Any tips for furnishing a Dead Leaf enclosure?

[cat_h]

Hi guys,

My dead leaf mantids are arriving today (I am super super excited btw). I have their setups ready but for some reason they didn't come out quite as well as I had thought.

Don't get me wrong... I've made sure the requirements are all there with respect to perches and places with hanging depth to moult. The mantids should be perfectly happy and healthy, it's more of an aesthetic issue I think.

Being dead leaf mantids I thought it would be cool to have brown/dried up leaves as hiding spots and decor. I put them in the freezer for a couple days to kill off any extra beasties and then hung twigs/leaves from the perching frame I made. To be honest it looks a bit dreary and not as naturalistic as I had intended. Looks like a nice stick insect enclosure that got left until all the leaves died off. Neglectful chic was not what i was going for lol

So after that long winded lead in, my questions for you all are....

1 - does anyone have tips for making a good looking enclosure featuring dessicated foliage?

2 - or do folks just tend to keep dead leaf mimics on fresh or silk green foliage?

3 - do the mantids care? Do they thrive better when they can be cryptic or is that not a thing?

Thanks for reading!

Cat

 

[Ocelotbren]

Interesting question, I have no experience with dead foliage myself, but I'm interested in others' answers.  I am wondering if real dead foliage would dry out and crumble over time though.

The only thing that comes to mind to that might be along the lines of dead foliage but using fake plants would be fall colored leaves such as orange, yellow, red and possibly brown, so that at least the color scheme wouldn't be green.

Hopefully you get the answers you're looking for and good luck!

 

[cat_h]

Thanks! Yeah I was thinking I'd have to replace it periodically especially if it gets cricket parts stuck to it.

I'm other news...My mantids arrived and they are absolutely freaking unreal! I cannot get over how cool the leaf mimicry is. Gave them some time to settle and they just slammed a cricket each. Can't stop looking at them

 

[Teamonger]

Not sure how to make dead leaves more attractive. Perhaps attempt to add a mixture of dead and green (fake or real plants) to offset the dreary? Or perhaps make/buy some fake mushrooms to add a bit of color and fun? Or change up the substrate, colored sand, moss, or anything that is not just adding more brown to the picture?

I have a crazy plan for a ghost enclosure that involves a twine dream catcher along with all the dead leaves. Its going to be a while before I actually have any ghosts now that my last attempt failed but it will happen and I'm going to go full artist crazy on that habitat hehe.

When it comes to dead foliage I tend to use only oak branches. Oak trees are way more unwilling to give up their leaves then most trees so in the fall after all the other trees are bear you can find oaks still decked out in dead leaves. The plus to that is that the leaves are attached hard core to the branches and you shouldn't need to fiddle with any hot gluing of leaves or the like.

 

[Ocelotbren]

Thanks! Yeah I was thinking I'd have to replace it periodically especially if it gets cricket parts stuck to it.

I'm other news...My mantids arrived and they are absolutely freaking unreal! I cannot get over how cool the leaf mimicry is. Gave them some time to settle and they just slammed a cricket each. Can't stop looking at them

That's awesome!  I got my first exotic species about a month ago (ghosts) and I was the same way.  Actually, I still can't stop looking at them!

 

[cat_h]

Not sure how to make dead leaves more attractive. Perhaps attempt to add a mixture of dead and green (fake or real plants) to offset the dreary? Or perhaps make/buy some fake mushrooms to add a bit of color and fun? Or change up the substrate, colored sand, moss, or anything that is not just adding more brown to the picture?

I have a crazy plan for a ghost enclosure that involves a twine dream catcher along with all the dead leaves. Its going to be a while before I actually have any ghosts now that my last attempt failed but it will happen and I'm going to go full artist crazy on that habitat hehe.

When it comes to dead foliage I tend to use only oak branches. Oak trees are way more unwilling to give up their leaves then most trees so in the fall after all the other trees are bear you can find oaks still decked out in dead leaves. The plus to that is that the leaves are attached hard core to the branches and you shouldn't need to fiddle with any hot gluing of leaves or the like.

The dream catcher thing sounds awesome. I saw a tarantula setup that was Mayan themed once, and with all the webbing and stuff it looked phenomenal. Defo some amazing end results if you have that artistic flair

Great tip about the oak, thanks! I'll keep my eye out for where my local oak trees are for when the seasons change.

I think my next approach will be to crop a few strands out of a silk ficus and intersperse them with the dead leaves to add some green. May add some moss too when i do a substrate change. After seeing how good the mantids look blending with the dead foliage I'm determined to keep at least some in there

 

[CosbyArt]

The best looking setup used the fake fall color changing leaves, true brown leaves (real or fake) tend to look as you described, neglectful. In regards to the mantids and leaves, my Deroplatys lobata females did fine without a single leaf their whole lives.

 

[cat_h]

Here is an update on the set-up. I got rid of the real (dead) leaves, and put in some fake ones. I chopped out "stems" from a fake ficus and from a weird filler plant that was originally designed for flower arranging. I got some aquarium suction cups and my trusty hot glue gun and made half a dozen sprigs from a mix of the two colours. They are long enough that they reach the substrate to act as ladders

Please excuse the quality of the pic, the way the light is in the room combined with my shoddy camera skills dont really do it justice.





There are more plants that go in the back corners too. I left it pretty open as I wasn't sure how the moulting would go, and I didn't want to clutter it up and cause issues. I'll add more perches once they moult to adult. 

For ventilation there is a double layer of mesh, one tight over the whole top of the enclosure, the other glued into the lid itself where I cut a panel out. Theres a small heatmat underneath which is on a timer just to give a couple of degrees boost. Its a fairly warm room anyways.

I enjoyed setting it up, and learned a lot for the next time. I guess thats always how it goes with the first effort. 

Thanks for looking

 

[CosbyArt]

@cat_h Very nice looking setup with plenty of room too! Your mantid on the top stick perch blends in nicely, and I imagine is loving the setup.

The fall affect seems to really pull off the look much better, and some dead leaves (actual leaves dead or fake - not just mantids) can be added as well if you want. With the splash of color it breaks up the bleak decorations of a dead nearly winter look.

I enjoyed setting it up, and learned a lot for the next time. I guess thats always how it goes with the first effort. 

That's the way it goes for each project, or at least it should. I know I learn or relearn things each time I do something, and inspires me to keep at it.

 

[hymenopus]

Very nice cage, I wish my ghost had something like that!

 

[Ocelotbren]

It looks great; I like the mix of colors.