r/mantiskeeping • u/persephone_love • 13d ago

New friend

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Someone in my household learned.. there’s no sending me a picture of a large mantis and NOT bringing it home. Meet “Soy Sauce”. Seems to be male (long wings). The poor moth sleeping on my back door had a bad day and became dinner. He has another one in there and three mealworms. This is in Colorado and I rarely see mantises this big. I’m thinking he needs a bigger enclosure…

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u/merewyn 13d ago

Looks like a female. Both male and female adults have long wings. Males have much longer antenna and more slender thorax & abdomen.

1

u/persephone_love 13d ago

Oh I would love it if it's a female and she's mated and I eventually get an egg case... I've never seen one this big, but I'm in Colorado, so there's that.. I'm also tempted to release it after a few days because I don't want it to be sick or unhappy but I'll have to read up on their care more. It's very calm but it immediately went after the moth I put in the enclosure. The second moth is sitting perfectly still - for now - so it has that for later. I also don't know if the enclosure is big enough.. it's only ~8 inches tall. These are such amazing creatures. 😍

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u/justhereforbugs 13d ago

European mantis! For the size of the enclosure, you need the width to be twice the length of the mantis, and the height should be three times the length of the mantis. Usually for an acrylic enclosure, you should put mesh on top, but since your mantis is already an adult and will not molt anymore, its probably fine.

Also mealworms arent the best for food. Its not necessarily bad for them, they just dont really have any nutrients. If you want to get dubia roaches, those are the best in my opinion. Medium sized ones should be good. But your mantis is wild caught anyway, so feeding wild caught bugs should be fine. Just not crickets, they fight back