Hi, my name is Kat and I am new to the hobby. I am out here in Southern California... I have kept Phasmids before in the past & always wanted to start with Mantids. This year I moved to a new place that seemed almost to have a bit of a surplus of them... 2 or 3 males at almost every light in the area and that is alot when before I was lucky to see one!! No other complex had any really either, so I wonder if somebody bought ootheca this year?
So I figured it could be a good experience to start with a couple wild caught Cali Mantids (unless we have other species out here?)... Of all the males I only have seen 4 females, 2 of which came to me ironically... one outside on my ficus eating hoppers & one on my garage who finished mating, had her abdomen open for awhile afterwards with black stuff on the inside & died.. the others I found around the pool/rec area. One was sick with some sort of black rot on her legs when i caught her, but she chewed alot of it off and is right now seeming to be laying an ootheca (fixed position, abdomen pumping & sporadically straining and feeling around a stick & dragging her ab along it in ways i did not know they could move).
I used to breed show bettas (crowns, hms, dts)... and sell them. I'm a fish nerd as well as a bug nerd. I have a whip scorpion & a mexican red knee tarantula with emotional problems (as most trans seem to have)...
Not nerdy things that interest me is : lit, art, music, photography... okay i guess some of those can be construed as nerdy as well
I got my first ootheca a few days ago from Ficus Femme, it's beautiful... even if it's infertile I was actually excited at this point to be able to see one in person.
Is there restrictions on selling/trading/giving away cali mantids? I know California can be weird with the laws. I know probably not the place to ask.
Hmmm.... I think that about covers the intro yes? :twisted: :evil:
So I figured it could be a good experience to start with a couple wild caught Cali Mantids (unless we have other species out here?)... Of all the males I only have seen 4 females, 2 of which came to me ironically... one outside on my ficus eating hoppers & one on my garage who finished mating, had her abdomen open for awhile afterwards with black stuff on the inside & died.. the others I found around the pool/rec area. One was sick with some sort of black rot on her legs when i caught her, but she chewed alot of it off and is right now seeming to be laying an ootheca (fixed position, abdomen pumping & sporadically straining and feeling around a stick & dragging her ab along it in ways i did not know they could move).
I used to breed show bettas (crowns, hms, dts)... and sell them. I'm a fish nerd as well as a bug nerd. I have a whip scorpion & a mexican red knee tarantula with emotional problems (as most trans seem to have)...
Not nerdy things that interest me is : lit, art, music, photography... okay i guess some of those can be construed as nerdy as well
I got my first ootheca a few days ago from Ficus Femme, it's beautiful... even if it's infertile I was actually excited at this point to be able to see one in person.
Is there restrictions on selling/trading/giving away cali mantids? I know California can be weird with the laws. I know probably not the place to ask.
Hmmm.... I think that about covers the intro yes? :twisted: :evil:
