Any Praying Mantis owners?

Arcimbaldo

Arcimbaldo

Arcimbaldo

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Joined
14 Oct 2009
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502
Location
Newport, Shropshire
Hi all,
I was looking through the bird spider thread and ventured onto the spider store. Found out that i can get a pet praying mantis, I have always wanted one so im just after advice from any people who have them if there are any). I was looking at getting a glass terrarium, 30cmx30cmx45cm so its big enough, it was the Green African Mantis that i was after.

My house is pretty cold so would it be worth getting heat mats to keep the temp at 20-25 degrees C.
Is it ok to just spray the tank every day rather than giving it water?
On the site it says L3-L5 next to each mantis, is this there size or something?

Thats all for now but thanks for any help!
 
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Arcimbaldo said:
Hi all,
I was looking through the bird spider thread and ventured onto the spider store. Found out that i can get a pet praying mantis, I have always wanted one so im just after advice from any people who have them 9if there are any). I was looking at getting a glass terrarium, 30cmx30cmx45cm so its big enough, it was the Green African Mantis that i was after.

My house is pretty cold so would it be worth getting heat mats to keep the temp at 20-25 degrees C.
Is it ok to just spray the tank every day rather than giving it water?
On the site it says L3-L5 next to each mantis, is this there size or something?

Thats all for now but thanks for any help!
Click to expand...

Ok. 30x30x45 is wayyyyyyy too big for a mantis...most dont need anything bigger than a pint pot to live happily.

20-25 degrees will be fine, you wont need a heat mat at all.

I used to spray one side of the pot every otehr day or so.

L3-L5 is how many times it has shed...generally with mantis L7 is an adult, which then if it is a male it wont last much longer, if it is a female it might last another year ot so :)

Any other questions feel free :D
 
Ah right ok,
Where abouts did you get your mantis from as ive just read that other thread which you seemed to be very active in? And the site does not state whether its male/female so i presume its just a case of ring up and ask.
As for the tank size will housing it in something that big cause any issues with finding the food? I would keep it in something smaller but would feel that im being harsh on it :(
Just measured my room temperature and its 14 degrees C now, so i think i may have to get heat mats?
For a male is the whole life cycle a year or so but a bit longer for females?

Thanks for the help :D
 
Arcimbaldo said:
Ah right ok,
Where abouts did you get your mantis from as ive just read that other thread which you seemed to be very active in? And the site does not state whether its male/female so i presume its just a case of ring up and ask.
As for the tank size will housing it in something that big cause any issues with finding the food? I would keep it in something smaller but would feel that im being harsh on it :(
Just measured my room temperature and its 14 degrees C now, so i think i may have to get heat mats?
For a male is the whole life cycle a year or so but a bit longer for females?

Thanks for the help :D
Click to expand...

I got my first ever mantis from a local exotic shop, since then i have bought them from the UKMantis forum, The Spider Shop, RFUK and also BugzUK.

I created that other thread to try and get more people looking into alternative pets than the norm, which seemed to work :D

USUALLY at L5 you should be able to sex tghe type of mantis you are looking at, L3 may be a little more difficult, but the peolple at The Spider Shop are very very helpful and if you were to ring up they would no doubt be able to help, though for you first you may be better heading over to the UK mantis forum and/or RFUK as they are generally lots of mantis for sale on there :)

As long as the tank is 3 times the height and twice the widht, this is more than enough for them, the bigger the tank is the more likely it is they will not find their food, most species wont go hunting, they will wait for food to come to them, you can get the exo terra glass tanks in a "micro" form which would be better suited for mantis, but they are around £25, where as poundland sell brilliant tubs, that with a little bit of DIY are perfect :)

14*C is rather cold :/ my room at the minute away from the heatmats is about 24...are you sure you have measured that correctly, because that is really rather cold lol

You can slow a mantis life cycle down by keeping it slightly cooler and feeding it slightly less often, different species take longer to mature than others anyway, ive had mantis from L2 that have lasted 2 years, but they were females, males would probably only last a year.

