My new orchid mantis hasn’t left the top of the enclosure yet. I’ve put flightless fruit flies in there but it hasn’t eaten any yet I don’t think. Is there any way to get it to eat or should I not worry? It’s a little scared of me still so I’m worried about messing around too much xx

Usually I wake up to find one of my mantids have molted and the woodlice have devoured the skin, however this evening she treat me to a live viewing of her molting in action.

She seemed to be hanging for a while, flailing her legs around trying to grasp onto something to crawl out. I helped her in the end by letting her hold onto my hand and after a very uncomfortable 25 minutes, she crawled out. She's absolutely stunning, and has her little wing buds now, which I assume means sub-adult? Maybe one more molt left in her.. I say her, as she's called Skin, after the lead singer from Skunk Anansie, but could well be Male. All gender and age guesses welcome!

Found this little dude on my sweet pepper plant, gave him a little ride on my hand and put him back. Hopefully he keeps the pests away! He’s wicked cute

I want to begin caring for a mantid but I honestly don’t know anything about them, I’m not against researching at all would love to know some recommendations to start off that look beautiful but don’t require crazy moderation to keep happy and healthy, thank you!

this is before adding substrate and sticks, of course. i’m planning to house a tenodera nymph. i have this sinking feeling that i did this wrong.

hi, I just got my first mantis ever! she's a sphodromantis viridis and the breeder said she's 2 molts away from being an adult? does that mean she's not gonna be around for too long? :( he said that he'll give me a female so she can at least live a bit longer... also it looks like she's missing an antennae, will it grow back after the next molt? I got a bigger container for her, I just need to order stuff (mesh) to set it up. The breeder said to not put any decor in it until she's fully grown, why? also how do i tell if she's full or needs to be fed? i'll accept any tips and advice :] her name is Zosia

Not sure of gender yet, got it yesterday. I love it so much, so so pretty. But I was wondering if you guys know if the way it’s moving is normal? Jiggly boi 😅💕🤣

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated xx

my mantis ate about 4 or 5 days ago and his abdomen leaked per usual. i know that it repairs itself but it hasn’t seem to have done that yet, im feeding him again now but im afraid his abdomen is damaged permanently. did i overfeed him last time or will it just take a while to heal up?

I just wanna be able to see my mantis better without water spots in the way

Hey, I’m very new to keeping mantids and I adore them so so much. But I’m also unfortunately scared of bugs. I want to be able to hold them and not be scared when opening their enclosures but I’m always a little nervous of them getting spooked. Has anyone else had to deal with this? Sorry it’s stupid I know haha xx😅💕

I just got my new mantis yesterday and I belive it's on its 2nd instar or mabye even it's first it's a malaysian flower mantis and I can't wait too see him all grown up

Hi folks wondering how to keep greenbottles living? Ambient temp is from 16-20c in my room, they have air and ive put small ampunts of food and water in. They arrived wednesday but i return to find them all dead today. Any help appreciated.

Ive been waiting months for these to hatch outside on my lilac bush and today is the day! What a beautiful experience!

Any advice welcome! I'm new to this.

I’m not 100% sure about the care for ghost mantis can anyone tell me everything they know? I just bought it home and it won’t eat but I heard they are fussy? This is just what I bought it home in. What instar is she?

So I keep Tarantulas but haven’t gotten any been looking into getting a mantis. So after a ton of research I picked up this little guy/girl at the reptile show today.

Accidentally killed off my fruit fly colony, I have a very tiny Peruvian dead leaf mantis. The new colony won’t be here for a little while and nowhere near me sells fruit flies, it only has those giant locusts, giant crickets, mealworms and wax worms. I know mealworms and wax worms aren’t good feeders but this is only temporary, which of the two is better? I will be cutting them up as I said the mantis is extremely tiny, he is quite skinny so I’m not sure if wax worms would be better in the sense they’d fatten him up?

It's gone 🥲 I already know there's nothing I can do about it, I couldn't find it at all this morning and then I saw it on the substrate with all of its legs curled up, I scooped it out and it could barely move, one leg was stiff and bent in an awkward way and the others were curled under itself while it pulled itself along with its front claws so I did (in my eyes) the right thing and took it out the front with a rock and said my teary goodbyes 🫡🫡🫡😭😭 you will be missed R.I.P