Katattack
Active member
My name is Kat. I've loved mantids as long as I can remember. My boyfriend and I made the choice to buy 2 mail order oothecas after our housemate's 10 year old son did a report on mantids last school year. To the best of my knowledge, they are the Chinese variety. One of the best things I've ever done. They both hatched in our rain garden and I quickly had so many new little friends I didn't know what to with my self. They hatched in early June and we spent the summer filming and photographing them...and playing with them..lots! So friendly and inquisitive. Once I started posting pictures of them on facebook, my friends kept asking for more and I obliged to a point. I could never post all of them for fear of annoying everyone eventually. However, I did have a few requests to start a blog next year, if I do it again, to record everything I learn and do with them. Maybe I will! Of course we decided to keep a few special ones as our indoor "pets." I started with one and that quickly grew to 5; Zorak, Matilda, Bob, Wildling, & Phillip. Zorak was my first. He was the size of my pinky nail when I took him in. He is still in his terrarium in my room. Matilda was second. She had a bad molt and some very scary moments, but in the end lived out quite the happy life of being spoiled. She was the 1st to pass. She is now buried in our rain garden. Then came Bob & Phillip whom the 10 year old named. Phillip just never quite seemed happy to be contained, so one day while sitting outside with him in his terrarium as we often did to give them full sun, I asked the kiddo if he would like to set him free. He opened his lid and we watched in awe as Phillip took flight in the direction of the sun. It was an in-explainable feeling watching the freedom of the mantis in action and the look of pure amazement on the child's face. Bob was a happy go lucky guy. He was also the lucky (kind of) fella who got to mate with Wildling. I hovered close for about 2 hours while they did their business, filming off and on and taking pictures. I was a ball of stress the whole time. I was distracted for all of a minute, but when I came back..Bob was no more. I let her finish eating him because..well..new moms need their nutrients, right? Ugh. Wildling was our last mantis we took into captivity. She was wild the longest, hence the name. She also resides in my room quite plump and happy. She will eat anything whereas Zorak hates crickets and seems to only like the flies we catch him. It is becoming impossible to catch flies now due to the cooler temps, so we have ordered a few different varieties of worms and such from our friend who works at the large reptile store here in town in hopes that he will take to eating one of them. We'll find out tomorrow afternoon!
So that's my story! I'm quite happy to be part of this forum and plan on continuing my mantis journey for years to come.
So that's my story! I'm quite happy to be part of this forum and plan on continuing my mantis journey for years to come.
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