Osfigueroajr
Active member
Hello, my name is Oscar. I live in California and work at an aerospace manufacturing company here as an assembly supervisor. Last year I was walking through a local farmers market with my two boys and spotted a booth that sold worms for composting, ladybugs and had one chinese mantid ooth left. I'd never seen a praying mantis, maybe because I live in the city or never really paid attention. As a child I loved playing outdoors and catching bugs and just observing them, so this spiked my attention. I love learning new things and since I have two boys I like showing them the things I did when I was a child. To this day sometimes I see a grasshopper, ladybug, or other bug and sometimes I feel like catching it just to show it to them. Then we release them. Well on this particular trip to the farmers market, I purchased the ooth and took it home in a mesh bag that was provided. I hung it over a window as the gentleman who sold it to me instructed. I forgot completely about it for a month, maybe more but on January 2, 2016 , this ooth hatched (what i suspect was over a hundred mantids.) I released most of them but kept about 10 or so(it took me a while to get them spread all over the front bushes and the back yard. The ones I kept indoors have been growing fast here and surprisingly they are about twice as big as the ones I released in the bushes in front of my house. Mantids have captivated my interest since they hatched and therefore to date I have purchased a phyllocrania paradoxa ooth, hierodula membranacea ooth, hierodula sp. java yellow ooth(which just arrived today), an L2 Hierodula Majuscula and a lot of supplies. (Gotta say that the hydei flies can get out of control fast.". That's my story and I'm looking forward to getting to know more of you. This seems like a very close group of mantid enthusiasts just like I have become.
Also the molting stage always makes me nervous. xD
