# Praying Mantis



## Jakuraba (May 20, 2003)

Anybody know how to care for one of these? Habitat, food?


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

they are a endangered species
u have no right to keep it captive and u must let it go free









but if u want to keep it 
a 10 g tank with screen dirt bottom and heavily planted with a little water area
and they like crickets and dried flies (just soak them)


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## FeederFish33 (Jan 22, 2003)

you can feed them frogs, that would be sweet


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

wow... i didnt know they are endangered. i thought they were fairly common. to see


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

this site says they're not recognized as endangered by ohio or federal law, i dunno








it also has care and feeding info.
Click me


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Not protected. Also unlikely to eat anything but insects (crickets are a favorite). This time of year the likelihood that you have a pregnant female is very high.
Most have mated and eaten their mates by now. Look for eggs to come and a natural mortality is likely in a few months (but they have been kept longer).


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

acestro said:


> Not protected. Also unlikely to eat anything but insects (crickets are a favorite). This time of year the likelihood that you have a pregnant female is very high.
> Most have mated and eaten their mates by now. Look for eggs to come and a natural mortality is likely in a few months (but they have been kept longer).










i thought they were protected 
sorry







not even in n.y.


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

mantis have a short lifespan, i forget exactly how short, but less than a year for sure.

id try moths and crickets i guess. They prolly dont eat very often tho.


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

ewwwwww not the pet for me


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## traumatic (Jan 29, 2003)

I had a praying mantis last year. my roomate and I let him loose in a room in our basement where we grew plants and had a fly problem. The mantis stayed there and ate flies all day everyday. It did die close to winter, but most insects have a short life span. A very cool insect indeed.

Praying Mantis Pic


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## Xenon (Nov 15, 2002)

They look like aliens. The discovery channel has had some good shows on these critters!


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

Wow nice catch. Definitley keep it.


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## tinyteeth (Mar 12, 2003)

easy. just keep it in a tank with some sticks in it. they eat any bug that doesnt have a tuff exoskeleton. a cockeroach killed mine, dunno how. i threw one in there to see if my mantis would eat it, next morning the mantis was dead, the wings were spread out, so i think it died of stress. mine also had babies, it layed someting on a stick that looked like a nutsac, couple months later, i found hundreds of babies walking around everywhere.


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## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

Death in # said:


> acestro said:
> 
> 
> > Not protected. Also unlikely to eat anything but insects (crickets are a favorite). This time of year the likelihood that you have a pregnant female is very high.
> ...


Theres lots of mantis in N.Y. even in N.Y. city N.Y. 
most definitly as Acestro says, Life span will not be to long
January at most, care is simple. keep their cage clean, mist daily
feed a cricket every two days or so, thats about it for the
typical North American mantises. if you get an "egg" case just throw it
in the refridgerator till next spring take it out and in about two weeks you will have
a hundred or so babys, let them lose they help keep down insect populations
near your home.

Here is an old site that has many different species of mantids 
(their diversity is amazing)
MantisUK


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## lament configuration (Jun 22, 2003)

great link Poly. I am interested in getting a little cage to keep one now.


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## Jakuraba (May 20, 2003)

Those are some cool sites. He just ate a moth! Thinking of letting him go in my yard. Would he chill there or fly away?


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## thoroughbred (Mar 14, 2003)

Polypterus said:


> Death in # said:
> 
> 
> > acestro said:
> ...


 keep sack in fridge wow?


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

> Would he chill there or fly away?


Should chill there, lay eggs, and die naturally. I agree with Polypt, eggs in the refrigerator is a good call (don't need little mantids running around in the winter).


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## rickyedcom (Aug 28, 2003)

Can you buy these in Pet Stores?

Ricky


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

rickyedcom said:


> Can you buy these in Pet Stores?
> 
> Ricky


 no, but you can often buy their eggs at plant nurseries


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

> Theres lots of mantis in N.Y. even in N.Y. city N.Y.


 i see them every once and a while but for some reason i thought they were a protected species 
guess i was wrong


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## plonker_from_mars (May 1, 2003)

rickyedcom said:


> Can you buy these in Pet Stores?
> 
> Ricky


 u can buy em in some pet shops here in the U.K.


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## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

Some specialist breeders can get you Orchids or exotic species,
egg cases of the usual euro or chinese are widly available from
plant houses or Biological supply shops, a few pet shops sell them.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Orchid species are sweet. Maybe that is what some people were thinking was protected. Exotic insects such as those most likely need a special permit. It's a lot easier to get these in the U.K. Here's an orchid mantis.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

And another...

Be careful if you do get these, they can proliferate faster than you can say "snakehead in Maryland pond". Exotics come with responsibility!


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

those things kick total ass


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## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

There are no laws regarding mantids that I'm aware of, 
It is true though, be very carefull about exotic species, especially
in the south, never allow these insects to spread,
Mantids in reality are roaches and can do just as much damage
as their cousin, yes please be carefull about ensuring they stay
in captivity.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

They used to be in the same order (Orthoptera) but I think Mantids are considered a little more separate from the roaches, grasshoppers, etc. than they used to. I agree they can be at least as dangerous. Most of these exotics require some really specific set-ups because they are from really stable but unusual tropical conditions. Makes me think that they may not be as much of a threat as I thought before. Better safe than sorry. For P45 and other fans, one more pic!


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

It is very very hard to find a good mantis page. To save people time, check this one out (also check kingsnake.com invertebrate classifieds...)

http://mantiskingdom.home.comcast.net/


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## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

Nope they are still roaches taxonomicly, there was a move
to seperate them no real validity was proven, current
position still places them within the roaches, seprerate yes
but very closly related definitly, Roaches and mantids are undeniably
linked, If something has drasticly changed send me a few references
I'm not aware of it, I'd like to see that info, while entomolgy is not
my main focus these days, I do like to keep up on mantids and roaches.
when possable, they are my favorite insects. This post has actually got
back into them again Thinking of getting some dead leaf mantis or some 
Penn. wood roaches.


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Wow, good call, it's been so long it's changed twice on me








Surprisingly they're related to termites too in the Dictyoptera. Weird, a social insect in with them and Orthoptera completely out of the picture!

Here's the 'tree of life' page for anyone interested;

http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Dictyoptera&contgroup=Neoptera


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

dam i wish i can get one of those orchid mantis
those are sweet


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## tinyteeth (Mar 12, 2003)

once my eggsack hatched, i let most of them go in my yard. for years ive been seeing them once in a while. you can get more of those eggascks from homedepot during the right season, for pestacide purposes.


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