While at a meeting in November, a chinese mantis found its way into my open Jeep. I drove back to work, and it crawled around on my dash. I had kept a praying mantis in an old habitrail for a short time when I was younger, so I thought I'd bring him into work and show my co-workers.
At first I thought I would just let him go, but once my co-workers found that it would die once the weather got cold (I'm in Illinois, north of Chicago), they insisted that we keep it in the office and feed it.
Several weeks and dozens of crickets later, our office mascot, who would usually crawl around on my desk or my head when not in her aquarium, laid her first ootheca. So...apparently he was a she. From the advice of some very helpful forum member, I refrigerated the ooth. I wondered if it was fertile, but decided not to chance it.
Around Christmas, she laid her second ooth. The local police use our facility to train drug-sniffing dogs, and I stopped by on Christmas Eve to feed her. The entire pack of cops and dogs filed into my small office and watched, entranced.
It's January 25, and there's 2 possible fertile ooths in the fridge, and she's still alive, although she seems pretty feeble. She's not very good at catching her food anymore. I wonder how long she'll live - I would have thought she would have passed on long ago.
At first I thought I would just let him go, but once my co-workers found that it would die once the weather got cold (I'm in Illinois, north of Chicago), they insisted that we keep it in the office and feed it.
Several weeks and dozens of crickets later, our office mascot, who would usually crawl around on my desk or my head when not in her aquarium, laid her first ootheca. So...apparently he was a she. From the advice of some very helpful forum member, I refrigerated the ooth. I wondered if it was fertile, but decided not to chance it.
Around Christmas, she laid her second ooth. The local police use our facility to train drug-sniffing dogs, and I stopped by on Christmas Eve to feed her. The entire pack of cops and dogs filed into my small office and watched, entranced.
It's January 25, and there's 2 possible fertile ooths in the fridge, and she's still alive, although she seems pretty feeble. She's not very good at catching her food anymore. I wonder how long she'll live - I would have thought she would have passed on long ago.
