Enclosures and Housing: The Basics

[Precarious]

I am going to K-mart today! I have been looking for something that will fit my designated area, for a couple of months. I don't use net cages but I have a real problem keeping all of my containers organized, and that looks like it will fit nicely in my spot!

You may have to lay cardboard or something over the grids if you're using them for smaller containers. Even still, hard to find that much shelving for that price.

 

[lunarstorm]

Thanks! I just ordered two of the cube storage units. One for the home office mantis setup (I do think I'll get a couple of 12"x12" net cubes at some point) and another to add a cheap organizer for elsewhere in my house.

 

[PhilinYuma]

C'mon , experienced mantiseers! Precarious has gotten us off to a great start;urely there is some aspect of his post that you can expand on! You could even make up one for yourself.

He mentions the importance of placing ports in deli cups. I completely agree, but they don't come with ports, so you have to, gasp, make yr own! There have been long discussions on this before, but here is my, "I'm stuck with fifty lids nd I'd better bore them out" method -- I have just finished drilling 50, so I'm up to date.

The bung. It'sasier to fit the hole to the bung, so take care of that f9rst. If you buy a hundred 32 oz deli cups with lids (bulk discount) from Mantisplace) buy 200 foam bungs as well and save yourself a lot of work. I make my own from foam matress material, but it is a lot of work, though cheaper and more fun. To cut foam you need a pair of seriously large scissors.

To cut a hole in the lid, all you really need is a pair of sharp, small, scissors. If you want to cut round holes, use a pair of cuticle scissors and cut inside the ring of eight holes around the center of the lid.You can also cut square holes, which makes life easier for me. The sponge is very forgiving, and a round sponge will fit into a swuare hole and vice versa. Just be sure that the hole is smaller than the sponge! When you do the same thing with a hole in the side of the pot, you will find that it is easy for the hole to turn into a crack, ruining the pot. This is a particular problem if you try to cut youtr holes with an Xacto blasde instaead of scissors. To avoid cracks and to start a hole in the lid, you can use a Dremel tool --or inerior copy(!) -- to bore a hole with a cone or "Christmas tree' burr. You can drill two ior three stacked lids at onvce like this, and it will start your first cut with the scissors. For the hole on the side, drill four small holes for the corners and cut to them This works like etxching the ends of a crack in your windshield; it stops the cut/crack from extending.

O.K.! Start ciuttoing. It wont do itself!

 

[lancaster1313]

Thanks! I just ordered two of the cube storage units. One for the home office mantis setup (I do think I'll get a couple of 12"x12" net cubes at some point) and another to add a cheap organizer for elsewhere in my house.

I just went to K-mart and picked one up today. I am loving that thing! I can't fit all of it into my spot, but now my kid has a little storage space, and I will be tie wrapping a couple of the square pieces inside a cube or two, to make shelves for my smaller containers!

 

[lancaster1313]

I do not consider myself to be all that experienced, but not a beginner either. I think I am somewhere in between, so here is a little something that I hope may help someone.

Sometimes when I get a crack in plastic, I just use low temp glue to seal it.

Also, with some of my thicker containers I use a hole saw bit on a drill, carefully.

A little tip about using low temp or hot glue for fastening screen or mesh for containment purposes:

I like to rough up the surface that I will be gluing if the plastic is smooth. Sandpaper or even scratching with a serraded knife can do this. I have had glued screen peel right off in places(resulting in escaped feeders, and 1 mantis) when I glued onto smooth surfaces. Do not rough up your surfaces if you don't want the results to be permanent.

 

[Precarious]

Here's a tip:

When I'm cutting out lids (like in the DVD spindle) or whole walls to replace with screen I use a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel.

Box cutters and X-acto blades are dangerous when your using a lot of pressure and tend to split plastic. The cutting wheel works great! But don't use too high speed or the plastic melts and splatters all over. Always use safety glasses too. I almost got molten plastic in my eye last week! I was lucky I only burned my eyelid. nline2long:

Apparently there are also attachments for soldering irons that can be used to cut plastic but I haven't been able to find any with good ratings. There are also tools called 'hot knives' dedicated to cutting styrofoam and plastic. If anyone finds a good one fill us in.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

It was very good of you Precarious to take the time to share some of the basic knowledge that some of us/you have learned over time, all the new people here(and some older ones) should benefit greatly and more than likely have more "alive" and healthy pets that will like where they call home.

When using sticks or branches I like to use ones that have a soft bark on them so the claws(toes) can really dig in, so I use lilac since it has the soft bark and many off shoots per square foot which ends up being very good for molting on and giving them another branch very close to climb onto. If it works good for presub and sub adult Idolos it should work on any mantis out there.

You pretty well covered the enclosures but here's some I'll add just for the heck of it, all using lilac but any soft barked tree's will do just fine...

This could be done in any enclosure, not just store bought ones, and BTW all the branches were FREE and may be what they use in the wild I think. :smarty:

And one with a fresh molt next to them

 

[lancaster1313]

You may have to lay cardboard or something over the grids if you're using them for smaller containers. Even still, hard to find that much shelving for that price.

I was working with the shelving again this morning, putting small containers on it and all. It turns out that I don't need to lay anything on it to make things work for my smaller containers.

My unit looks slightly different than the one pictured, the grids may be slightly smaller, and it is black!

I have also found that the grids are useful for hanging hemostats, tongs, and other tools of the trade. I am going to visit the dollar store to get few packs of climbers clips to make it easier to suspend lightweight tools and stuff.

Thanks for finding and sharing about this awesome product! It seems as if the possibilities are endless with it.