your favorite mantises

[womantis]

just started caring for chinese nympths, after our ooths hatched. so far so good - we're at various stages of L1-L3.

for those of you who have been mantis enthusiasts for some time now, curious to hear about your favorite species and why?

any good recommendations for another easy species for a beginner like myself?

thanks!

shira

 

[mkayum]

Ghost Mantid are my favorite cause they kinda look like an alien queen. It acts like a real leaf in breeze. Plus they are great for beginners. I plan to purchase them inthis summer.

Try this species!

 

[womantis]

thanks mkayum! appreciate the feedback.

 

[CoolMantid]

Ghost look incredible and are fairly communal so it is awesome to have a five gallon with like 20 in there! I would also say ghost are great!

 

[agent A]

Creos r awesome!! Cute and prolific mantises!!

 

[maybon]

Blepharopsis mendica for sure! Wish I could get one so bad

 

[hibiscusmile]

I think the chinese are the most regale, but not that easy to raise.

 

[CoolMantid]

Creos rock! and they are a perfect beginner mantis

 

[Mvalenz]

Budwings are so easy to take care of and are very aggressive eaters. I have one that is a super sweet girl.

 

[womantis]

great stuff..thanks all

hibisucussmile - why are the chinese hard to raise?

 

[sinensispsyched]

^

I

Because of the mismolts they can have.

 

[mykey14]

budwings are super kewl.

they eat everything/anything.

they get large and are super cute!

i love em.

 

[dlemmings]

my first "best pick" is the Ghost...but I do love holding my Violin mantis.

I have a Sp. Lineola i can leave on a plant for hours.

My wife likes me to get her out place her on a plant and just let her enjoy the fresh air...I will give her a cricket to eat while she is on the plant and she is happy as a clam.

so far the only mantis I have owned that is not "fun to let out and play with" is the Glass mantis: so small and very active "jumpy" I cant take it into the living room like my others.

oh, and My male Creo p. likes to fly so I gotta keep close tabs on him too

 

[brancsikia339]

creos, budwings and ghost... oh my!! (quote from the wizard of oz... kinda)

 

[Bryce08]

ghosts are cool, and very communal, and they are one of my favorite to take pictures of. The eyes on ghosts are like no other mantis in my opinion. Im about to mate a few adults that I have now, and hope to have lots of ooths to come

creos, budwings and ghost... oh my!! (quote from the wizard of oz... kinda)

yeah...kinda, HaHa

 

[hibiscusmile]

They just die off easily, but the last 3 ooths I have hatched this month, I have done something different with them and the die off is lessening. I have started to mist them two and three times a day till the first molt and it is helping. Maybe they just need more water, but it seems to be working. Maybe someone start a Chinese con thread and we can work on it from there.

 

[hibiscusmile]

oH ps, I just realized the other day my fav mantis is the giant asian, but a close second, only in looks is the peacock mantis, they are by far very beautiful, but also very hard to breed.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

They just die off easily, but the last 3 ooths I have hatched this month, I have done something different with them and the die off is lessening. I have started to mist them two and three times a day till the first molt and it is helping. Maybe they just need more water, but it seems to be working. Maybe someone start a Chinese con thread and we can work on it from there.

Chinese love to drink. It was funny when I first got the long necks off you I remember you saying they liked water, but they ended up freaking me out because they never seemed interested in it like my Chinese ones who would take water pretty much daily. I do think some extra humidity helps them, when hatching also. I'll be honest though, I never even misted my cages when I started out with the Chinese, yet I never had a shedding problem. Initially I ran across somewhere about needing to mist mantises every couple of days but I thought people meant you should actually mist the mantis so I would take mine out of the cage and mist them directly with the water bottle. it took me several years before I realized you were suppose to mist to keep the humidity up in the cages. :wacko:

The humidity is pretty nice down here regardless, but I still credit a lot of my success to the net cages. I mentioned in another thread I think some of the Idols cage set ups with all that easy gripping would do wonders.

 

[rs4guy]

Malayan Orchids, but Ghosts really are great as well. I also really like Sphodromantis spp. especially the Blue Flashs. They have monster mandibles that are incredible to see in motion.