What If...

[CoolMantid]

Me Alex?

 

[sinensispsyched]

Oh, I meant AgentA.

 

[CoolMantid]

Too many Alexs! GAHH

 

[sinensispsyched]

Right about that!

 

[agent A]

i dont have any human children...

who's to say im a human and not a mantis

hey sinensispshyced, we should start a topic of made up mantises

in algebra today i freaked out some girl by telling her about the made up giant bunny eating mantis and how it would eat her rabbit

 

[gripen]

i dont have any human children...

who's to say im a human and not a mantis

hey sinensispshyced, we should start a topic of made up mantises

in algebra today i freaked out some girl by telling her about the made up giant bunny eating mantis and how it would eat her rabbit

classic!

 

[Introvertebrate]

What if instead of us humans keeping and breeding mantids, giant mantids would be keeping us?!

What if they're just keeping us so they can feed us off to their chameleons?

 

[CoolMantid]

What if they're just keeping us so they can feed us off to their chameleons?:Introvertebrate

YES!!!

in algebra today i freaked out some girl by telling her about the made up giant bunny eating mantis and how it would eat her rabbit:agentA

One time i saw a mantis who just fiished laying an ooth laying an ooth and some kids walked up and started blabbing about a mantis is so venomous and can kill a human. So i picked up the mantis, let it crawl all over me, and here is the best part- I pretended it bit me! (it was a sctratch i got from P.E.) and they freaked out. They got scared and then the mantis jumped and ran away. They believed it! its amazing what people believe!!

 

[agent A]

Once i got blood drawn and the wound looked cool so i said my miomantis sucked my blood and that her microscopic babies were loose in the cafeteria and the principal got mad and made me type a 2 page report on the egyptian mantis

Good times

 

[CoolMantid]

Nice! XD

 

[sinensispsyched]

Good trick on the girl!

At school, I've always been known as, "the weird guy with the mantises", but people started making fun of me when I put a mantis photo on my Christmas card, as well as when I said how many mantises I have. Oh, the lives us rearers go through! For example, today I had an L2 ghost out, then I lost him for 20 minutes! At that point, I was crying and tearing up my room. Then, I fount it at the top of my curtains! I named that one, "Waldo" from, "Where's Waldo"!

 

[agent A]

My mom thinks im obsessed with them because I care for them when I have NOTHING else to do, she acts like im not doing anything other than caring for them even when it isn't true

Wat happened to encouraging your child's interests????

 

[CoolMantid]

My mom likes this better than snakes so she will do anything to keep me in this hobby aand not move to reptiles. I keep the mantis hobby on the "down low" at my school. esspescially in front of the girl I like. Im always nervous if that gets out.

 

[lunarstorm]

My mom likes this better than snakes so she will do anything to keep me in this hobby aand not move to reptiles. I keep the mantis hobby on the "down low" at my school. esspescially in front of the girl I like. Im always nervous if that gets out.

Hrm. If your mom forbids reptiles, that's likely to make you want reptiles even more. I wonder if she knows if you decide to try that later (when you go to college or whatnot, assuming she won't allow a pet reptile in her home), your experience with mantids would facilitate a very easy transition to reptiles.

Regarding keeping this on the "down low" at school, that's smart. At some point it's gonna get out and that's fine, you'll be able to explain the numerous cool aspects of mantids. Some will get it, some won't. Don't fret too much over those who don't.

As an adult working in the software industry, most of my coworkers think it's odd/strange/eccentric that I have mantids (and keep in mind, this includes artists and engineers, which are generally a very geeky and smart bunch.) It is unfortunate they're not a pet that general society currently understands.

 

[agent A]

And we must remember that raising mantises is a lot less harmful than other activities teens have been known to get into, such as smoking and shoplifting, I think adults should more encourage a child's love of nature

 

[CoolMantid]

I will raise reptiles and other insects (besides mantids) in future... for sure. I have told some of my friends. They where so excited when they came to my house and saw my mantis munching on a cricket. My mom knows for sure i will keep reptiles. She just said she will never come and visit. I would have to come and visit her. She is loosening up on an Anole.

For sure the mantis hobby is addiciting. But its WAY better than doing illegal stuff like that. I already know people my age who have smoked and or made out with someone before. :kiss:

I think parents should get a pet to occupy there child for some time and encourage this hobby. You will be suprised how much i have learned just from this forum!!

 

[crucis]

for anyone older than grade school or younger than middle-age, it has become a potential social liability to spend your free time rearing any animal other than a dog or cat. Not to mention poking around bushes in search of local insects.

I find this absurd.. and sad proof that social norms are more oppressive than military policemen and authoritarian government. When we are children, we do the things that occur most naturally to us. This includes music that is actually pleasing to the ears, wonder at the natural world, and staying away from clubs and vice.

 

[gripen]

for anyone older than grade school or younger than middle-age, it has become a potential social liability to spend your free time rearing any animal other than a dog or cat. Not to mention poking around bushes in search of local insects.

I find this absurd.. and sad proof that social norms are more oppressive than military policemen and authoritarian government. When we are children, we do the things that occur most naturally to us. This includes music that is actually pleasing to the ears, wonder at the natural world, and staying away from clubs and vice.

+1! Could not have said it better.

 

[sinensispsyched]

@ AgentA post # 31

That is EXACTLY what happens to me! Really, mom only has grudges on my bugs because she buys the crix, and sometimes I handle my bugs before homework is done. Other than that, I feed them, I clean them, and I nurture them.

@ AgentA post # 24

Last summer, when I was just entering the hobby, my mom and grandparents called me either a mother or a father after my chinese ooth hatched.

 

[agent A]

Its really interesting how I came to love mantises

Many years ago they used to freak me out but my sister loved them, now the tables have turned

I remember walking in the woods and seeing tent caterpillar nests, but my father thought they were mantis ooths, and that's kinda how I became obsessed, I was curious and before I knew it I bought an ooth from magic wings, and the rest is a story for another day

I don't know why I get so sentimental abt past memories of the forest behind my house, but these early memories both inspire and haunt me