Moving day... maybe!

[swords]

Not for me but hopefully the mature male ghost mantis. Had this "bridge" setup for several hours along with an oscillating fan to simulate a breeze and he's no closer to getting off his perch.

You can see he's peering over there cos I put a couple crickets in the new bigger terrarium and a deli cup of big fat flies on the far side of the new vivarium in hopes of luring him, he's not budging. I tried to use my finger to lightly prod him out but he's not having it! LOL Anyone have any other ideas?


Here's a rare shot of an immature male Green Ghost actually on the ground, they spend 99% of their time upside down, not sure why he got on the ground today but he's back up in the "tree" now.

 

[jafvortex93]

hey are these nice little guys easy to take care of?

they look really wicked!!!!

 

[swords]

Mantids seem to be very easy pets.
I mist their enclosures every day when I get up so they can have a drink and that also keeps the plants moist without continually soaking the soil and making it all boggy. I feed them whatever bugs sneak into the house but mainly I hatch blue bottle flies from pupae as their staple food. They do eat crickets on those occasions when I've run out of flies. Despite what others have said about this species I've had no problem getting them to take crickets. I think they like them more than flies but supposedly they aren't as good for them as flies but why they say that I don't know, they're certainly a more substantial meal.

 

[jafvortex93]

how would i go about getting one? cuz in all honestly i have NEVER seen one in my day to day life.

---------- Post added at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ----------

wait so would i be able to have a mantid inside a terrarium with my neps?

 

[swords]

You have a number of neat species there in FL, such as the Grizzled bark mantis which I'd like to get someday. It looks like a piece of moss & lichen covered bark but it's a mantis.

Joining a site like www.mantidforum.net is the best place to start your research. You have to join to read the forum but it's free. You'll be able to read all about the various types find out what conditions they need compared to what you can provide (cool or warm temps, humid or desert, etc) before you contact a breeder to get some babies. With any luck I will have babies or at least eggsacks this fall of my ghosts and flowers but I may store them in the fridge until Feb or so to delay hatching/rearing the new generation so I can ship out the nymphs in good reliable spring temps.

You'll probably be safe keeping them with your Neps, Helis and Cephs since mantids don't eat nectar but nectar eating insects. Surely Pings, and Utrics would be alright but not sundews as the ant sized mantid nymphs (babies) would likely get caught up in the dew. They would be mighty expensive feeders! They like to be as high up in their enclosure as they can get (glue some twigs on the ceiling for them to hang from) so they won't be on the plants most of the time anyway. They do use the plant leaves as a judge of when they can move, if you blow in their terrarium (or have the fan blow on them) they move a lot more copying the swaying leaves. They will stalk prey as long as there is a slight breeze otherwise they will just wait for prey to come to them. I have a oscillating stand fan blowing on my terrarium shelves just to keep the T5 HO lighting cool and it works good to put a small breeze into each terrarium as well.

Update: one of the crickets discovered the" bridge" crossed it and got eaten! The mantis still hasn't moved from his perch other than to snag the cricket!

 

[mass]

I really want a ghost mantid!!