I mostly breed because I end up humanizing them in my mind. It is hard for me to see the girl's calling so plaintively and expending so much energy on oothecae, knowing they are infertile. Then there are the boys that roam/flutter around in there cages in the dark of night, endlessly searching for a lady mantis to romance. I don't really notice hobby expense with as little as I tend to pay out of pocket. I raise my own feeders and typically only buy/trade for mantises about once a year as my old ones age out. Feeding my roach colony probably costs the most on a yearly basis. Sad to say but sometimes I think they get more fruits and veggies in their diet on a daily basis than I do. I really need to start feeding them my junkfood and eat what I am giving them instead. :sweatdrop:
It would be nice to see a yard full of mantises. Sadly it doesn't seem like I get much around the house even when I release. I think the competition might be too fierce mixed with the fact the grass is regularly cut. I don't get a lot of grasshoppers either and I've noticed mantises tend to like the same places you often find grasshoppers. It is a bummer as I get literally everything else under the sun though.
I'm in the same boat, I tend to breed them for pets and help them with their goal in life.
Indeed if keeping feeders is done, the hobby can be a small expense.
Expense isn't the point though, as with another hobby of mine music, you wouldn't believe the amount of my money I spend to get some decent vintage equipment then to get it up and running great again - and the records/tapes/cds/etc. One of my favorites is analog tapes (8 tracks, cassettes, and reel to reels - in that order), I like the unique sound and it actually makes me want to listen to music and make new tapes. Sure I have digital music, I do needle drops (recording my vinyl records to preserve them) and other formats to mp3s as well and buying mp3s too, (I currently have 11,163 songs that are 320cbr bitrate on my PC (way better than I can hear so no need for flac)), but I rarely play them on my PC. I record them to tape and listen that way, or play the original formats - I much prefer it than the digital files. Anyway the point is we do things for the love of the hobby and not to recoup money, as that would be a job.
Long way to make a point lol. I'm glad though you are in it for the enjoyment of the hobby, it makes it more fun.
A trick I learned to keep mantids around is to leave a area in my yard "wild". I leave my carport area alone, and it let the local weeds and vines flourish around it and over the fence. It is about a foot from the fence on both sides around the area, and it is enough. It gives me plenty of insect life and mantids too, and is worth it.
Besides letting a area run wild you can also plant some flower beds full of larger flowers like lilacs, rose bushes, and have large flowering bushes. I think she has about a dozen species of plants but can't remember them at the moment. We have about 1/2 the backyard covered in a few large flower beds, besides looking nice, it attracts lots of insects and mantids. As a bonus we covered the border around them with geode rocks (6 pickup truck loads full) and I can collect many isopods, centipedes, arachnids, beetles, and other things just from under the rocks - and leads to other insect pets.