# Chinese mantises hatching!



## Tarantuloid (Apr 7, 2013)

After five weeks of protecting these egg cases from certain disaster, I was incredibly to see that my egg cases have finally sprung for spring! Before these hatched, I was raising three live mantises. A lot of people stay away from mantises due to their short life spans, but they are among my favorite animals to take care of. Easy to handle, interesting to watch, and very entertaining to feed. A lot of people I've shown these two hate insects and arachnids, but they think these guys are pretty darn cute...

I've been breeding them for natural pest control, they have protected my succulent plants from certain doom. Once infested with aphids, I've watched them make a meal out of nearly all of them.


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## JadeWilliamson (Apr 7, 2013)

They're adorable!  Send me some!

I tried keeping a ~3.5" _Stagmomantis carolina_ I caught outside my house last summer but I didn't really know how to take care of it and it didn't make it  I think mantids are really cool and I'd love to have more of them to observe outside.


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## Tarantuloid (Apr 7, 2013)

JadeWilliamson said:


> They're adorable!  Send me some!


They're really neat, and get pretty big!

---------- Post added 04-06-2013 at 11:39 PM ----------




JadeWilliamson said:


> They're adorable!  Send me some!
> 
> I tried keeping a ~3.5" _Stagmomantis carolina_ I caught outside my house last summer but I didn't really know how to take care of it and it didn't make it  I think mantids are really cool and I'd love to have more of them to observe outside.


They are among the easiest animals I have to care for. While they do eat more frequently than a tarantula (every other day) they have a voracious appetite. I've been watching some of the older ones outside and I've seen them eat black widows, small centipedes, and the large females hummingbirds (although this is extremely rare to witness)


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## antinous (Apr 7, 2013)

That's so cool! I've only seen a praying mantis one around here tho haha


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