Praying Mantids

[ZoeHale]

Well actually, sometime this week I'm getting a shipment of a new (to the US and other parts of North America) species of mantis from Singapore. Mind, they CAN NOT be released into the wild. The hobby is a rather under-the-table kind of hobby, but if like a cop comes to your house and sees you have an exotic mantis, I doubt they'd haul you off.

Anyhoo. Back to what I was saying. I'm getting the species Deroplatys lobata. The guy I'm getting them from is hoping that I can breed them and distribute them across the US.

You don't HAVE to buy food. I do get crix and flies for mine, but I breed my own flies so that was a one-time buy. Also, whenever I see a bug outside I whip out a small deli cup (I keep'em in my bag at all times) and catch it for my mantids. Also, they like honey on toothpicks for treats.

[Lea]

Here's a big one I found it on the same porch.  I used to see lots of different kinds when I lived there. Anyone recognize this species? I think it was about 4-5 inches long.

[ZoeHale]

Ah, yes! A beautiful adult specimen of the Stagmomantis carolina, Carolina Mantis.
I'm thinking that's also a male.
Beautiful find!

[Kinsey]

Yeah mine are all the common species for the area, I wouldn't breed if they were exotics-too risky. Extra exotic babies have to be frozen.

[ZoeHale]

What do you mean by the extra exotics have to be frozen?

[Kinsey]

If by chance you were to breed exotics, even accidently, some of the babies have to be frozen since they cannot be released and a thousand homes are hard to come by.

[ZoeHale]

Well.. Actually, there's a whole community for that.
People will pay astounding amounts of money for exotic nymphs.
I bought all of mine.
And only one species of the 3 can be released.
So please, don't freeze your nymphs!
Send them to me!

[Ellimac]

I saw this picture on Google the other day... I loved it, I just thought I would show it to you. =3

[ZoeHale]

That's actually M religiosa's threat pose.
That is one p.o.'d mantis!

[wagz77]

I always used to watch them when i was little. Have never kept them as pets, however, i think now i want to. What all would i need? And how big of a cage? And i'd like to breed them and release the babies, if this is possible. Any advice?

[ZoeHale]

Well first, before you do that, you'd have to make sure that the species you have is legal to be released in your country. There's a whole bunch of laws against that.

If you wanna start keeping mantids, I highly suggest visiting mantisplace.com, Rebecca is one of the leading suppliers in mantids and mantid-keeping products.
Also, you should join mantidforum.net, there's a whole bunch of very experienced keepers and breeders.

I will edit this post later, I'll tell you the basic. I actually gotta run to get crickets, it's feeding day.

[Lea]

@ZoeHale:  I was looking at that site, and the one marked Stagmomantis carolina that you identified in my picture, looked a whole lot different to me.  But the one marked Giant Asian mantis looked a lot more like my picture.  Could that be? 

I have to say, some of those species are craaaaaazy-looking! 

[lilangel]

very neat.

Is there like a website of info what to keep them in and feed and how to?

I am guessing to buy them you go to mantisplace.com ?

[lilangel]

or are we allowed them in Canada?

[ZoeHale]

@Lea: No, that's definitely an S carolina. Gian Asians are indiginous (sp?) to China and Malaysia, and Indonesia. Not North America.

@Lilangel: Mantidforum.net has alot of stickies on care and also a classifieds section where people will sell certain species that they have a surplus of. For alot cheaper than Rebecca has on mantisplace! The reason why her prices are so high is because she constantly has all these species and breeds them year round.
And I have no idea what the laws are in Canada.