jamerman
Member
Hello Everyone, My name is Djenna( silent D) and I am new to the Mantid hobby. I have one lone Chinese mantis which I hatched froman 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.
