Mantid-Tim
Well-known member
Hello MantidForum members! My name is Tim, and I am new to this community and to mantises in general. I am 29 years old and live in the Bronx, NY--the borough (county) just north of Manhattan. I tutored/taught math for a while, but am currently finishing a degree in Accounting and Economics.
I bought my first mantis about a month ago. Actually, my girlfriend Jane suggesting a praying mantis as a pet in our no-pets-allowed building is what got me started. When she first suggested it, I admit, my first thought was: ‘a bug isn’t a pet.’ Then, it brought to mind an experience with a mantis as a 3 or 4 year old—feeding it and releasing it and having it come back the next day for several days. Trying to be open minded, I decided to do some research. All the amazing facts on these beautiful creatures is what really ended up changing my mind.
Anyway, more about the mantises we currently care for:
I currently have one L4/L5 African Mantis (Sphodromantis lineola; female I think), five L2/L3 Ghosts (P. paradoxa), and one sub-adult cat-eyed mantis (Heterochatea orientalis; aka “Kitty,” also female). Unfortunately, I had some bad luck at first. A mismolt took my first chatea the first night I had it, but was given a second one for free out of pity and kindness from USMantis, lol. (I got all of them there by the way.) My fault for thinking it would be okay in a small enclosure for one night; I had a glass terrarium order for pickup the next day
!
The lineola is in a modified plastic terrarium (her 8x8x12 Exo-Terra Nano is on the way!) And 4 of the ghosts share an 8x8x12 Nano; one is a cannibal so I separated it. The chatea is in a 12x12x18 glass habitat as well.
Anyway, thats my intro, sorry to make you read so much...just kidding! Take care all, and I looking forward to talking on the forums!
P.S. Attached are my mantis pics. You can see my setup and most of my mantises (the ghost is the cannibal--lol!)
![20200610_212756_HDR.jpg 20200610_212756_HDR.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9554-51be0d6d4ba77c60b4868d984c829fdb.jpg)
![20200607_182804_HDR.jpg 20200607_182804_HDR.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9555-ea85d9e64f362806a9d0452dff4a70dd.jpg)
![20200616_221332.jpg 20200616_221332.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9556-dd04b5ddb35b0f0b2545cd01caa13b66.jpg)
![20200614_201821.jpg 20200614_201821.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9557-60da967967d1fc0a4df08ffe8830b860.jpg)
I bought my first mantis about a month ago. Actually, my girlfriend Jane suggesting a praying mantis as a pet in our no-pets-allowed building is what got me started. When she first suggested it, I admit, my first thought was: ‘a bug isn’t a pet.’ Then, it brought to mind an experience with a mantis as a 3 or 4 year old—feeding it and releasing it and having it come back the next day for several days. Trying to be open minded, I decided to do some research. All the amazing facts on these beautiful creatures is what really ended up changing my mind.
Anyway, more about the mantises we currently care for:
I currently have one L4/L5 African Mantis (Sphodromantis lineola; female I think), five L2/L3 Ghosts (P. paradoxa), and one sub-adult cat-eyed mantis (Heterochatea orientalis; aka “Kitty,” also female). Unfortunately, I had some bad luck at first. A mismolt took my first chatea the first night I had it, but was given a second one for free out of pity and kindness from USMantis, lol. (I got all of them there by the way.) My fault for thinking it would be okay in a small enclosure for one night; I had a glass terrarium order for pickup the next day
![Loudly crying face :sob: 😭](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f62d.png)
The lineola is in a modified plastic terrarium (her 8x8x12 Exo-Terra Nano is on the way!) And 4 of the ghosts share an 8x8x12 Nano; one is a cannibal so I separated it. The chatea is in a 12x12x18 glass habitat as well.
Anyway, thats my intro, sorry to make you read so much...just kidding! Take care all, and I looking forward to talking on the forums!
P.S. Attached are my mantis pics. You can see my setup and most of my mantises (the ghost is the cannibal--lol!)
![20200610_212756_HDR.jpg 20200610_212756_HDR.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9554-51be0d6d4ba77c60b4868d984c829fdb.jpg)
![20200607_182804_HDR.jpg 20200607_182804_HDR.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9555-ea85d9e64f362806a9d0452dff4a70dd.jpg)
![20200616_221332.jpg 20200616_221332.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9556-dd04b5ddb35b0f0b2545cd01caa13b66.jpg)
![20200614_201821.jpg 20200614_201821.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/mantidforum/data/attachments/9/9557-60da967967d1fc0a4df08ffe8830b860.jpg)