1 month keeping Mantids - Already have an Ootheca!

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XcX

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Hi everyone,

So this might be an unusual situation. I found a Mantis crawling on the back garden fence (Perth, Western Australia) on New Years Day so I caught it and placed it in a small plastic container the like for Hummus! Later that day when looking for some fruit flies, I managed to find two more so I though to myself, I might try and raise these... They are already L3 and doing great. Only downside is it looks like they are all Male Garden mantids. I was really looking forward to possible breeding!

Fast forward to this last week. I managed to find 5 more new nymphs, these ones are a different species but still too small to tell what they are. They look like they could be Budwing as I can see some stripes on their legs and they hold their raptorial legs out in front unlike the Garden variety.

The same day I found these new nymphs I found an adult female Chinese Mantis!!! I placed her in a large old (clean) fish tank with a dried palm tree husk that fell in my garden and fed her some grasshoppers and crickets... only had her 3 days and woke up this morning to find the cockroach she wasn't interested in yesterday had been reduced to a single leg AND a freshly laid Ootheca placed perfectly on the underside of the palm husk!

I can only think that this is not how all mantis keepers start out on their journey so I wanted to share this with you all in my first post. I just hope she had mated prior to me finding her and I have some new babies on the way in a month or so! 

Still a complete newbie at keeping mantids and learning as I go, any comments on my setup etc would be greatly appreciated. I'm definitely not sure on the small stones and want to get a better substrate.

Niall

Budwing Mantis L1.jpg

Chinese Mantis with new Ootheca.jpg

Garden Mantis L3.jpg

 
Welcome to the forum!

and welcome to the mantis world!

Congratulations on the ooth, and the wonderful babies! And no, I don’t know about other people here, but I really didn’t start out on my journey like that! Nice little fellas. And a lovely lady. For now, I think your setup looks great, but you should wait for the masters to come in.

Once again, welcome!

—D.E.

 
Hello Niall and welcome to the forum
welcome.gif


Sounds like a great start to the hobby, different instars and species too. I started by finding a wild Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) years ago, but nothing like what you have. Looks like you jumped right into it all from the start. :D

The nymphs look like they are setup great, just ensure they are tall enough for molts. Ideally the container will be three times taller than the nymph is currently long, to ensure a proper molt. Which is if the nymph is currently 1cm long, the habitat should be 3cm tall inside at least. Glad to see no hanging sticks inside that lead to mismolts, the horizontal stick at top is fine.

For the adult the only concern is the rocks/gravel in the bottom. If she falls on them they can easily cause damage, even punctures, and especially for a gravid female (larger, heavier) can be fatal. You can replace it with paper towel as you did with the nymphs, coconut fiber, sphagnum peat moss, or similar material - which in case of a fall will cushion her too.

 
Welcome!  It looks good as long as the nymphs have enough vertical space, as CosbyArt mentioned.  My only thought is that you might consider adding mesh to the lids so that they have something easier to grip while molting, if they don't choose to use the stick.

 
Hi I’m new too and hoping to have that kind of luck when I finally do find the mantids I can settle on. That’s awesome. How many varieties of mantis do you have living around you?

 
WElcome, sorry I am late, been sick..... :angry:  Do you have other pics of her? Does not look like chinese to me.

 
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I was thinking the same thing Hibiscus, looks like maybe a budwing to me?  Judging by her colors and the way the ooth looks.  Does she have full wings?

Although, I'm not sure that budwings would be found in Australia.. so I'm probably wrong =)

 
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