Hello

[gare58]

I came here to learn from others with experience and share my own.  I have always loved praying mantids since I was a kid and this year was the my first time adopting one from the wild for the winter.  I found her on the back porch railing, very slow moving, the cold was already getting to her and she was very exposed.  I think desperate for food.  

Got an old aquarium for her to live in but I let her out whenever I'm home.  There's a pretty big vine plant on my book shelf she likes to climb in.  See if you can spot her

She also likes it on top of my lamp.  I lay a hand cloth across it so she's got a warm place to rest. 

Cool tip: So I use a spray bottle for misting her habitat as I'm sure most of you do.  If you unscrew the spray top section, the long straw that runs inside the bottle is an excellent dropper.  If you press gently on the sprayer you can produce little droplets of water from the tip.  She seems to slurp up the droplets much easier than from a q-tip.  Quite greedily.

I try to diversify her diet.  Regularly she has crickets, once in a while a fish and an occasional fat juicy hornworm.  Also managed to score a house fly and some lantern flies one time.

I hope I'm doing a good job and spoiling her.

 

[Synapze]

Welcome! You'll like it here. BTW, great photos.

Thanks for the water bottle tip... I would have never thought of that.  

 

[hysteresis]

Welcome @gare58!

She sure is a beauty. She's lucky to have found you.

The water bottle trick IS a great idea.

I'm new to this hobby. You feed her fish? Wow.

Thanks for joining us!

 

[gare58]

I had read about mantids being observed eating fish in the wild.  And although I'd like to give her more house flies and moths there aren't many around to catch and my local pet stores don't sell them.  I want to diversify her diet so it's more natural.  She's eaten two small zebra fish and then more recently a feeder gold fish.  I wait till she's perched in hunting mode then slowly manuever a small dish under her with the fish in.

She mostly eats crickets and the occasional hornworm that is = 5-8 crickets.  I know fish protein isn't as high as crickets that's why I only rarely give her the fish but maybe the fish has more of some other nutrient that's good?  I dunno I tried googling nutritional value of fish for mantids but couldn't find anything haha.  

 

[hysteresis]

Isn't that something?!

I mean, we read about it, so why not! ☺

Where do you live? There are folk online that will ship blue bottle flies and such.

Excellent start in this forum!

And, you've kinda made my day, to be honest. 

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

I found her in the vine!! He he

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Mantis Lady]

Welcome You saved that mantis from  the cold. Did you give her a name?

 

[MantisGirl13]

Welcome to the forum! Most of us started in the hobby by finding a wild mantis!

- MantisGirl1

 

[Graceface]

Welcome!

So cool that she hunts fish! I can't get my Orchids to eat anything but flies. I tried a superworm yesterday and they were so offended by it, lol. It's nice that you provide a varied diet for your girl. What is her name?

 

[gare58]

I named her Honeydew.

We're in Pennsylvania.  So I'm thinking she's Chinese or European?

I've had her a month now.  At around 2.5 weeks she laid an ooth, then another a week and a half later.  Any chance they're fertile?

I thought of ordering flies but I think her current diet is enough for now.  A hornworm seems to gives her loads of energy and fatten her up.

 

[Graceface]

I've had her a month now.  At around 2.5 weeks she laid an ooth, then another a week and a half later.  Any chance they're fertile?

They may be, but there's no way to be sure other than incubate them and see what happens!

 

[hysteresis]

@gare58 M. religiosa (Europeans) always have a 'bull's eye' marking in their 'armpit'.

Being brand new at this hobby, that's all we've kept so far. 

Photo of our first mantis, named Mantissy. You can see what I mean regarding the markings. 

 

[gare58]

@hysteresis Thanks! I guess that eliminates her being European.  Must be Chinese.

 

[hysteresis]

I read, if she has a small dot on each forewing, she's Carolina.

 

[Mantis Lady]

Any chance they're fertile?

We don't know for sure she has mated, just keep the ooths and try to hatch them.

 

[hysteresis]

Hey @gare58

Hope I'm not being too intrusive, but what is your profession?

You mentioned undergrad studies in another post, but now you have my curiosity piqued! 

 

[gare58]

@hysteresis I'm a software engineer.  But I started out in psychology so I have a degree in that too.

I'm planning to refrigerate the ooths through the winter.  I might try hatching one after Honeydew passes.  Otherwise the plan is to hatch them next spring and then disperse them around gardens at my parents house if they're fertile.

 

[hysteresis]

Our last mantis produced one ooth. 

I hope it's fertile too. 

Peter Clausen (owner of this forum, and bugsincyberspace.com) pinned a nice post about oothecae. Good tips. Breeding section. 

I keep mine on its twig. I fashioned a 'collar' out of cardboard that prevents the ooth from coming into contact with anything. I lined a glass tumbler with paper towel which I mist regularly. I prop the twig in there and top it with a piece of paper towel held on with an elastic. 

I keep the cup in a paper bag. In Toronto, temps are 25s to 40s °F and humid this time of year. 

I keep the rig out on the porch. 

 

[gare58]

Cool, looks like a good way to do it!  Mine has laid her two in my house plant so I've had to clip out the leaves they're on.  I don't have them suspended at the moment but I'll keeping them in hybernation.  I'll probably use thread to tie them to a an branch when ready to incubate.