Mantids

[animalexpert]

Just curious to know if anyone on the board owns/keeps or breeds Mantids and if they had any information or experiences with them that they could give.

Very interested in Mantids

Thanks,

ae

[Skratikans]

i have bred mantids before

here's my info and experience:
they live around 8mnths- this can be extended if they are castrated (studies have proven this)

but as far as breding them- its very hard, i have had 800 or them hatch, and althought i did have fruit flys ready at hand they immediately started to eat each other

after the first two molts things got easier, i had a lot of fruit flys at hand, i had to make many batches of them and kept groups of mantids together with enough food so they would hopefully not attack each other

in the end, it was a hard, grueling process, that resulted in 8 mantids reaching adulthood

[blueram]

I gave it a shot and it didn't last more than 2 weeks. It wasn't that difficult but with all the other animals i couldn't devote the time that it took to keep 100 mantids fed and hydrated.

[Ravnos]

I keep them... in my back yard. They seem to do just fine there.