Greetings from Alabama

Adrenna · Nov 12, 2013

Name's Jennifer from N. Alabama.

I have a small container garden and had the fortune of being introduced to the mantis this year. I had a female show up that decided that my potting bench and outside light made for a good territory. We decided on a tradeoff - she would let me document her lifecycle and I would leave the light on at night for her to hunt.

Sure enough, I saw the remnants of her final molt and saw her mate. Two days after mating, she disappeared and another mantis returned to the same territory two days later. I'm not 100% sure it was the same one. However, as moths started ebbing and temps started cooling into the 50s, I decided to move the now named Betty into the house. Betty has laid 3 egg sacs since September and is fed a diet of crickets and moths I would catch for her. Since we've had the first freeze, she's primarily eating Petsmart's finest.

I suspect Betty is a budwing mantis. Pic attached.

I also have a second mantis named Little Tiger. Little Tiger was captured on my basil plant and is immature - has not done its final molt and may never have the chance to. LT molted the first time (since September) last weekend. I had to help get off the exoskeleton from the back leg and LT had some damage to the leg. However, that didn't stop LT from eating a cricket tonight.

LT is nicknamed U-boat from the u-shaped body. Not exactly sure the species of LT.

So it's been a fun year - I've seen almost all aspects of the mantis lifecycle - the molt, the mate, the egg laying. I'll keep Betty and LT until they die later this year or in spring. It's been an intriguing experience and I've gotten to toy with macro photography as well.

Betty the Mantis

Little Tiger a few days before molting

sally · Nov 12, 2013

Welcome

what a lovely story.

Adrenna · Nov 12, 2013

And a short story regarding the learning experience...

While I had read a great bit about praying mantises prior to bringing in Betty, I was still fairly green. I hadn't held a mantis yet since last year I saw someone get stabbed to blood and to make a Mormon yell profanity.. well.. it didn't look like it felt great. Additionally, I had read that while the females had small wings, they weren't great flyers.

So I was starting to work with Betty and begin handling her. I found it absolutely adorable how she'd wave her forearms frantically at me when I'd get near. I've got videos where I'm talking to her, etc.

What I didn't realize was that the frantic arm waving was sign for "COME HERE AND LET ME CLIMB YOUR FACE". Betty has a singular drive towards getting as high as humanly possible and she looks to me to make that happen.

So I'm holding her container lid and watching her when all of a sudden she spreads her stubby wings and launches on my chest. I burst out in a horror movie type scream because this was completely unexpected. My boyfriend was there at the time and Betty was crawling across my V-neck so I could feel her starting to slip into my shirt. Betty was running as fast as a mantis can so everyone was not pleased with this current situation.

All and all, it ends fine. The boyfriend gets Betty back in her lid, I secure her back where she'll stay stone still for an hour or two and I eventually get out of my peak cardio zone from the fright. I let Betty crawl on me frequently and enjoy watching her but I now realize that those stubby little wings will at least propel her forward momentarily and we haven't had an incident again.