I'm a mother, digital illustrator, web developer and part time zoo keeper. Not literally on the last one though. My house and life is just full of critters and that's how I love it. I have four cats, one dog, three aquariums, lots of invertebrates, and too many plants. I've got critters running out of my ears, and I always want more. 
I probably won't post much here, but I really wanted to make an account to lurk and understand more about mantids.
A few weeks ago I took in a mantis from my garden who was quite small and frail looking. We were going to have a huge storm for the next several days so it was like a kick in the guts seeing her out there, knowing she'd probably die. I don't condone catching and keeping wild animals, but since mantids aren't native to my area, at all, I felt like it wouldn't be much harm to my garden ecosystem. I'm very, very protective of all the critters in my garden. While most of my neighbors have one species lawns or artificial turf, I prefer biodiversity in my yard, and that includes the fauna as well as the flora. It's my rehabber instincts. I was a registered wildlife rehabilitator back in my last home state, and I'd like to get registered up here too, but, you know, life finds a way, for better or worse!
My Grammostola rosea, named Woof, passed about a week before I took in the mantis. She was 18 years old! I got her right before college when she was 3-4 years old. I even kind of expected her to go soon, because she was doing the geriatric tarantula walk. Just because you're expecting it doesn't mean it hurts any less though. I had her through so many other pets, and she even moved literally across country with me just a few years ago.
Soooo, of course I had plenty of means to care for the mantis. I brought her in, fed her a cricket nymph (I still had some after Woof passed), and got to work identifying her. I believed she was a young Tenodera aridifolia, and as she's grown in my care, I'm more and more confident with that identification, but I would love to know if I'm mistaken! (I'll add pictures to the post!) She's huge now! A little over three inches, and she keeps growing.
As the few of days of storm passed, I debated every day if I would let her go to be wild again, or if I would keep her longer. She's definitely flourished. She was very weak when I caught her (didn't look parasitic, just a very skinny abdomen), and she's very strong and much larger now. She's shed twice! I even caught her shedding once and took pictures of the process. Since covid is keeping us indoors and I've been homeschooling my daughter, the mantis has become a sort of class pet, and we love feeding her meal worms with tongs or watching her hunt on her own. I've almost debated getting a male and breeding her, but alas I have other projects I want to do. OTL
After my dear tarantula, my beloved pet rock, passed away, I've decided to start up breeding spadefoot toads. My current stage is tending my vivarium and setting up my dubia roach colony, because frankly, I'm done with crickets forever. I just can't stand their stink and I have to be on top of taking out their dead and dying or the nasty bastards will eat each other. YUCK. I can't stand it. 10 years of raising crickets and I just can't do it any more! I'm so done! I don't even want to clean out the tubs for the dubia colonies, because I don't think I'll ever be rid of the stink. Besides, I don't want to risk potentially contaminating the dubias. That would just devastate me. I also adore roaches! I've been tempted to keep roaches as just pets for a while now, but I kept going back and forth about what I'd do if they started breeding. One tarantula wouldn't be enough to keep up with the colony. She barely kept up with the crickets, but thankfully I have an absolutely gluttonous oscar fish, and I think he'll gladly help me keep my dubias in check if they become too much for the toads.
So let me shut up my rambling and get to the main reason for coming to the forum, as you'll see in the second picture, is that this mantis has droopy butt and it's given her a crease on her abdomen that concerns me.
I've read about people having success with the following and tried them all with no results:
I'm very experienced with many different kinds of invertebrates (mostly tarantulas, beetles, meal worms and of course crickets), but I've never cared for a mantis before. This is definitely out of my realm of knowledge. Practical advice would be much appreciated, and I don't doubt I'll get some here! You all seem very knowledgeable and experienced!
Unrelated question, but do you think isopods would eat mantis shed? I've been saving her sheds and the sheds from meal worms to toss in my vivarium when I get isopods. I know they love reptile shed, but I've never heard of them eating the shed of other invertebrates. I feel like the answer is yes, but I had to ask!
Attached images:
Mantis-01.png (the first one) is little while after her second shed with me. I was excited to see wing buds!
Mantis-02.png (the second one) is from tonight, just a few minutes ago. You can see the crease at the base of her abdomen. Is it just me or does she look ready to shed? Gosh I hope so!
(Sorry for the text wall! I'm just excited to be here!)
I probably won't post much here, but I really wanted to make an account to lurk and understand more about mantids.
