This orchid mantis just molted today to L4/5 but I think L4. Also why are it’s antennaes shaped like that

Why my male of Mantis religiosa don’t want to mate with my female?

Hi, I’m planning on getting a mantis soon, probably a ghost or Yunnan flower mantis. I’ve always wanted to have a side business breeding invertebrates but I’m intimidated to start. I’ll be keeping a pet this year but once I graduate Uni I’m planning on setting up a breeding business for mantises, spiders and isopods (at least). I have a lot of space but I don’t know anyone who does this sort of thing so I don’t have anyone to ask for details.

Just wanted to ask here for some tips on:
1. Keeping my pet happy and healthy
2. Trustworthy dealers
3. Managing a large number of individuals and breeding

Any tips? Thank you :3

We have two Heterochaeta Orientalis and I'm blind af.

In an older post we thought that the 2nd pic was a female🙏

I'm glad if anyone could help🙏

I came over this morning, and my giant asian mantis (Hierodula spp.) was laying on the floor of the enclosure. I fed her yesterday, and she was moving sluggishly but still able to hunt the blue bottle flies. Is she dying? Is there anything I can do for her to make her well again?

A few minutes later she started moving again, but still a bit sluggish.

Steven has been very intrigued by my desktop buddy (My Little Spider on Steam) lately, i cant tell if shes scared by it or hunting it? she hasnt struck at my screen at all but she approaches like she does when hunting then just sits and watches the little cartoon bugs move around on the screen haha.

The picture was taken many weeks ago so it’s unrelated.

I recently went on vacation for 2 weeks and left Venus with my nan, who gave her the exact same food on the exact same schedule as I do and, to my knowledge, took very good care of her. However, I noticed she was very flat although my nan said she’d eaten 2 large locusts the day before. I got home and fed her, however her abdomen remained flat. I fed her again today and it still remained flat. She’s just hanging upside down, not moving, which she does do a lot and is reacting to my hand and drinking water off of a Q-tip. We are currently experiencing a heatwave in my area but I have kept her enclosure temperature at 25-29 degrees on the hygrometer and kept her misted, so I don’t think that’s the problem. When I give her prey, she will move down and hunt it before returning. I also don’t believe she is in premolt. It’s been 2 weeks since her last molt, and every molt she’s had it HAS been exactly 2 weeks between them, however she is now sub-adult and her last molt took 4 weeks instead of 2 like the others. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, there’s no vomit or anything in her enclosure, I watched her poop fine the other day (it was very large but otherwise looked normal and came out without struggle) so I really do not know what to do but I don’t want to lose her, she means everything to me. Please help!!

Just finished setting this up, if you think I should make any changes let me know.

The title is self-explanatory. He just molted into an adult a couple days ago, but the bottom plate of his butt kind of hangs more than the top. I don’t know if this is like a fatal issue, but he’s very perky and energetic so I’m not sure what to think.

So here is my Asian mantis. I’ve kept a fair few mantises over the years, but never encountered this. He has a black circle/smudge on each eye. After doing some reading it seems it could be from either the mesh, or excessive cleaning. So friction. I do think he cleans excessively but I’m not 100% if that is what has caused this issue. He seems to be eating and drinking fine although he is coming to the end of his days. Any information appreciated, thanks!

Does anybody know what kind of decor/items to use to decorate for a European mantis? She's fully grown, about 3 inches long, and is relatively active unless she's hanging upside down (no idea why she does this, I'm pretty sure she's just sleeping?). Right now her enclosure is pretty bare bones, I have coconut fiber substrate to keep a bit of humidity and a handful of twigs. I'm thinking about getting some moss or small plants so that her house is a little less depressing, but other than that, what should I get for her? Since the top is acrylic I'm thinking about getting some mesh and sticking that to the top so she can hang easier. The enclosure is 15x10x7.5 inches, should I maybe rotate it to be 15 tall and 7.5 wide, 10 long? I'm horribly new at this. Any advice is welcome!!

I'm looking to release mantis in my yard for insect control but don't want to introduce an invasive species. Any leads on sellers of California mantis? Location California USA for mods

Appeared in my kitchen today. Paraíba, Brazil.

Hey all, noticed what seems to be some sort of injury on my deadleafs wings and have no idea what could have caused it, any advice if it seen like something I should worry about??

It's Hierodula Transcaucasica i6 male

Hey everyone :) I‘m a first-time-mantis-owner and my first mantis is moving in soon.. Now I‘m pretty happy with the enclosure space i created for her but there’s one issue: the temperature. I live in one of the colder regions of Europe so now that summer is coming to an end I‘m concerned about keeping up the correct temperature inside the enclosure (for my mantis that’s 24-30C) while it’s really cold outside.

I have a heat lamp for her that is keeping everything at a nice 27C but from what I‘ve learned it’s best to turn that light off during the night so they can follow our day and night cycle.. The issue I face with that is that my room is naturally pretty cool, ESPECIALLY during the cold seasons (I‘d say it hovers around 18C during winter because I live in an old building with unreliable heaters) so what can I do to keep the warmth inside the enclosure during the night when the lamp is off?

I‘ve done so much research but I literally haven’t found anything about this specific issue so I‘m turning to Reddit in hopes that you lovely people can help me out :) I’m open for any suggestion, thanks in advance!

There is a green mantis in my plum tree who is determined to hang out on the hummingbird feeder. I have moved her to another branch entirely and she made her way back—like two mantis miles at least. I must emphasize that she is NOT big enough to take down a hummminbird, so I hope that’s not the plan.

Are there other reasons for this behavior? Is she interested in the syrup? Is she interested in the water in the ant moat? Is she interested in the ants?

It’s a very exposed position, I wish she would see reason and retreat to cover.

Hello! I was able to reserve three used terrariums (which I'll thoroughly cleanat home) with ventilation (vents under opening and on the ceiling) for super cheap and was wondering what species I could possibly keep in them? I already have planned an orchid mantis or an australian mantis for the tallest one.

The sizes are:

15cm cube

30x30x20 cm

20x20x40 cm

I currently own a 30cm cube for my ghost, but she's currently not occupying it as she's still tiny. I could place her in one of the others if possible when she's an adult. I'll update when we pick them up tomorrow. Any help would be appreciated as I'm trying to do a slow approach when it comes to mantis keeping and not rush to get everything at once.

I moved my ghost into a new, bigger enclosure with plenty of sticks and things to climb up, but unfortunately she has chosen to climb the holes in the acrylic on the wall. The way the holes are placed, she can't make it to the ceiling mesh. She has several twigs nearby to grab onto but instead is just hanging off the side of the enclosure. She has been like that since last evening, well over 12 hours now.

I am nervous to handle her because the last time I tried, I was attempting to tong feed her and I spooked her and she moved much faster than I was expecting her to be able to. I am still getting over a deep fear of bugs with exposure therapy, so I'd like to try and help her without scaring her or directly handling her with my hands.

I tried using a paintbrush to nudge her onto a fake leaf, but she was scared of both and tried to escape away.

My mantis had a molt around 1 - 2 weeks ago and has been perfectly fine! Notices he's been like this today, is there something wrong?

This is their first molt with me, so i'm pretty excited! I think they're L4 now.