Hello there!

[farrahsc]

Hey everyone! My name is Farrah and I'm from Charleston, WV!

I am another follower from the Chameleon forum lol!

I'm most interested in the spiny flower, orchard and Idolomantis diabolica.

I know these are not beginner types but I really like the ones who look different and beautiful.

 

[warpdrive]

hi Farrah,

sadly, the ones you want are also some of the most rare and hard to get mantids right now. not cheap too.

how about trying violins? almost the same as the Idolos and are always around.

creo gems and pictipinis are also nice flower mantids to get instead of trying in vain to get some spiny flowers.

orchids? get them if you care, but dig deep in your wallet for just a few. a small group can cost as much as a baby Panther, and a large group can cost as much as a Parsons.

what ever you do, good luck and we are all here for you.

Harry

P.S. man, I gata stop posting pics on the chameleon forums. this place is getting crowded.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Welcome Farrah, Idolomantis do require alot of extra care in comparison to most all other mantis, (hint) I have a few. I know alot of members that have had many species of mantis for years, and still are not sure if there ready for this breed.

As Warpdrive stated Wandering Violins(Gongy) are very good 2nd choice, as they look similar(from the same family) and really only need heat and TLC to thrive. also if you can find some Orchard's and have the $$$ I say go for it, they are very beautiful! but I can't speak on there care as I never raised them, but I plan on it in the near future. Ghosts seem to be the #1 choice for newbies and they also look stunning.

What ever you chose keep those chameleons away for the mantis, they will look like a big bag of Doritos to them. :lol:

 

[hibiscusmile]

Welcome fellow bug person :tt2:

 

[Colorcham427]

Welcome Farrah, most mantids are cheap, like as stated above, the sp. are the ones that attract most new comers...

The good news is, if you decide to breed them, you don't have to wait long like panthers lol.. Parsons are another story when incubating lollolol

Mantids lives are short, but their offspring will brighten your day. And if you do not want to breed them because you do not want to care for their young, you should totally sell or better yet just let somebody pay for shipping and borrow a male... It's a bad thing to let an adult mantid not be used for future generations.

An awesome mantis that isn't hard to get to adult stages are Ghosts and Gambians.

I have a little male Acontista Multi color if you want to start out small lol, he is tiny! He is cute, is a two week old adult, so you might only have another month or two with him before dying from age, but he only requires 7-8 fruit flies a day and one misting every other day. He can also be kept in a 32 ounce deli cup with a few fake leaves in it for him to get water and climb around on.

If you let him out, make sure you are in an open room with very little places for him to escape and hide in... He'll fly! You can check out his beautiful colors! His wings are a bright Violet with some deep purples!

Just pay $7.00 for shipping and you can have him, that is, if you have a cup and fruit flies on hand.

 

[cuervo]

First i wanna say hi to Farrah and welcome to the forum. And Harry keep going we love new friends :lol:

 

[farrahsc]

Poor Harry I'm sure you feel like you're being stalked right about now lol!

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome!

I was actually going to look online tonight at where I could buy cups and fruit flies. I know my local PetSmart has flightless fruit flies but when I looked at them tonight they were all black larva and didn't look to good, kinda moldy actually.

I know Harry sells the cups but I'm not sure if he would sell the cups only.

I did buy 2 cases from a guy on Ebay tonight but they are just the regular mantis that you find around here. I'm not sure of the exact species.

I'm not to found of the ghosts, I seem to like something with more color. The ant mantid looks pretty cute too!

Are there any others you would recommend?

And Brain! Wow thank you so much for your generosity! That would be so nice of you! As soon as I can get some cups together I would love to have him!

 

[Rick]

Welcome. Orchids are not hard to keep at all really. Sadly it seems there aren't too many of them available. Just a few years ago they were very plentiful and cheap. I was selling ooths for like thirty dollars.

 

[cuervo]

Classifieds for mantids all you need is there +some members there have links to their sites

hibiscusmile = Mantis Place.com