A few weeks ago I took in a mantis from my garden who was quite small and frail looking. We were going to have a huge storm for the next several days so it was like a kick in the guts seeing her out there, knowing she'd probably die. I don't condone catching and keeping wild animals, but since mantids aren't native to my area, at all, I felt like it wouldn't be much harm to my garden ecosystem. I'm very, very protective of all the critters in my garden. While most of my neighbors have one species lawns or artificial turf, I prefer biodiversity in my yard, and that includes the fauna as well as the flora. It's my rehabber instincts. I was a registered wildlife rehabilitator back in my last home state, and I'd like to get registered up here too, but, you know, life finds a way, for better or worse!
My Grammostola rosea, named Woof, passed about a week before I took in the mantis. She was 18 years old! I got her right before college when she was 3-4 years old. I even kind of expected her to go soon, because she was doing the geriatric tarantula walk. Just because you're expecting it doesn't mean it hurts any less though. I had her through so many other pets, and she even moved literally across country with me just a few years ago.
Soooo, of course I had plenty of means to care for the mantis. I brought her in, fed her a cricket nymph (I still had some after Woof passed), and got to work identifying her. I believed she was a young Tenodera aridifolia, and as she's grown in my care, I'm more and more confident with that identification, but I would love to know if I'm mistaken! (I'll add pictures to the post!) She's huge now! A little over three inches, and she keeps growing.
As the few of days of storm passed, I debated every day if I would let her go to be wild again, or if I would keep her longer. She's definitely flourished. She was very weak when I caught her (didn't look parasitic, just a very skinny abdomen), and she's very strong and much larger now. She's shed twice! I even caught her shedding once and took pictures of the process. Since covid is keeping us indoors and I've been homeschooling my daughter, the mantis has become a sort of class pet, and we love feeding her meal worms with tongs or watching her hunt on her own. I've almost debated getting a male and breeding her, but alas I have other projects I want to do. OTL
After my dear tarantula, my beloved pet rock, passed away, I've decided to start up breeding spadefoot toads. My current stage is tending my vivarium and setting up my dubia roach colony, because frankly, I'm done with crickets forever. I just can't stand their stink and I have to be on top of taking out their dead and dying or the nasty bastards will eat each other. YUCK. I can't stand it. 10 years of raising crickets and I just can't do it any more! I'm so done! I don't even want to clean out the tubs for the dubia colonies, because I don't think I'll ever be rid of the stink. Besides, I don't want to risk potentially contaminating the dubias. That would just devastate me. I also adore roaches! I've been tempted to keep roaches as just pets for a while now, but I kept going back and forth about what I'd do if they started breeding. One tarantula wouldn't be enough to keep up with the colony. She barely kept up with the crickets, but thankfully I have an absolutely gluttonous oscar fish, and I think he'll gladly help me keep my dubias in check if they become too much for the toads.
So let me shut up my rambling and get to the main reason for coming to the forum, as you'll see in the second picture, is that this mantis has droopy butt and it's given her a crease on her abdomen that concerns me.
I've read about people having success with the following and tried them all with no results:
- I fed her less each meal to keep her abdomen from being too heavy.
- I gave her a break on feeding for three days.
- I fed her big meals to fill out her abdomen.
- I added more fake plants so she has more to sit on that's not hanging upside down.
- I lowered the fake plants to keep her from reaching the top.
- I fed her small and frequent meals to keep her from going into hunt mode, so she'd sit still right-side up.
- I misted her more often.
- I misted her less often.
I'm very experienced with many different kinds of invertebrates (mostly tarantulas, beetles, meal worms and of course crickets), but I've never cared for a mantis before. This is definitely out of my realm of knowledge. Practical advice would be much appreciated, and I don't doubt I'll get some here! You all seem very knowledgeable and experienced!
Unrelated question, but do you think isopods would eat mantis shed? I've been saving her sheds and the sheds from meal worms to toss in my vivarium when I get isopods. I know they love reptile shed, but I've never heard of them eating the shed of other invertebrates. I feel like the answer is yes, but I had to ask!
Attached images:
Mantis-01.png (the first one) is little while after her second shed with me. I was excited to see wing buds!
Mantis-02.png (the second one) is from tonight, just a few minutes ago. You can see the crease at the base of her abdomen. Is it just me or does she look ready to shed? Gosh I hope so!
(Sorry for the text wall! I'm just excited to be here!)
