Jack
New member
My name is Jack. I am 86 years old. I am a retired engineer, and I live in a retirement community in Peterborough, NH, USA with my wife. My interests include RC model airplanes and sail boats, wood working, reading, music, and now, providing shelter and sustenance for a female praying mantis.
Last year, in February, we visited a butterfly garden near here. Remarkable. In the gift store there, I found an ootheca (I called it an egg case then) for sale. The praying mantis' ability to move its head has always intrigued me, and opportunity was staring me in the face, so ---. Took my purchase home, and following the instructions, popped it into the fridge. On April 15, put the container on the mantle and began watching. May 15 - nothing. Another week - nothing. Two more and still nothing. Then, one morning, babies!! Hundreds of them!! I had pretty much given up hope, and I was unprepared to provide for the swarm, so I divided them up and spread them around out doors. I now assume that was a mistake, because we never saw any of them during the summer So I got another ootheca this spring, fixed up some small containers, surfed the web to gather info (thoroughly confused by conflicting opinions) and started again. This time, hatching started on May 13, but surprisingly, only four (4) nymphs hatched. Puzzlement. Turns out that the butterfly people know nothing about raising mantises, so I still have no answers to that question. Nonetheless, we started out, feeding the little critters flightless fruit flies, until after a few molts the mantises began to ignore them. More advice, got some crickets, and all survived. Then attrition started. The puniest one failed to make it through a molt, and died. Next, while I was cleaning out its cage with an improvised vacuum hickey I'd made for the purpose, I came too close with the hose and tragedy struck. It wasn't quite as traumatic as having a puppy hit by a car, but close. Then the third failed to survive molting and died. That one had been off its feed for some time. Don't know if there was cause and effect there. Number four has gone on, went through a 7th molt 3 weeks ago, has wings, and is clearly a female, but what I suppose are her wing covers, seem not to have developed completely. That brings us up to date. At this point, I'm thinking about trying again next year, but at my age, I'm careful in my long range planning. The retirement community's mantra: " I don't buy green bananas.". I hope to hear from others here. All advice gratefully received.
Last year, in February, we visited a butterfly garden near here. Remarkable. In the gift store there, I found an ootheca (I called it an egg case then) for sale. The praying mantis' ability to move its head has always intrigued me, and opportunity was staring me in the face, so ---. Took my purchase home, and following the instructions, popped it into the fridge. On April 15, put the container on the mantle and began watching. May 15 - nothing. Another week - nothing. Two more and still nothing. Then, one morning, babies!! Hundreds of them!! I had pretty much given up hope, and I was unprepared to provide for the swarm, so I divided them up and spread them around out doors. I now assume that was a mistake, because we never saw any of them during the summer So I got another ootheca this spring, fixed up some small containers, surfed the web to gather info (thoroughly confused by conflicting opinions) and started again. This time, hatching started on May 13, but surprisingly, only four (4) nymphs hatched. Puzzlement. Turns out that the butterfly people know nothing about raising mantises, so I still have no answers to that question. Nonetheless, we started out, feeding the little critters flightless fruit flies, until after a few molts the mantises began to ignore them. More advice, got some crickets, and all survived. Then attrition started. The puniest one failed to make it through a molt, and died. Next, while I was cleaning out its cage with an improvised vacuum hickey I'd made for the purpose, I came too close with the hose and tragedy struck. It wasn't quite as traumatic as having a puppy hit by a car, but close. Then the third failed to survive molting and died. That one had been off its feed for some time. Don't know if there was cause and effect there. Number four has gone on, went through a 7th molt 3 weeks ago, has wings, and is clearly a female, but what I suppose are her wing covers, seem not to have developed completely. That brings us up to date. At this point, I'm thinking about trying again next year, but at my age, I'm careful in my long range planning. The retirement community's mantra: " I don't buy green bananas.". I hope to hear from others here. All advice gratefully received.
There is a lot of amazing info on the forum about almost anything you could want to know about rearing mantids. I am sure you will love it.
