Hi all, my name is Amber. I live in Connecticut, and I'm fairly new to keeping mantids as pets. I fell in love with them a few years when I acquired a couple of nymphs from a fellow parent in my daughter's school, and then also caught a wild one a few days later! All three were European. We had a blast catching wild food for them (once they were past fruit flies) and let them go free once they had molted several times. Now a few years later I happened upon another nymph in my yard, and have decided to try and keep it for the duration of it's life. I find them fascinating and am trying to learn as much as I can about them. I think in the future I will probably look into getting more exotic species, but right now I'm perfectly content with the adorable European. So far we've had 2 successful molts and are experimenting with different types of food and enclosures. I will try not to be too annoying and lurky on here, but I have LOTS of questions!!!