Wow, where to start...(for me, that is!)

About a week ago, I was walking around a Meijer (Grocery store) in my college's local area. I spotted a mantid crouched upon a roll of paper towels, and quickly bought a tupperware container and captured it before it was squished by some uncaring shopper. This is my first experience caring for an insect, and I was quickly drawn in by its beauty and all-around coolness. I was about the release the thing, but then a friend of mine suggested that I keep it as a pet. Keeping a mantid as a pet had never occured to me, really. So, I kept it, feeding it 2 or three ants that I'd caught every day or so.

Right now, it's sitting in its tupperware container atop about a half inch of dirt, along with a twig or two. I'd read some of the other instructions, and am misting it every day with some cool water.

As for the mantid's habits, it seems quite skittish and is always found on the roof of its enclosure (which measures about 12 inches by 8 inches by 6 inches), hanging upside down. I haven't seen it drink at all, even though I put a soaked piece of paper towel, and a wet grape half into the container. I really want this thing to pull through. I'd noticed early on that one of its rear legs does not work at all, and is pretty much dragged around behind the mantis as it moves, which was one reason that I hesistated from releasing it.

I wanted to know where to go from here. The biggest problem is that I'm staying in a university town in central Illinois (The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). The nearest grocery store is 30 minutes away (Meijer), and I don't know if there's a pet store nearby, although I've heard of one about an hour away. I'd like to raise mantids down here in some of my free time, as I'm a freshman and have a ton of it.

Can anyone point me in the right direction, here? Thanks very very much!

First of all welcome to the site! I am from central Illinois myself. Anyways I suggest getting a small aquarium for the mantis. A screen lid will work. I use about a half inch of moist sphagnum moss in the bottom of my enclosures to hold some moisture in. You can buy it at Home Depot or Lowes. It comes dried. Lightly mist the mantid once a day. I recommend catching some grasshoppers or buy some feeder crickets for the mantis. Ants are not really a good food source IMO. We don't know what kind you have but I am going to guess it's a carolina mantis or even a chinese mantis. Read some of the threads on this site for more info.

I have been able to give my mantids a drink using a straw.

Get some crickets (small ones if you don't want them to chirp)

good luck!