Best Substrate

[nebrakacinese]

Paper Towels for me,would like to put up a display,I take the children out one at a time to feed at least for now

 

[mantisboy]

Sand.... I use a plastic fork just like a rake for feeder parts and poops. No mold, no mess, you can find it for free, and it lasts an entire season.

 

[sueb4653]

I use Jungle bed seems to hold the moisture well and I believe it has natural mold inhibitors

 

[nebrakacinese]

Idomantic cleaning with the plastic fork,good idea

 

[Searsy]

I use sand for all mine. I've never had a problem with it - easy to clean and cheap.

 

[zack4211]

@sueb4653 - can you post the link where to get it?

 

[rs4guy]

Sand, interesting, how well does it hold the moisture? I recently switched out all of my orchids to a coco coir/moss mix and it seems to work really well. I do like the sand idea......Not sure if springtals like sand though..,......

 

[BriGuy]

I also use sand. I bought a decent sized bag of colored aquarium sand and use half of it at a time for the enclosure. When it's cleaning time I remove my pet and the sticks and rinse out all the sand and junk into a big bucket. I'll then use a garden hose and fill up the bucket with water. The bug parts and poop float while the sand does not (except for little clumps of sand that I break up with the mist setting on the hose). I will do a few rounds of filling it up and dumping out the water (and junk) until the sand is clean. After decanting the majority of the water I set the bucket outside to dry which it does in time for the next cleaning.

In the housing, I'll pile up the sand to about an inch or so (3 cm) and then throw in a couple of my wife's makeup removers which are round, sturdy, and made of cotton. I soak the cotton pads and sand with a bit of water with a lab pippette (like a small turkey baster) and mist the enclosure every other day or so. The sand and cotton tend to retain a decent amount of moisture (without getting wet and soggy) and the feeder insects can't hide in it.

It's worked pretty well for me so far, but then again I'm still pretty new at this and I'm still refining my techniques.

 

[CoolMantid]

I prefer moss.But if u use crickets they can hide in the moss

 

[brancsikia339]

I personally don't use substrate for mantids except for the ones that need it. When i do, i use paper towels