It is generally best to get a few of the same species, buying online will cost about £6 delivery anyway, so buying from UKmantis or RFUK, you may be able to get a deal on a small group of them, just in case of a bad moult or something. Plus then if allllllll goes well, and you dont get 5 of the same sex, you can try mating them, which itself is rather simple :)
 
iamTakeo said:
lol G18241 if I read any more of your posts I'll end up with a zoo in my bedroom!
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Hehe i like my animals :D

TO be fair, i havent got any mantis at the minute, kinda concentrating more on my spiders, but i have a bit of room for a few and im off this week so may have to buy the gf some :rolleyes::p
 
I was looking on the reptile forums and someone is selling ghost mantids for about 3 quid each, would it be worth getting some of these or using the spider shop. I think i may look at getting a fish tank or something about 8"x 8"x 12" or is that still too big, i keep forgetting how small mantids really are..
And as for getting more than one when mating them how many young do they produce at a time, about 300+ is what ive been getting off the internet but how many of these will actually develop into mantids?
And would you recommend getting more than one mantis to start with for a beginner?
 
Arcimbaldo said:
I was looking on the reptile forums and someone is selling ghost mantids for about 3 quid each, would it be worth getting some of these or using the spider shop. I think i may look at getting a fish tank or something about 8"x 8"x 12" or is that still too big, i keep forgetting how small mantids really are..
And as for getting more than one when mating them how many young do they produce at a time, about 300+ is what ive been getting off the internet but how many of these will actually develop into mantids?
And would you recommend getting more than one mantis to start with for a beginner?
Click to expand...

African giant mantis can possibly grow to about 3 inch (if female) so something about 9 inch high would be needed ( near anough a 30cm ruler if you have one ) by about 6 inch wide. Height is much more important than floor space.

Ghost mantis on the other hand are much smaller :)

If you go for something that is about a L3 you will be ifn epuotting it in a plastic pint pot, with some netting held over the top with a rubber band...once it sheds you can easily just get a bigger pot for it :)

Main thing is ventilation and enough room to moult.

Different species of mantis produce different amounts of babies, but in general, there will be a fair few yes :p lots of breeders will keep all the babies together until most of them have shed once or so, there will be some that get munched on, but survival of the fittest and all. after that they all need to be seperated into individual pots, so could take up a fair bit of room.

I only say get a few, as you are buying something that is a few quid, but spending £6 on postage :) They can very easily die during a moult, through no fault of the keepers, which would then leave you without a mantis, plus any food source you buy, most of it will go to waste as they will be dieng before you can actually feed them to your mantis :)

Apart from the flower mantis and a few others, most mantis are really easy to keep, ghost mantis look awesome but are a bit smaller. Try and find the scientific names, you will slowly pick up or at least recognise certain ones, my first was a Alalomantis Coxalis, or congo green mantis and she got a big girl and quite liked being handled, though not all will and they CAN draw blood...ive never had one that has even been bothered though :)
 
Right cheers for the help,
I have decided to go for an exo terrarrium 8"x 8"x 12" set up for about 25 quid, the Mantids listed on the spider store are about 9 quid each then 6.50 for postage, although i have found the ghost mantids for 3 quid each from the reptile forum.
I am going to set something up with my local shop however for insects so i can go in at a weekend pick up a couple of locusts/crickets then keep them in a slightly larger container with soil/that gel stuff in until the mantis needs feeding :D.
I prefer the looks of the glass containers and would prefer a bigger one but is that one also too big?

Thanks for all the help btw :D
 
As a consequence of this post I went out today and bought a mantis, it's a meomantis johannesburg apparently. I just gave it a couple of locust...hopefully two won't be too many. I just kind of shook the pot and an extra one jumped out haha! If I get a chance I'll post some pictures. Right now tho, he's just small and green.
 
Im an ex mantis owner, She was a Ghost mantis with a brick red type colour but she died a few months back, was truly amazing watching her grow up to become a full adult, she never did fly, but apparently the females dont fly that often as the males come to them, or something like that. Bloody awesome little things and my next purchase is most likely going to be a Wondering Violin, or a Devils Flower if i can find either of them.

Edit
Pictures of my Ghost - RIP girly. The last photo of her, is when she died in my hands.
 
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dirtychinchilla said:
As a consequence of this post I went out today and bought a mantis, it's a meomantis johannesburg apparently. I just gave it a couple of locust...hopefully two won't be too many. I just kind of shook the pot and an extra one jumped out haha! If I get a chance I'll post some pictures. Right now tho, he's just small and green.
Click to expand...

