I just had a near disaster with one of my mantids.

[Aquaticcreature]

Last night I noticed my shield mantis molting. She was hanging from a popsicle stick that I hot glued to the top of her cup. Everything went fine and she completed her molt without incident. Where was the near disaster you ask? Well, I looked in today and the popsicle stick fell! That could have been sure death if she had been in the middle of molting when it happened. I stupidity attached it with only one glob of hot glue. I learned my lesson though, never trust a single point of failure.

 

[River Dane]

Wow, that's lucky! Glad everything worked out just fine for you!

 

[wetterdew]

When one of my ghosts was around L3, she liked to hang from the hygrometer I affixed to the wall one day.  Later that day, it fell while she was hanging from it.  It only fell 2 inches, but it is heavy enough to squish an L3 ghost.  Luckily it rotated while falling and she was okay.  That's when I realized I needed to be more careful about mantis home construction safety.

 

[Ocelotbren]

I had a fake leaf I hot glued fall a few days after setting it up too.  The ghost wasn't molting and if it was on the leaf when it fell, it didn't get hurt at all.  I wasn't there when it happened but there didn't seem to be any damage...phew.  I used even more glue when reattaching it.

 

[CosbyArt]

I had a fake leaf I hot glued fall a few days after setting it up too.  The ghost wasn't molting and if it was on the leaf when it fell, it didn't get hurt at all.  I wasn't there when it happened but there didn't seem to be any damage...phew.  I used even more glue when reattaching it.

Glad to hear your Ghost was fine.

Besides the amount of glue used, the number of spots/areas glued gives more strength than a single point with the same amount of hot glue. There are many other things that influence hot glue strength too. For instance hot glue guns come in two temperatures low and high, with the high temperature gun providing a much stronger bond (at least 3 times in my experience).

Some users like to cool the hot glue with water, and other tricks, which doesn't allow the hot glue to penetrate the surfaces as well as it would drying normally. Such hot glue that dries quicker gives a weaker bond overall too, no matter the glue gun temperature. If hot gluing to plastic (flat smooth plastic) for best results the surface should be lightly sanded for more surface area for grip strength.

There are some other things as well, but besides those listed the other major contributing factor is different brands of hot glue tend to have different strengths - depending on the materials/filler used in them. With some brands going as far as to offer "high strength" and other such product lines too, with only a few such hot glue's actually being better than normal sticks from another brand.

 

[Ocelotbren]

@CosbyArt Thanks for the tips.  I used high temp hot glue although I just bought a low temp glue gun for mantis projects where the high temperature is a problem.  Haven't tried it yet.  The sanding is a great idea though, hadn't thought of that.