Yes, they are fun! You can take them out and handle them (let them explore) since they don't bite or make sudden movements. These exotic miniature types eat Blue Bottle flies I just order a cup of 100 pupae every month or so by mail. Keep the pupae in the fridge and just put one pupae in each terrarium every day when you do your daily misting (so the mantids can drink) and within 24-48 hours (or less) at room temp a fly will hatch and buzz around only to get eaten by the mantis pretty quickly. I don't have any large mantis species right now so I only feed a single fly a day. Keep an eye on their abdomens ("tails"), if they look plump they're fine, if they thin out get them more food. Try to get them an appropriate sized meal a day if you have warm temps since their metabolic processes are all faster in warm temps. When I get some larger species I will either use more flies per day or even large crickets and non-adult dubia roaches to feed the bigger ones. They will take food from tongs at any size and that's fun!
The leaf and flower mantids make some very comical movements, kind of like disco dancing! I'd love to make videos with my new camera of my various bug babies but I have no idea what to do once I've taken the video. How do I edit it to have just the good parts and maybe put music on it and text? Anyone have some hints/links for getting started using Windows movie maker?
Kris I'm not shot down at all, Idols are on my wantlist but nobody has any nymphs for sale at the moment but I don't have any more enclosures ready yet either so it's win/win for now. One guy in TX I'm in contact has breeding colonies of Idols, Violins, Dead Leafs, Ghosts, Flowers, other exotics... so I will get a few Idols someday - I've gotta have something to desire/crave!
I love how these flowers will adopt the colors of their surroundings within a molt or two. I put a Hygrophilla aquarium plant in with the other flower mantis and that plant turned maroon and that flower mantis currently has a red/brown pattern on white background and green legs. I always get thrown by their molts, Aw, it died... no wait, THERE it is!