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So I was showing my girlfriend my L6 Chinese mantis and how it likes to stretch out and wave as it tries to reach a taller object when it stops waving its raptors and pauses. The mantis cocked its head for a second as if contemplating its next move and then promptly jumped right onto her face...

My Chinese mantises are mostly L5 or L6. I noticed that 2 of my 9 mantises have legs that bend backwards at the joint or are curved like spaghetti, they don't really use them. What causes this? I want to be sure they don't have this issue in their final molt.

So yesterday my chinese mantids transformed/pupated/powered up to L2 stage. They are huuuge! I can't believe they doubled in length in a few hours. They must have been like coiled springs in their old shells. One of the L2s ate an L1, so i suppose its molt or be eaten. I'm down to between...

So I've noticed several dead nymphs. They don't seem injured in any way at all. They are just dead. I don't know why. They seem to be eating very well and I've been misting the enclosure. Its not too wet on one side of the tank (where the light is), the other side has ca bit of fog on it...

I bought 6 egg cases off ebay about 3 weeks ago, one has already hatched and I am inundated with more mantids than I can care for at the moment. If I chill the other 5 egg cases will it kill the developing mantids or simply delay them from hatching even though they might be close to hatching now?

Oh man... so my mantids hatched today 2 weeks earlier than I had expected. I noticed them all over my walls and ceiling, desk, window shades, fish tank, etc... They slipped through a tiny crack in the window screen mesh I had covering the tank. I had to wrangle mantids for about 40 minutes...

I was thinking... I have noticed quite a few aphids on one of my plants that if I were to grow more aphids I could use them as a food source for freshly hatched chinese mantids? I have read that sprouting beans is a good food for aphids. Any idea if this is true or an easy way of culturing them?

I heard that one method of getting past the difficult first instar stage is to let the newly hatched mantises eat each other until you have only a few left. Is this possible or even a good idea? I bought 5 egg cases off ebay (since they didn't offer fewer). Unfortunately I can't raise 1000+...

I found this mantis in Sacramento CA, not sure what species or sex but I took some pics of it before letting it go.

This is my chinese mantis that I caught in the wild in late, late fall just before the first freeze in CT USA.

I caught this mantis about a week and a half ago. The first few days I had her she was able to move her claw and use it to eat, however, I noticed a dark spot in the joint. The past 2-3 days she has not been able to open it at all. I'm not sure what caused the damage or what the damage is...