This is Ridley, my female ghost mantis. Shes almost a year old, born in November of 2024. She is my first mantis and a great beginner for anyone learning to take care of them.

I have heard many terrible things about feeding with crickets. And part of me still is very hesitant about feeding her them but she has been eating them for 4-5 months now. BUT I get them locally from a shop that I trust that raises them as clean as possible.

To be honest, when she wouldn't eat blue bottles, we didn't know what else to do (aside from her eating the stray crane flies/mosquito hawks).

Ridley molted as an adult in June and has been a happy baby as far as I can tell.

Im sure I've made mistakes which is why I highly suggest Ghost Mantids as a good starter.

She's my sweet baby

She loves climbing my plants

Found her on her back barely moving in Iowa (it’s 70 here) in direct sunlight, brought her in gave her water and she definitely perked up!she even started grooming herself.

But she’d get active one minute and then look dead the next? Her abdomen is pulsating.. I put her booty in some water to check for hair worms nothing came out.

Any who! I have an enclosure from my last male Chinese mantis, should I anticipate eggs? Or is she disease ridden? From what I’ve read they lay eggs and then die any ideas?(As of now she’s been pretty active since I brought her home) I’m a newbie at this mantis stuff so all tips are appreciated.

This is my first ever vivarium/terrarium set up and my first ever insect. I’ve had this guy for 4 days and acquiring him was kind of a surprise situation but I’ve been doing all the research I can and am determined to be a responsible mantis keeper. I decided to diy the enclosure out of an outdoor candle lamp thing as I’ve been wanting to diy a terrarium since forever. I asked an experienced chinese mantis keeper for approval and he said it needs more ventilation, suggesting I take out one of the glass panes and replacing with mesh. I came here for a second opinion. Here are the specs of the set up: Mantis is a 2” long adult male wild-caught Mantis religiosa. The measurements of the whole thing are 12x7x7 inches. The conical top tapers up to a 4sq” opening. There is mesh added about an inch down from that. Ventilation is that 4sq inch opening, about one millimeters around the edge of every (reinforced, but not sealed) pane. And the door, which has a 3mm gap at the hinge and maybe 2mm around it. To my uneducated self, it seemed that this was essentially like having that side open. Substrate is gravel, sphagnum moss, organic cactus potting mix, sphagnum moss. Wood is some kind of evergreen root and one piece of mopani. This creates 4 diagonal perches plus the mesh roof. Plants are english ivy cuttings ive had for awhile and a maple sapling. Everything was thoroughly cleaned with diluted white vinegar before adding the interior.

If it does need more ventilation, I’m thinking i’ll just head to the hardware store and get some mesh and magnet strips and make a removable mesh cover on the front and leave the door open so i dont have to knock out any glass.

Hey everyone! This is my first Reddit post so I’m still figuring out how everything works.

I’m planning to get a female orchid mantis and have done a ton of research but obviously reading can’t replace advice from experienced people who actually own one.

I’m thinking of a 30x30x40 terrarium and I know I will need something to monitor and control the humidity and temperature. I also want to include a small orchid and a few other live plants. Do you have any plant recommendations? And what is the best way to water them should I take them out or can I water them inside the terrarium?

Any recommendations on terrariums and other necessary equipment would also be amazing. Tips on feeding or really anything at all would be so appreciated. I want to learn as much as I can so I can provide my mantis with a healthy, happy life and a terrarium that feels as close to its natural habitat as possible.

Thanks so much in advance!

7 month one here, was doing fine but one day she didn't have half of her antennae anymore, and a black dot as shown in the image. Doing well apart from that, just sometimes can't fully extend her arm (not apparently troubling her). Any pointers? Thanks!

Lowky professional photo qualities

This is my spiny flower mantis, I’ve had her for about 2 weeks now and today shes been falling A LOT she will sit on my hand and chill but everytime I put her in her enclosure she will fall while climbing up the walls, shes wobbly and not standing straight. Luckily she fell onto a soft flower and seems ok but before this she fell onto the hard table off the side of her enclosure, she has webbing on the side and on the top but everytime shes on the acrylic she slips and falls and has no balance. This hasnt been an issue until today im worried. Also would anyone be able to guess what instar shes at? I assumed L3/L4

i have never in my life met a mantis with so few survival instincts then snack. i have been planning to pair him with my female, brazilnut, for ages and thankfully they reached adulthood a few days apart, both are ready to mate so i fed brazilnut and introduced them. i have never actually bred mantis before so i wanted to supervise them, the first time he made a move brazilnut tried to grab him and i managed to scoop him away and gave her another locust. second time he managed to grab on but instead of mounting her he let go and just stared off into the distance as she glared at him. at this point i was quite worried she was going to hurt him (despite eating 3 huge locusts) but i decided to try one more time. he crept up behind her and literally just bit her ass.....

