r/praying_mantis

I got this leaf mantis a week or so ago and from the research I’ve done, I think his enclosure is set up okay?
I would like some advice on what I can do to better it though! I really want to give him the best and longest life I can!
I spray his enclosure once or twice a day depending how dry its looking (I haven’t yet today bc he’s on the ceiling right now but usually hangs from the tumble weed stick)

When he arrived as a little nymph, I was so sad because I’m like he is the most fragile and pure and I am surely gonna fuck this up. He would climb on my computer screen and watch me work back when I was a programmer.

I then realized that he was begging for caterpillars but it still felt like reciprocated love at the time.

They've been in my yard for 4 days now and they're not moving a bunch, are they alright?

I know NOTHING about praying mantises, hoping somebody could fill me in with what’s going on with him. His head was down, his eyes almost seemed like they were completely transparent, and he was having a very hard time walking. He also looked like he was trying to pull off his own head a couple of times but I don’t think I got that in this video.

I live at the end of a neighborhood with no housing behind it. I have a ton of wildlife, but I absolutely love seeing our Praying Mantis population. This is the first I’ve seen this year and the first brown one I’ve seen.

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.

My kids and I were bug hunting yesterday and found three praying mantises. This one had a strange brown thing attached or coming out of the side of its body. Is it a parasitid fly? Something else?

Saw this today and thought it was the coolest thing. Praying mantis really do look like little aliens, especially when they’re eating the heads off grasshoppers. Wait till end of video to get a nice zoomed in view.

Hey mantis community, my aunt picked this up at the our garden shop and gave them to me to raise a few and release the rest(I had been mentioning wanting mantises). I looked up the species and they’re invasive to my area. They’re Chinese mantises.

I have a butterfly enclosure/deli cups sitting around and a ton of invert experience so I’m planning to raise them all myself. However, I’m not sure how I’m going to manage 100-200 giant mantises once they grow.

Is it ethical to sell or give them away locally here in Reno, Nevada? Releasing them is completely off the table for me to protect local wildlife, and culling takes a really heavy emotional toll on me.

I worry adopters might release them if they lose interest, but interviewing every person to make sure they don’t might make rehoming impossible. I could ship to people if I’m able to but I’m not sure how to ship live animals.

If I have to, I’ll keep all 100+ in my setup, but I’m hoping for a better solution. How do I responsibly manage a them without harming the environment/my feelings?😅

2 squirmy egg sac type things fell out of its abdomen into my shoe, starting snaking around.

I hatched a mantis egg in my garden to protect my plants, but this guy got stuck in a spider web and had already had its leg either eaten or ripped off. I saved him, cleaned him, and got him a lil enclosure. I’ve been nursing him back to proper health and he’s gotten a few molts in (either 3 or 4 molts). I believe he’s l6 or l7 but has already started to outgrow his enclosure. Recently he’s been getting crazy and almost trying to dig his way thru the mesh top. I decided it’s time to send him back into the garden for the protection of my plants. I hope he stays and I get to see him grow his wings ❤️

Spotted this in Berlin. It flew across our path. I didn’t even know they could fly! Is this a native to these parts? Sorry for bad picture, it flew off again before I could take another.

Found sitting on top of my recycling bin outside. Put my hand in front of it, and it climbed right up. It walked around totally unbothered from one hand to the other. I sat on my porch, just holding it and chillin. He (she?) just looked around and groomed its face and feet. Once I realized I was going to be late, I put my hand up by a big bush and it walked right off. Made my freaking day.

He just got his wings and I thought he would be bigger by now