Noob....need advice!

[humantidy]

Hey all,

At the end of the warm season this year, I grabbed two adult female mantids from my outdoor patio garden and brought them inside. Both of these mantids had been living in two different plants since mid-summer. Anyway, one of them was a Carolina and the other was a Chinese.

I kept the Carolina in a small critter cage, and she laid 3 oothecas, in 3 different lids I put on the container. I placed these lids inside of my outdoor grill. It has a cover on it and these will overwinter nicely. Sadly, my little Carolina finally died during the 2nd week of December. It was very sad. I made a number of videos of her and buried her in a houseplant. I'm glad I got 3 ooths from her.

The big Chinese I kept as a free-range insect pet. I let it roam around my house and fed it large crickets with tweezers. Gave it water and honey. At one point, she ran away. I looked EVERYWHERE for her. I figured she went someplace to die. Anyway, she was gone for two weeks, and then one day showed up in the middle of my dining room floor. She was noticeably smaller. She wouldn't eat or drink and died December 21st (winter solstice). She lived a very long life. So I am worried when she disappeared that she might have laid an ooth somewhere in my house. I want to be prepared for this, should they hatch indoors during the winter.

I would like to raise as many as I can, and assume I will have to let the others just eat each other. I need advice on this, and will need to know what supplies I will need to deal with this, as I know I am totally unequipped. Help!

 

[MantisMart]

I would not recommend keeping all of them. About 150+ nymphs will hatch. It will hatch inside during the winter if it isn't given an overwintering period. I wouldn't recommend feeding crickets or using critter cages. You will need to get something either specifically for mantids, or get some supplies to make something for urself. Crickets can be harmful to mantids, they carry diseases and are hard to digest. Feed fruit flies, Dubia roaches, wax moths, blue bottled flies, or house flies. There are some other choices as well. Make sure you feed store bought and not wild caught. Try to find the ooth, and only keep like 5 or so when it hatches. baby Chinese can be difficult. Lmk if you need more help.

 

[MantisGirl13]

First of all, there is a chance that your females didn't mate, and in that case you wouldn't have to worry about anything. 

If you do have an ooth hatch, collect the nymphs and keep them in individual ventilated deli cups with mesh lids as they will cannibalize if kept together. For the first few instars, you'll have to feed flightless fruit flies, which can be found at most pet stores. When they are too big for fruit flies, you can feed any of the feeder insects that @MantisMart suggested.