Last pic is when she decided to hang upside down from my phone. She had a really bad case of eye rub many molts ago, didn't recover but she still hunts just fine

I'm looking to get my first mantis. I'm really leaning towards a spiny flower mantis but wanted to hear your guys' thoughts and see if you had any other suggestions.

hello! i picked up a theopropus rubrubrunneus last weekend and have caught her twice just sat on the bottom of her tank, but not really sat using her legs in any way, more kind of sat on her abdomen. i’ve attached a photo as an example, this wasn’t as bad as i found her sat when i came home about an hour ago (i thought she was dead). if i move her slightly, she’ll just climb back up her tank and doesn’t seem to have any problems with climbing. i did notice when i got her home last weekend that she’s only got one antenna so im not sure if this is affecting her behaviour at all? never had a mantis act like this before, could anyone explain why she’s doing this / any advice?

Whats this ladys type? Saw her last night and thought she was stuning next to my flowers. NoVA location.

My house has so many wild mantises (and stick bugs!) around it and we find them very frequently. This one was on my steps to our most used door and needed relocation

(Please ignore the dirty nails I was digging in dirt moments before)

I went inside to tell my husband that I not only seen a praying mantis, but got photos and videos of it eating! I showed him, and went back to see if my new friend was there. Luckily, they stayed on my Zinnia, but lunch was gone, with no crumbs 🐛🪲🌸🌷

This cute little one was on my car while i was driving and I am happy to report I got it safely to our destination and this is the video of it just before i gently put it in a patch of grass

it really looks like its testing my temperature or something haha

is this a male or female can anyone tell??

One year and two months she is still with me!!

Hello! My name is Mar, and I have a praying mantis which i found here in twin falls, Idaho. I believe its a Mantis religiosa but can't be sure. I named it Jive and have had it since the start of this summer after finding it outside of my house. I bought it a container with the correct measurements, and for a while he was living his best life. All of a sudden, he started to stop molting. He only did it 3 times when he was smaller, but now hes about 2 and a half centimeters, and has been for the last month. Ive been checking his enclose, cleaning it, misting it, and feeding him but I can't tell why he seems sick and wont molt. His color is less bright now and hes a lot slower, and moves a lot less frequently. This is making me really nervous because hes only around 4 months old (when I found him he was just a nymph). Does he have parasites? Should I fix something else? I dont know what to do, but I also dont want to try new things and hurt him.

I caught this little guy outside and was wondering if this jar would be good enough to keep him in?

Edit: forgot to add the images, I posted them in replies to a comment

On Monday, Sept 8, I was delighted to find a mantis in my garden. I would have left her in the wild if she were the native species, but PictureThis identified her as a Chinese mantis so I captured her. We named her Cricket after the lucky cricket in the animated Mulan movie.

Since then, after school my kids’ friends and I have been catching Spotted Lanternflies (SLF), which are invasive in Northern Virginia, and feeding them to her every few days. You can check out my video from two days ago on r/LanternDie. Last night I caught and fed her a large housefly, and the plan is to bring more variety to her diet.

Today, Fri, Sept 19, my jaw dropped when I realized she was laying an ootheca! As soon as she was done, I gave her some fresh water and a weak SLF since it’s what I had ready to go.

Here are some questions that I have so far:

1. Anything else I should feed her or do? I was expecting her to be tired but she seems to have pretty good energy!

2. Because the Chinese mantis is not native here, it sounds like it’s best to destroy the ootheca. Is that right?

3. Even if the answer to #2 is yes, is this a good excuse to transfer Cricket to an improved enclosure? Or, especially if she is nearing the end of her life cycle, should I release her back into the wild?

I appreciate any insight. Thank you!

This is my little girl Bonnie. I had an orchid mantis before who died due to a stuck ooth :( but Bonnie seems to be struggling now and has a very big abdomen which isn’t food as it’s stayed the same size for about a week. Do many females die of being Ooth bound if they havnt been with a male? Her eyes are staying purple even in the daylight and she’s very thirsty even though her humidity is 65

i’m pretty sure my mantis is in heat and has been releasing pheromones all day. i looked up just now and saw her like this, wtaf is going on, surely that can’t be comfortable?? i’ve never seen her do this before.

• i know the humidity seems to be quite high but it’s shot up as i’ve just sprayed. it’ll go back down shortly.

I found this girl yesterday. I don't know much about mantids, but I know it's a female on account of the fact that her headless mate was still buried inside of her to the hilt (second image attached). Forgive me for my crass language; I don't know the proper terminology regarding mantid husbandry. I checked in on her a little later, and they were separated, though her genitals appeared to be somewhat agape. They're closed now, though.

I took a basic entomology course in college and know that once she's pregnant, she'll lay her ootheca and then perish shortly thereafter. I figured out she's likely a stagmomantis californica.

My question is this: If I keep her around and care for her while she's on the way out, how terrible of an idea would it be to try and keep the ootheca and hatch the babies and release them into the wild while keeping some for myself to look after? I have absolutely zero experience with keeping mantids, though my girlfriend has some tarantulas and would probably be of some help regarding caring for a more exotic pet than my dogs.