Looking at Mantid. Wondering what kind of care they need.

[Tenevanica]

Get a Ghost mantis. I spray mine every day around feeding time. Simple care!

I +1 this choice all the way!

 

[Socfroggy]

I ended up getting a Asian Giant Golden Mantis and it just molted after 2 weeks in my care! How and when should I go about sexing my new friend?

 

[Andrea82]

I eIded up getting a Asian Giant Golden Mantis and it just molted after 2 weeks in my care! How and when should I go about sexing my new friend?

How big is it? The species' name is Hierodula golden i think?

 

[Andrea82]

@Socfroggy , hit the wrong button or are you sad I asked if it was a H.golden?

 

[Socfroggy]

I totally hit the wrong button in my half-awoken daze hahaha. Yes it is

 

[Sarkhan42]

I ended up getting a Asian Giant Golden Mantis and it just molted after 2 weeks in my care! How and when should I go about sexing my new friend?

Should be sexable from L3 on I think? You count abdominal segments, I believe 5-6 is female more is male. I actually just recently picked up 2 H venosa gold that have molted twice for me(and both look female), wonder if I've got the same thing, where'd you get yours?

 

[Socfroggy]

Should be sexable from L3 on I think? You count abdominal segments, I believe 5-6 is female more is male. I actually just recently picked up 2 H venosa gold that have molted twice for me(and both look female), wonder if I've got the same thing, where'd you get yours?

I got mine from the DFW Reptarium.

 

[Socfroggy]

@Socfroggy , hit the wrong button or are you sad I asked if it was a H.golden?

Oh and I'd say about half an inch

 

[darkness975]

Mine get mostly crickets. Is a diet of mostly crickets really that bad for them? I give everything I own crickets for the most part @Andrea82

 

[Andrea82]

Mine get mostly crickets. Is a diet of mostly crickets really that bad for them? I give everything I own crickets for the most part @Andrea82

I wouldn't feed only crickets. Somehow this feeder is a cause for impaction/severe constipation when fed too often. Probably because of all the hard parts. Flies, mealworms, superworms, moths are better, but when dealing with a large species it is difficult to feed them only flies. Banana roaches (Panchlora sp) are good feeders, their shell is soft.
Dubia are okay, and better than crickets, but because they don't move or burrow straight down, mantids don't always take them.

 

[Toxoderidae]

I wouldn't feed only crickets. Somehow this feeder is a cause for impaction/severe constipation when fed too often. Probably because of all the hard parts. Flies, mealworms, superworms, moths are better, but when dealing with a large species it is difficult to feed them only flies. Banana roaches (Panchlora sp) are good feeders, their shell is soft.
Dubia are okay, and better than crickets, but because they don't move or burrow straight down, mantids don't always take them.

The best mantid feeders for me have always been moths. Lots of movement, almost no hard parts, and all the bug guts in the world for the mantis.

 

[Andrea82]

Ah, forgot to mention one feeder which was very succesful here, fly pupa or maggots. Very cheap and available in huge quantities at a baitshop or fishingstore. My C.gemmatus took those from L3/L4.
@Socfroggy , yours will readily take these as well at that size, but you need to go bigger when it is bigger.

 

[darkness975]

I wouldn't feed only crickets. Somehow this feeder is a cause for impaction/severe constipation when fed too often. Probably because of all the hard parts. Flies, mealworms, superworms, moths are better, but when dealing with a large species it is difficult to feed them only flies. Banana roaches (Panchlora sp) are good feeders, their shell is soft.
Dubia are okay, and better than crickets, but because they don't move or burrow straight down, mantids don't always take them.

For my Hierodula membrancea it's hard to feed because I don't want to use outdoor prey for obvious reasons but the people I live with don't want any kind of roach in the house. Stuck in a bit of a loop on this one

 

[Andrea82]

For my Hierodula membrancea it's hard to feed because I don't want to use outdoor prey for obvious reasons but the people I live with don't want any kind of roach in the house. Stuck in a bit of a loop on this one

Superworms are the way to go then i think, or if the mantis is smaller, mealworms. Mine greedily took superworms from the tongs without trouble. That species fears nothing, wether it is tongs, feeders, hands. Well, mine didn't anyway. I scared her by accident one time, her response was simply to attack my finger. She drew blood with her raptors actually. She was as sweet as could be normally, very interactive

 

[GingerC]

Good to know! I've heard of feeding them when their abdomen is flat but I don't like the idea of waiting until they are basically starving to feed them.

Just a friendly pointer here, but waiting for the abdomen to flatten out before feeding isn't starving the mantis (it takes weeks for them to starve), but making sure it's actually hungry before you offer food. If you've ever had a heavy meal and then waited until you were hungry to eat again, that's basically what a lot of us are doing with our mantids.

