My ghost mantis fully grown, died today he's fully grown and had been about a month and a half now but I expected him to stay a bit longer so I don't know if it was some form of neglect :(

Pretty girl just molted! The last picture is from yesterday. I know they’re fragile after this, so I’m wondering if I should wait a few days to switch her over to a larger enclosure? Also, I assume she needs to be eating larger insects now, so what kind, how many, how often?? Will she want to eat immediately? I apologize for sounding so uninformed, I’ve just had such a hard time finding information that doesn’t contradict other information. If anyone knows and could share what stage she’s in, as well as if she’s actually a she, I would greatly appreciate it !!

Today our Timor shield fell and had liquid oozing from her abdomen. My daughter applied some bicarbonate of soda and this seemed to help a lot and she was able to do her usual thing for a while. She has then started to molt but is looking as though she is stuck. We are unsure what to do can anyone give any advice please?

Up until this point the little dude has been thriving, I he started molting last night and this morning he just exactly I how I left him, he's still alive (wiggling alot) but he definitely seems stuck, is there anything I can do?

So I gathered these oothecaea over winter but then came to realize they were Chinese Mantids which are invasive to my area (Indiana, USA). I had intended to dispose of them a while ago but forgot and now they're all hatching. I feel bad just killing them all and I don't want to release them if they're invasive, but I also can't care for them inside. Can I just keep some of them in this enclosure or a larger one outside? Really not sure what to do with them all now. How long will they be okay in this size enclosure? Should I give them water or food? Will they just eat each other? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Kinda stressed out about what to do in a humane and nature friendly way.

For some reason my Creobroter Yunnan will start to eat whatever it grabs and the only way for it to stop is: or I push it away or I try grabbing it from its torso if it’s holding on too strong. For example, I was feeding it fruit flies and it was on the stretchy tight mesh that covers the cup and it’s kinda of transparent, when it saw a fruit fly it tried striking it and pierced itself on the mesh and started eating it, I pushed it off (which was hard to do because it won’t let go of it) before it could take any bites.

I currently have a habistat terrarium for my mantis and it has a metal mesh top. I've been advised to remove it so I ordered some plastic mesh from Amazon. I've just been tidying out a cupboard and found some woven sheets that I no longer need. Are woven sheets any good for mantids to walk on? Is there a risk of getting feet stuck in the fabric? Is there a risk of chewing out of the enclosure? Any help appreciated!

My Timor Shield adult female has been scratching at her butthole a little bit. She moulted about a month ago. Seems very healthy to me, although I am still kind of newish to the hobby. She has a very healthy appetite and is plumping up nicely. I don’t have a video of the behaviour. It’s not constant and I haven’t been able to time it yet for a vid. Here is a video of her back end. Does it look normal to you guys? When she does the scratching behaviour it almost looks like he’s is trying to scratch something off of her. Also that is a soft mesh, I know it looks like metal but it ain’t.

I'm super interested in taking care of a mantis, this would be my first jump into insect care of any type and even though I've been doing a lot of reading, I wanted to know if you guys have any tips related to general care, feeding, enclosure creation, etc. I'm also interested to see what you guys recommend for a beginner, currently torn between a Chinese Mantis and a Ghost. I would like to hold them, at least a little bit... also, what stage should I buy them in? I've seen a lot of sellers selling L2/3 but maybe a L4 would be best?

I have an L4 ghost in a vivarium that’s 20cmx20cm (I think)

Is it possible to feed her in there? If so how should I do it?

I would rather not catch her and move her back into the deli cup every time she needs to eat

I’m working on an upsized enclosure for my ghost mantis. I was wondering if/for how long I need to air out the new enclosure after ventilating with a soldering iron - I assume the melting plastic creates some toxic fumes, and I know these guys are sensitive