After 18 months of Lurking............My name is.....

[Bug Trader]

My name is Mike,

Im one of the guys who grew up in the herp hobby, parents who imported and bred critters from all over the globe it was in my blood to follow. Im 31 now and have been keeping/ breeding poison dart frogs, arachnids and mantids for well over a decade with my wife and kids with good success as well as having a long term feeder collection that has saved me quite a few bucks over the years. Ive been a member here since 2010 when I was alerted to it by a member on arachnoboards and did not want to jump in here and be as vocal as I am in my other hobbies due to this is the one I have the least amount of knowledge in. As far as keeping, breeding and feeding mantids I have custom racks of two, five, and twenty gallon verts they are kept in and I hope to introduce you guys and gals to a few of my techniques as well as help anyone in need with feeders or custom vivs or vert kits at the best deals on the internet. With my recent family emergency I was forced to pretty much get rid of my entire dart frog collection "60 vivs" so with the workload much lower I hope to be able to contribute and help this hobby out as much as possible.

 

[dlemmings]

welcome!!!!

I look forward to another experienced breeder to answer questions.

what mantid species are you currently working with?

 

[hibiscusmile]

Welcome!

 

[Bug Trader]

My time with mantids has been mostly working with native or introduced species S. carolina, religiosa, and T. aridifolia sinensis as we regularly keep them around the organic gardens and house to help control pests. We also keep or were keeping a few non native or non introduced species like H. coronatus which we lost our line over a year ago and havent been able to reaquire, G. gongylodes and I. Diabolica which I have lost recently as well. I plan to do a bit more research into what I can legally import a Ive had an import license for a couple years going to waste since we stopped taking on dart frogs.

Mike

 

[maybon]

Welcome mate glad to see another experienced person to share some knowledge with the noobies.

 

[Rick]

Welcome

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Better late then never, Ha-ha... Welcome!

 

[happy1892]

Welcome. Actually exotic mantids are illegal to keep in America but I have not heard anybody getting in trouble. Never release the exotic mantids! I have read that it is almost impossible to get a permit for importing and exporting mantids. I have heard that it is hard for even zoos and other maybe other places like that to get a permit to import or export mantids maybe to keep them too. In England and other places it is not illegal to keep many exotic insects. I have read that it is illegal to have any exotic insect in America that eats plants.

 

[Zedrael]

Welcome! I'm sorry to hear about your dart frogs, they're so cute >.< I'm a pretty new enthusiast. I just started here not too long ago. My parents were herp people too. I currently have a baby beardie that I love dearly. The mantids I have are the babies of a Stagmomantis Carolina that I found on my neighbors house last winter. I'd be happy to trade a few babies with you, if you're interested!

 

[minard734]

Welcome to the club!

 

[Bug Trader]

I wasnt aware of the legal issues with the exotic mantids but nonregulated and illegal are two different areas that most exotic hobbies have to tread lightly on, My longest lived hobby has been recently attacked by people looking to shut it down so its up to us all to be careful and not stress words like illegal, smuggled, dangerous and such as these forums are a cataloged list of names and whats going on and there are people like F&W and other bodies watching over that can and will attempt to end this hobby.. Non native and non introduced are two different issues as well but I do know better than to release anything into the wild thats not meant to be there. As for our mantids we release they are field collected on our property when needed and kept with the other natives in screen housing inside the greenhouse.which is right in the center of the property and gardens.

Our exotics have always had their own racks setup in the frog room. I hope to put the collection back together and see about breeding a few this year.

As for the laws with importing I hope to find out a few things and see what can be done, we have brought in herps as well as arachnids from Europe before but never mantids so this will be a new learning experience either way.

Mike

 

[happy1892]

I wasnt aware of the legal issues with the exotic mantids but nonregulated and illegal are two different areas that most exotic hobbies have to tread lightly on, My longest lived hobby has been recently attacked by people looking to shut it down so its up to us all to be careful and not stress words like illegal, smuggled, dangerous and such as these forums are a cataloged list of names and whats going on and there are people like F&W and other bodies watching over that can and will attempt to end this hobby.. Non native and non introduced are two different issues as well but I do know better than to release anything into the wild thats not meant to be there. As for our mantids we release they are field collected on our property when needed and kept with the other natives in screen housing inside the greenhouse.which is right in the center of the property and gardens.

Our exotics have always had their own racks setup in the frog room. I hope to put the collection back together and see about breeding a few this year.

As for the laws with importing I hope to find out a few things and see what can be done, we have brought in herps as well as arachnids from Europe before but never mantids so this will be a new learning experience either way.

Mike

Great! Sorry, I should have sent you a PM.

 

[Andyfrog321]

Welcome!!!