Looking at how thick the abdomen is is actually a good way of determining how large of a feeder they can wolf down safely. Sometimes, "starving" them is the only way to feed them without risking a folded abdomen; there was a point in my mantis' development when it was too large for fruit flies, but a single small cricket would fill it up. So I'd feed it a small cricket, wait a few days for it to pass it, and then give another one.

It takes weeks for a mantis to starve, and days for its abdomen to flatten. My mantis only ate one mini mealworm in a span of twelve days when she was in premolt (and postmolt); I was offering food, but she just didn't want it. I got her back on food this morning by killing a mealworm and dipping it in honey. Point is, mantids are cold blooded and their metabolisms are quite different from ours.

P.S. Squishing a mealworm in a paper towel may result in getting sprayed in the face with mealeorm guts. :S

 

[Socfroggy]

Just a friendly pointer here, but waiting for the abdomen to flatten out before feeding isn't starving the mantis (it takes weeks for them to starve), but making sure it's actually hungry before you offer food. If you've ever had a heavy meal and then waited until you were hungry to eat again, that's basically what a lot of us are doing with our mantids.

Looking at how thick the abdomen is is actually a good way of determining how large of a feeder they can wolf down safely. Sometimes, "starving" them is the only way to feed them without risking a folded abdomen; there was a point in my mantis' development when it was too large for fruit flies, but a single small cricket would fill it up. So I'd feed it a small cricket, wait a few days for it to pass it, and then give another one.

It takes weeks for a mantis to starve, and days for its abdomen to flatten. My mantis only ate one mini mealworm in a span of twelve days when she was in premolt (and postmolt); I was offering food, but she just didn't want it. I got her back on food this morning by killing a mealworm and dipping it in honey. Point is, mantids are cold blooded and their metabolisms are quite different from ours.

P.S. Squishing a mealworm in a paper towel may result in getting sprayed in the face with mealeorm guts. :S

Ah okay, thank you. I'll be doing that from now on. How do mantises get folded abdomens and what does it do to them?

 

[Andrea82]

Just a friendly pointer here, but waiting for the abdomen to flatten out before feeding isn't starving the mantis (it takes weeks for them to starve), but making sure it's actually hungry before you offer food. If you've ever had a heavy meal and then waited until you were hungry to eat again, that's basically what a lot of us are doing with our mantids.

Looking at how thick the abdomen is is actually a good way of determining how large of a feeder they can wolf down safely. Sometimes, "starving" them is the only way to feed them without risking a folded abdomen; there was a point in my mantis' development when it was too large for fruit flies, but a single small cricket would fill it up. So I'd feed it a small cricket, wait a few days for it to pass it, and then give another one.

It takes weeks for a mantis to starve, and days for its abdomen to flatten. My mantis only ate one mini mealworm in a span of twelve days when she was in premolt (and postmolt); I was offering food, but she just didn't want it. I got her back on food this morning by killing a mealworm and dipping it in honey. Point is, mantids are cold blooded and their metabolisms are quite different from ours.

P.S. Squishing a mealworm in a paper towel may result in getting sprayed in the face with mealeorm guts. :S

Try crushing the head with tweezers next time. Of the mealworm, not the mantis.

 

[GingerC]

Ah okay, thank you. I'll be doing that from now on. How do mantises get folded abdomens and what does it do to them?

Mantids get folded abdomens when they are overfed; the abdomen becomes dead weight and appears to "fold over" when it sits upside down.

They can cause mobility issues and make it harder for a mantis to molt, and the issue will still be present through successive molts- there's no getting rid of it once it's there. However, it is mostly an aesthetic issue; mantids with folded abdomens can still grow up to be otherwise healthy adults. Hope that helped, and good luck with your little mantis buddy.

 

[Andrea82]

Mantids get folded abdomens when they are overfed; the abdomen becomes dead weight and appears to "fold over" when it sits upside down.

They can cause mobility issues and make it harder for a mantis to molt, and the issue will still be present through successive molts- there's no getting rid of it once it's there. However, it is mostly an aesthetic issue; mantids with folded abdomens can still grow up to be otherwise healthy adults. Hope that helped, and good luck with your little mantis buddy.

I can imagine it messes with their breathing and circulation as well in a bad case. I have read about case where the mantis actually died. So the message is: don't overfeed. Especially Hierodula spp are susceptible to eating too much. Watch the abdomen, when the mantis is getting fatter, you'll see reddish stripes appear between the segments. This is a clear sign you should wait a week or two with feeding. Always provide drinking water though.

 

[basin79]

Even my adult female Hierodula Majuscula would catch and eat blue bottles I'd hatch from casters. Obviously she'd eat a lot but she did eat them. She also got crickets, waxworks, roaches, adult locust (when she was big enough) and morio worms.

My adult female Hymenopus Coronatus mainly gets blue bottles.