Mantis living in my dads kitchen
This praying mantis has apparently been living in my dad’s kitchen since last fall, when he brought in his house plants that had been spending the summer outside and accidentally caused an egg sac that was on one of the plants to hatch in his house. He or she is very large, about 4” long, and looks a bit thin (its abdomen is very flat). I do help it catch extra bugs when I’m at his house so that it eats enough. We live in a city in zone 7 so it will get very cold over the winter.
My dad is originally from the Caribbean and he keeps his house ridiculously hot, and I fear that once those forced air heaters are on 24/7 keeping the house at 80 degrees all winter, the mantis is going to die because there will be fewer flies to eat and it will be very very dry in his house from the heaters always running.
Will the mantis be ok where it is over the winter, living near my dads window and fruit bowl and living off the bugs in his house, or should we put it in a humid tank and feed her bugs from the pet store like crickets over the winter? It’s amazing that he or she has lived in his house for so long and it would be a shame to let her die now.