New from NM

[LadyWillow]

Hi! I am new to this site, and new to mantis keeping. I live in Albuquerque, and I found several mantises in my vegetable garden. I brought one pair indoors - they were attached (mating) when I found them. Once he released her, I put him back in the garden. There is another lady who looks very pregnant in the basil. This is really exciting to me, because this city is very bereft of natural life, and I rejoice any time I see a bird or an insect.

I'd like to hold onto the ootheca that my female makes, and raise the nymphs indoors for a while, releasing them in the garden once they've grown a little. I saw on YouTube that a vast majority of the nymphs die within the first hour of hatching - I hope this isn't the norm when the ootheca is in captivity.

I found this site by reading the Care Sheets on Peter's website, for which I am very grateful. Thank you, Peter, for putting this information out there.

I really like my lady mantis. She is very personable. She readily climbs onto my hand, and she likes honey. My three year old son loves to watch her. I've seen her eat: crickets, flies, dragonflies, moths, and I put a roach in her habitat today.

I've been fascinated by insects for my entire life, and I'm very happy to have one in my care.

 

[Birdman]

Welcome from Florida

 

[BugLover]

Welcome! I just found a pair, too

 

[sally]

Welcome. my grandkids love them . What kind of mantis are they?

 

[D_Hemptress]

welcome to the hobby, its addicting. i find myself looking at all sorts of bugs now, im even keeping a spider a found just to watch it.

hope to see more around the forum

 

[Sticky]

Welcome from Maine! I bought several ooths and put most of the babies outside in my garden. I've had fun watching them grow up there.

 

[LadyWillow]

My best guess is that Madame Serena is a border, Stagmomantis limbata; however I'm not certain.

I should add that, as an avid insect fan, I kept a black widow spider for a while. Her name was Bethina (though I had one years ago named Mathilda). I kept her to show my children what a black widow looks like. It's one thing to tell them, "Don't touch black widows," but when they look at you with that confused concern, there's nothing that compares to an actual visual aid. When I caught her, I kept her in a jar, thinking I could simply bug-hunt in the yard to feed her - not the case, in the city. So I went to PetCo and purchased some feeder crickets for her. Bethina taught her lessons well; my son could identify one in a second and knew to leave them alone, so I released her.....and then had crickets that were happily breeding.

As soon as Madame Serena saw one, she snatched it up and ate it!

Thank you for all the "welcome" messages! It's refreshing to know I'm not alone in my love of insects.

(I just got back from classes at university, and Lady Serena got a sun bath and a meal.)

 

[hibiscusmile]

Not an expert on seeing, but I think u r rite on the mantis species, welcome to the forum, I like someone said, just like to look around now and see what the bugs are doing outside! they are amazing! But then our amazing Creator is too! unk:

 

[Rick]

Welcome