Just make sure it does get both though, because as stupid as locust act and look, they can still bite a sleping mantis :)
 
Arcimbaldo said:
Right cheers for the help,
I have decided to go for an exo terrarrium 8"x 8"x 12" set up for about 25 quid, the Mantids listed on the spider store are about 9 quid each then 6.50 for postage, although i have found the ghost mantids for 3 quid each from the reptile forum.
I am going to set something up with my local shop however for insects so i can go in at a weekend pick up a couple of locusts/crickets then keep them in a slightly larger container with soil/that gel stuff in until the mantis needs feeding :D.
I prefer the looks of the glass containers and would prefer a bigger one but is that one also too big?

Thanks for all the help btw :D
Click to expand...

It may seem cruel to have them in a smaller container but you really do not need something huge as in turn this could be crueler if they never actually come across the food you put in for them. The nano exo terras though will be a decent siz for some of the larger mantis, and they do look very nice and are good for ventilaton. You do not want anything larger than this one for a mantis though...you also probably dont need th hood with the light etc because the mantis will just try and hide from it, if you are going for heat you will need a hetamat on a stat, which alone can cost you about £30-40

Just make sure you get some bamboo that reaches all the way to the top but dont make it too fussy as the mantis will need to have room to dangle from the top when it is moulting :)

And dont use bug gel for the mantis, just make sure there is either a very shallow waterbowl, or that you give a good misting every other dya or so :)

Glad to be of service, when you get soem pictures up, get them put in the thread that was linked at the top of this thread and lets try and get more people interested in these little critters :D
 
Cheers again!
another few questions:
Should i bother with a humidity monitor/temperature monitor?
And what substrate should i use, just any that retains moisture?
Does it have to be bamboo or shall i just get some twigs from the garden then clean them and put them in? or should i get some artificial ones?
I was meaning to use the bug gel for its food which will be in a separate container until they are called upon.
I am going to get the 20cm x 20xm x 30cm container as it looks nice and isnt too priecy at about 25 quid.

Thanks again!
 
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Arcimbaldo said:
Cheers again!
another few questions:
Should i bother with a humidity monitor/ temperature one
Honestly, i have never had one with my mantis, but if your house really is as cold as you say it is, a digital one would be ok, the analogue ones are not very accurate at all
And what substrate should i use, just any that retains moisture?
Best thing is either coco fibre or vermiculite, or a mixture of the 2, both can be bought from exotic pet shops or sonline fairly cheap
Does it have to be bamboo or shall i just get some twigs from the garden then clean them and put them in? or should i get some artificial ones?
You can pick thin bamboo cane sup from wilinsons or the such for less than a quid, they are much thicker, look nicer, and no worries of any pesticides or other nasties on them
I was meaning to use the bug gel for its food which will be in a separate container until they are called upon.
Thats fine, mantis cant get moisture from the gel as far as i know :)
I am going to get the 20cm x 20xm x 30cm container as it looks nice and isnt too priecy at about 25 quid.
They do look very nice, but knowing i can get 2 tubs, one slightly smaller than the other, in perfectly clear plastic, for a quid ;)

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
 
I kept mine in some little fish tank type thing, cost me 3.99, had a vented top and a little slidy door ontop, plus the whole top came off, Substrate i used kitchen roll, and some fake bendy vine stuff for climbing on, a few little branches of fake leafs for colour, she lived in that for almost 11 months, first 2 months she was in a pint pot with net on the top lol.
 
Ok last question,
I am going to order a habistat heatmat, the tank is 20cmx20cm so should i order a 20cmx20cm rainforest heatmat, which is the smallest they do for 5 pounds or a 5in x4 in heatmat for about 5 quid. If i get the smaller one will it be sufficient to heat the tank or get the larger one which should fit but it might slightly stick out the sides which i would not want?
 
Arcimbaldo said:
Ok last question,
I am going to order a habistat heatmat, the tank is 20cmx20cm so should i order a 20cmx20cm rainforest heatmat, which is the smallest they do for 5 pounds or a 5in x4 in heatmat for about 5 quid. If i get the smaller one will it be sufficient to heat the tank or get the larger one which should fit but it might slightly stick out the sides which i would not want?
Click to expand...

A bigger mat wont provide any more heat, just the same over a larger area :p Dont forget, if getting a mat you also want a thermostat for when your house naturally warms up so you dont overheat the little guy.

you may as well get a bigger one if they are near enough the same price, because trust me, you will not only be having one, after a few weeks you will start looking more and more into otehr spcies and you will end up with more, then it will be millipedes or something. I only started with a snake and now ive got a damn room full of stuff :D
 
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