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I have never ever seen a mantis survive any injury to the abdomen. This is a miraculous save.  Long story short: My mantis was hanging out on the top of the enclosure. My new cat clawed the mantis in the abdominal region. A brownish substance was oozing from her and she could not walk anymore. ...

I moved her to a new enclosure about a week ago. She stayed on the top, so I guess I didn't mist her enough. It is very dry in AZ.  3 days ago I fed her a dubia roach.  She ate it, but left its exoskeleton. I thought that was weird, then I noticed she was trying to eliminate fecal matter. I...

I have a sub adult iris oratoria. I think her enclosure was too dry.  Now she has dry fecal matter i cannot remove with tweezers and water. Has anyone tried anything else like lactulose to lubricate, externally only. . . or oils? 

Yes. They are very fragile and tough to feed. I have hydea fruit flies which about 25% of them are eating! They are the same size!   It will be in the 80's here in the next couple days, but it still might get cold again..  Maybe I will release some. I was thinking of trying to raise some until...

I was planning on transplanting my iris oratoria ooths to my backyard on my day off, so I had them in an enclosure near my back door. I figured the ooths would not hatch outside because it still drops to the 30's or 40's at night in Phoenix sometimes. Anyways, one of the ooths hatched inside...

Thank you for the ideas!  The ooth fatty girl laid was in a much bigger terrarium, that I use for mating. But I switched terrariums for my girls because fatty girl is the only one that seems comfortable in a the smaller terrarium. Now I'll have to prep a bigger terrarium and find somewhere else...

Hello.  I have an egg bound iris oratoria, about 2.5 months adult.  About a month ago, I mated her with my male and she laid 1 nice ooth. After 1 month, she is too fat and unsuccessful--she tried to lay another ooth yesterday, but it was just a tiny blob. So mating her worked a little.  I could...

Yes.  It was very strange.  I will feed more water to her.  So far she is ok.  I will keep you posted. Thank you

I fed my Iris Oratoria a green grasshopper from outside. when she ate it i noticed a black liquid just like the black death liquid in sick mantids.  I got scared because i never seen so much in a grasshopper besides a tiny bit of brown stuff from their mouths.  I got scared and sprayed it with...

I have Iris oratoria that are naturalized in the desert here in AZ.  No, male adults are not fun pets, unfortunately.  And it definately looked like your male is infected from his abdomen. One thing that I have learned is that after the first 2 weeks of male adulthood, the males cannot handle...

Thank you!!!

I heard carrots are not good for crickets.  Most everything else can mold.  Has anyone had any problems feeding crickets potatoes?

The horn worm I fed to my mantid was store bought.  I was assured it did not eat tomato leaves.  But if the horn worm ate its own feces, maybe the feces had too much bad bacteria? 

I fed a horn worm to a mantid and the mantid died a couple days later.  The hornworm was eating mulberry and I think its own feces.  I just lost 2 mantids to black death.  They ate crickets that were infected with the virus I guess.  Can mantids eat crickets feeding on potato?

This is my favorite species.  Some of the adult females actually become so domesticated, that they will know you from someone else.  They are like uncuddly kitty cats. I had many last year and this year none of the ooths hatched.  I tried to leave the ooths outside, but our winter was harsh.  ...

Thank you! That's right: Raptorials!  Now in my gut, I think it was more a lack of handling that led to his demise.  His sibling is in much worse shape than he was, so I was paying more attention to the sibling by hand feeding, watering off tooth-pick, etc. . . I believe he lost his raptorial...

My male iris oratoria was very healthy until about 5 days ago.  He started going into the threat pose for no reason for the first time ever.  Then 2 days ago, he lost half one of his front "paws".  So I fed him.  Yesterday he only could eat 2 fruit flies.  This morning he was running around in...

I have 3 L3 iris oratoria that are failing to thrive. Maybe no sun? They will not eat.  I would let them go, but they are not acclimated to the heat. Shipping needs to be overnight. Thank you

That is sad :(

Mantis place had good melanogaster flies.  I saved a couple nymphs, but most died.  Now that it is warm about a hundred more nymphs hatched.  I just don't see any small bugs out here. There are no aphids or argentine ants.  I have found those gnats before but I can't find them now.  I know that...