Greetings from Santa Clarita, CA!

[EJ Burling]

[SIZE=17pt]Mantidforum.net intro[/SIZE]

[SIZE=17pt]Hi Everyone, Thanks for the add!  My love of mantids started with a T. sinensis ooth order for garden pest control purposes in Santa Clarita, CA.  Based on fond memories of my dad showing me how wild caught mantids would eat honey out of a spoon as a child of 5, in addition to a more recent experience of being honored to have been chosen for a visit by a wild S. limbata female on my back patio 3 years ago, I decided to keep several T. sinensis nymphs back and raise them in captivity.  After falling in love with their engaging and entertaining antics, now that they are gone, I miss them and am now looking for a couple of H. blue sp. (if sold sold in the US?, or..?) and S. limbata subadults native to this area since they appear to be more tolerant of the arid high desert climate low humidity here than T. sinensis.  If anyone happens to know of a source for H. blue sp. or S. limbata, either ooths or subadults, I would be most grateful for any information! [/SIZE]

 

[Connor]

Welcome to the forum! The blues are pretty commonly sold, you just got to look around and wait for some to put some up for sale. As far as limbata go... I have not seen them sold on here very often as native species are usually not sold for the simple fact that they are so common. I do have some S. Carolina ooths available here soon(they are closely related with S. Limbata).

 

[Rick]

Welcome

 

[Ocelotbren]

Welcome, cute picture!  I'm not sure about buying those two but hopefully you can find what you're looking for.  It's possible people have the S. limbata but just don't post them for sale, and you might be able to find some if you post a wanted ad in the classifieds:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/forum/6-mantids-for-salewanted/

Good luck!

 

[Sarah K]

Welcome!

 

[J.mena]

Welcome. My wild caught s. Limbata just laid an ooth today. I'm in thousand oaks. I may have some available for you. 

 

[ejburling]

Hi, thanks for this information.  I would be interested in If it's fertile.  Is the plan to incubate and hatch the ooth indoors, or overwinter it till Spring?

 

[ejburling]

Welcome to the forum! The blues are pretty commonly sold, you just got to look around and wait for some to put some up for sale. As far as limbata go... I have not seen them sold on here very often as native species are usually not sold for the simple fact that they are so common. I do have some S. Carolina ooths available here soon(they are closely related with S. Limbata).

Thanks for this information, Connor!  What type of environment are S. limbata found in outdoors?  Thanks for the offer, will research S. carolina.  Due to being in the high desert, was looking at S. limbata due to their higher tolerance to lower humidity levels since they're native to this area, and also since I was visited by one and was entertained by her friendly personality!  After further research, apparently T. sinensis (as a newbie, the only species I have raised from an ooth) is native to all 50 states; however, now seeing that it appears to be more common in colder climates with higher humidity levels, and questioning whether the bad adult molt experienced by one of my T. sinensis subadults was due to a higher humidity requirement than we have here in the high desert.  So now looking at species with a greater tolerance to lower humidity levels. Was honored to be graced by a visit from this S. limbata female 3 years ago, but haven't seen any this year..

 

[Connor]

@ejburlingHey! Well limbata are found in the southern US. As you mentioned they do well with lower humidity. But humidity is pretty easy to control. If you put a paper towel or another kind of substrate in the enclosure and spray that you can get your humidity up. T. Sinesis don't need super high humidity just around 50%. But they are known for their bad molts. Even very experienced keepers have trouble with them molting. S. Carolina need around a 40-60 percent humidity but I just mist mine every few days. If you stick in a paper towel or some moss and spray daily/bidaily you should be fine with humidity(depends on enclosure though). Wow that Limbata is stunning!

 

[hibiscusmile]

Welcome!