Hello from Oakland, CA

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jamerman

jamerman

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Oakland. CA
ola como estas.JPGHello Everyone, My name is Djenna( silent D) and I am new to the Mantid hobby. I have one lone Chinese mantis which I hatched from

an ootheca I purchased at Long's Drugstore in the garden dep't. I had the egg case in my yard for almost two months without seeing

any results so one day a friend was over and we decided to cut into it to see if there was anything going on inside. I thought it just wasnt viable.

Once opened up we saw the larvae were still kicking and I felt totally guilty because I assumed that now the egg case had been compromised

and all the babies would die. I was going to throw it away but my friend said no to put it back in the bush. Well, what do you know! With in

four hours the whole bush was covered with babies. So, I kept two and spread the rest around my yard. Unfortunately after a few days I never

saw the outdoors ones again and one of the two i kept either died spontaneously or was killed by his sibling but the one left has now gone

through five successful molts and I think is getting close to adulthood. He, or she, I dont know how to tell for sure, has tiny little wing nubbins

and is almost three inches long. I have been feeding it crickets since it was big enough and started it out on aphids and fruit flies. I take "him"

outside with me when I am gardening and let him hang out on a potted plant. I named him Mary from an old song I remembered that went, "And

along came Mary..." Also because Praying and preying and mary and merry both have the same alliteration. Which I believe is the correct word

but if anyone else knows that isn't correct please let me know! Anyway, lots of good info here and I am a happy new mantis owner.hello merry mary.JPG

 
Welcome to the forum fellow Californian! Gotta love them Chinese Mantises.. that's the first one I owned as well. =)

 
angelofdeathzz said:
Welcome, 2 chinese together=death 9 out of 10 times ;)
Click to expand...
Welcome! And yeah, don't keep Chinese mantids together in the same enclosure. They are very cannibalistic.

It's also quite easy to sex them. Once you get the hang of it you will be able to tell at just a glance, especially if they are adults. Some species are more difficult than others, but Tenodera sinensis (Chinese mantis) are very easy to sex. Just count the segments on their abdomen. Females have six while males have around eight. Females are also bulkier and more robust than the males who tend to be more slender and, depending upon the species, a lot smaller.

If you post a photo of the underside of the abdomen we will be able to let you know what gender it is.

 
Welcome! I just moved north, from San Leandro. Missing my beautiful bay - thanks for the reminder. :)

I also purchased 2 ooths from an OSH there in the Bay area last year. When I got home, I took the lid off, and set the little container on my TV cabinet to give them some air until I took them outside in the daylight hours to my garden. Some movement from the top of my cabinet caught my eye a couple hours later and I found that one of the Ooth had hatched tons of tiny babies all over my livingroom. I gently collected them and moved them to a jar until I took them outside the next morning.

Aaaand long story short, when we released the little guys, we were SO disappointed to watch tons of little ants come running to swoop them up and carry them into their ant homes! My 4 y.o. daughter was particularly devastated. I quickly relocated my daughter to spare her the witnessing of their demise and never saw another mantis again. :(

Hopefully you'll witness a few in your yard yet! :)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nope, nary a one in the yard, but the one i kept now has an absolutely gorgeous set of wings that are sea foam green in color (along the bottom edge).

 

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