You know you like mantids when......

[MantisGirl13]

• You see a fly and think "who do I feed that to?"
  
•  Your neighbors think you are weird for stalking their flower garden with a giant butterfly net
  
• Guests leave quicker than planned after you accidentally mention that you breed roaches in your bedroom closet
  
• You avoid stepping on the spotted lanternfly because your ghost needs to eat
  
• You pull an all-nighter by the porch light in the middle of summer
  
• You always have a container within reach just in case
  
• Your own parents call you weird and you actually don't mind because it's the truth
  
• Everyone in your class stares at you when you accidentally mention you keep insects as petspets
  

Add your own! 

- MantisGirl13

 

[hysteresis]

The roaches mess with everybody's heads. LoL. 

 

[The Mantis Menagerie]

I liked yours, so I started there. 

• You see a fly and think "who do I feed that to?"
  

A house fly escaped me several times yesterday because I wanted to keep it alive as a treat for my scorpion (the mantids had already been fed a lot). 

•  Your neighbors think you are weird for stalking their flower garden with a giant butterfly net
  

They are used to the net (and the log flipping), but I am sure they still wonder what exactly is going on when I spend 10 minutes going back and forth around the butterfly bush. (Usually, it is because a butterfly is not cooperating with me and is visiting the flowers in the middle, and I am trying to get the best angle for iNaturalist. 

• Guests leave quicker than planned after you accidentally mention that you breed roaches in your bedroom closet
  

I purposefully mention it, and then guests are usually forced on a tour. 

• You avoid stepping on the spotted lanternfly because your ghost needs to eat
  

I try to ID any moths in case they would be a good species to breed for mantis food. 

• You pull an all-nighter by the porch light in the middle of summer
  

Out my window, but same idea 

• You always have a container within reach just in case
  

My pocket bug jar is large enough to barely fit an adult female Stagmomantis carolina, and the jar goes everywhere. 

• Your own parents call you weird and you actually don't mind because it's the truth
  

We know too many entomologists for them to think I am unique. 

• Everyone in your class stares at you when you accidentally mention you keep insects as pets
  

At my school, I am allowed to bring them in sometimes! (And yes, I have known people to jump out of their chair in their eagerness to hold the hissing cockroaches.) 

My own answers

• Any major trip necessitates hours on iNaturalist planning for all the insects I could find. 
  
• You have ridiculous numbers of mantis photos on your phone. 
  
• Your favorite animal is a mantis: Metallyticus splendidus. 
  
• You would even consider letting Brunner’s stick mantids take over the 5 foot butterfly breeding enclosure in your bedroom. 
  

 

[Mantis Lady]

You have ridiculous numbers of mantis photos on your phone. 

Hahhaha, I have a lot of mantis pics too on my phone

• When you are on vacation and sees every inscet as potential prey for your mantids
  
• when you talk to your mantids like they are dogs of birds
  
• you watch a lot of vids of mantids on youtube
  
• when you have a plush mantis on your desk
  

 

[The Mantis Menagerie]

when you have a plush mantis on your desk

I have known some mantids that were so tame, I would trust them to roam a desk (or my bedroom). The only problem is all those mantids were females, and I did not want to be finding ootheca material stuck to surfaces. 

 

[Krissim Klaw]

You buy a 100 gallon tank that only ever has 1 praying mantis in it at a time cause you want your mantises to have a pad to chill in style.

You include your mantises names when signing any holiday/birthday cards for family/friends.

When you go shopping, you constantly see random things you could use for your mantises even though you clearly don't need any more mantis related stuff.

You see things like net laundry hampers and think, that would make a great mantis cage... even though you already have dozens of net cages.

People are constantly sending you photos of mantises because they know you as the mantis lady.

 

[Mantis Lady]

When you go shopping, you constantly see random things you could use for your mantises even though you clearly don't need any more mantis related stuff.

Same here. then i think:. I have enough stuff for my mantids

I have known some mantids that were so tame, I would trust them to roam a desk

I have had hierodula females who roamed my desk day and night.(the poop on my desk was less fun, but easy to take away) males are not good to be free. I have had a few times i forgot to put male back in his home and I had to look for him.

 

[danl82]

When you've just dropped £50 (about $66) on a bunch of new mantids (and you don't regret it )

You know culture methods for multiple feeder species off by heart.

Also, yes I was going add you keep seeing nice containers that would make nice mantis homes. 

 

[Jaywo]

when everyone you know sends you photos of a mantis they spotted in the outdoors

when everyone buys you mantis related products on your birthday

when your one pet mantis needs 50 new friends for company

when there are lucky escapee fruit flies always inhabiting your bathroom 

when you forgo vacations because you don't know who will feed your friends

 

[MantisGirl13]

Whenever Christmas comes around,  everyone you know has to tell you a story of an ooth hatching in their Christmas tree.

- MantisGirl13 

 

[mantisfan101]

One of my friends lives a good half hour walk away from me. I hadn’t seen a mantis at all this season so I was desperate. One day they called me and said that they found a chinese mantis. I literally sprinted the whole way there just for the mantis. Thankfully she’s laid an ooth for me and I’m hoping that she has another one for me. 

 

[Mystymantis]

When you go outside in your yard and see sticks on the ground and 'think Oh those would be perfect for my female mantises'.  I am always looking for good sticks for my female Chinese and Carolina mantises when I am out since when they lay egg cases on the sticks I have to replace them with new ones when the sticks with ootheca are put into incubation.

 

[mantisfan101]

One time when there was a moth in my sister’s room I just walked in with a mantis on my hand and let it do the job. So yeah I use my mantids as biological pest control

 

[MantisGirl13]

One time when there was a moth in my sister’s room I just walked in with a mantis on my hand and let it do the job. So yeah I use my mantids as biological pest control

Don't we all? Lol

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Mystymantis]

One time when there was a moth in my sister’s room I just walked in with a mantis on my hand and let it do the job. So yeah I use my mantids as biological pest control

That is great!

 

[Mantis Lady]

When you are collecting molts of your mantids . I have 2 litte containers with all the molts  of mantids I have/had. Even Cochises practise ooth (first mantis)

 

[hysteresis]

Dried feeder juices on your work mat. Half-washed 32s by the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Boxes and shipping materials stacked in the dining room corner.

Pupa shells on the floor under the table. Keep going? 

 

[MantisGirl13]

Keep going? 

Yes!

- MantisGirl13

 

[hysteresis]

I had to plunge the main floor bathroom sink because it was clogged with hair and pupa shells!

My wife gets pissed when I dump old eclosure cups out into the toilet, dead crix, superworm and dubia bits, and forget to flush.

Dirty tongs.