsylvania, having turned hot and a bit more humid. To entice him to make the bush his residence...

While feeding Photon, a newly-molted L5 Tenodera sinensis, a housefly this morning, she got some dried hot glue strands wrapped up in the fly while grabbing the food.  To my shock and awe, she ate part of the hot glue strand left on her raptors.  I was able to tweezer most of the remaining off...

I just gave Jet (an L3, soon to be L4) Tenodera sinensis his first fresh-caught wild moth.  A - "hold on for dear life" meal.  Had a fun soundtrack but it wouldn't translate into Youtube (I hate YT).

I am generally very careful what I feed my mantids - particularly youngsters.  Thus, almost always stick closely to the tried-and-true: Drosophila melanogasters, / Hydei, houseflies, damselflies (yum), etc., for L2 - L4.  I learned (through numerous trials and ::errors::) that caterpillars, or...

I've experienced an unusual number of molting problems with my recent Tenodera sinensis hatch.  Of the 8 nymphs I kept, 3 have molted to L2 or L3 with a rear leg malformation.  Having successfully raised Chinese mantids for years, I'm careful about living quarters size (3x or more height) and...

This is Qiji.  The term roughly translates from simple Chinese to English as "Miracle."   18 days ago, I had a Tenodera sinensis hatch in a Kritter Keeper (screened).  I picked out eleven newborns as keepers.  The rest I kept in the KK - misted and fed for a few days.  As expected most found...

My wild-harvested Tenodera sinesis ooth has hatched during the wee-hours this morning!  Lots of curious newborns running about and escaping into the new world.  The hatch came earlier than expected and my Drosophila melanogasters won't be here for 4 days or so.  So the scramble begins to find...

Mizar has been a little ooth factory.  Here she gobbles down a fresh, fat cricket after she (Mizar) finished producing her fourth egg case.  What a terrible shame all these ooths are infertile.  Try as I may, I found this sp. impossible to mate.

Now that I've installed a butterfly bush on my deck, I have access to more plump, delicious feeders than I know what to do with.  Don't capture the larger Monarchs or Tiger Swallowtails of course.  But the larger skippers and assorted moths make for a gorge galore.  Tonight I snagged a plain...

Amour Dangereux -- Zuri (the skinny guy on the right), ponders the enormous gamble of l'amour with beautiful Mizar (plump and very gravid, munching on a snack to keep her occupied) on the left. This species (Taumantis stigiana) includes incredibly aggressive females who tend to devour their...

I'm new to breeding T. sigiana.  I've found that both male and female are more skittish than many other sp.  The male, particularly so (afraid of food, his own shadow, the dark, you name it).  I've been warned that the girls are particularly difficult when introducing a male.  So, at the spur of...

When they're available, I try to put wild moths and lacewings on the dinner menu for my Taumantis sigiana.  The males (having reached adulthood way sooner than the girls), are considerably smaller and considerably skittish (even afraid of food).  So the boys get the lacewings (the males of this...

One of my six Taumantis sigiana, Subra,  has just reached adulthood.  What a pretty boy he is -- no?