where to find mantids

[mantis religiosa]

What kind of places do you usually find mantids?Any specific plant species?

 

[Rick]

Weedy meadows, overgrown lots, shrubs around houses, overgrown fence lines. I have best luck in weedy areas where there are lots of grasshoppers. Getting late in the year though.

 

[bubforever]

anywhere but around my town. *sigh*

 

[Rick]

anywhere but around my town. *sigh*

BS. I grew up in Illinois. There are tons of mantids to be found.

 

[asdsdf]

I have to agree with Rick's first post.

BS. I grew up in Illinois. There are tons of mantids to be found.

However, maybe around your home town there are lots, and not around his. Illinois is a big enough state... :mellow:

 

[Rick]

Here is where I go to find em:

 

[Precious]

It's not WHERE you find them, it's WHEN and that's anytime that you're NOT looking for them. Oh, and Christmas tree lots sometimes keep the oothecae they find on the trees they sell (especially if you ask them to save them for you ).

 

[mantis religiosa]

I live in singapore

 

[Christian]

Well, it's no really a problem there: anywhere from deep rainforest to the garden of the neighbour. In the forest itself you will find fewer specimens, but rarer species. In weedy areas (clearcuts, forest edges, ruderal vegetation) you will find more of the usual and more common species. The best places are forest edges and roads adjacent or through primary forests and mixed plantations (not those oil palm craps, but mixed cultures of several different crops) near primary forest. Secondary forest is also okay, but the species composition is closer to that of the weedy areas than to the primary forest.

Important: search an area several times: you often find anything on a particular day but one or a few days later suddenly some mantids appear. Also try several times a year, some species have discrete generations and are found as adults in the rain or dry season only. Others are found troughout the year. There is a high diversity of mantids in your area, given that some substantial rainforest ist left.

Try several methods: search by sight, by sweeping nets and light-trapping. The more methods the higher the yield.

And write me when you found something interesting. :lol:

 

[OGIGA]

My back yard in the summer or late summer is quite a nice place to find s. californica.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

The only luck I have finding mantises is finding mantises that want to be found. All the one's I've seen have been because they crawled out of of hiding onto some kind of man-made object. First mantis I ever found was as a little kid at a food stand. She was a brilliant green and strutted across the counter while I was waiting in line, like she owned the place.

 

[catznbrau]

I found this site http://www.herper.com/insects/namantids.html. It shows what mantids are from what states...so if you live in the states its very neat. I didn't know we had any mantids in Washington. Oh and Illinois isn't even listed!

 

[yen_saw]

Here is where I go to find em:

that looks like a great spot for mantis!