Praying Mantis and Damselfly

[ChromeScholar]

Prowling the water irises...

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[Just-passn-thru]

Wow how cool, I love to observe aquatic life.

 

[Dartman]

Found a Praying Mantis here last summer and brought him in hoping he'd hang out and eat the ants and moths. Got some great pics in the computer room then he disappeared for a week. Figured he escaped or wandered off and died and then suddenly there he was in the house again. Figured he wasn't eating or happy so put him out in a hanging flower basket that had all kinds of munchies for him. He stayed there a week or so to fatten up then wandered off again but sure was a cool and pretty calm critter.

 

[theocnoob]

Found a Praying Mantis here last summer and brought him in hoping he'd hang out and eat the ants and moths. Got some great pics in the computer room then he disappeared for a week. Figured he escaped or wandered off and died and then suddenly there he was in the house again. Figured he wasn't eating or happy so put him out in a hanging flower basket that had all kinds of munchies for him. He stayed there a week or so to fatten up then wandered off again but sure was a cool and pretty calm critter.

You can't keep praying mantis indoors long term without providing water. They drink the morning dew in the wild. They need more water than what is in the insects they consume.

 

[Dartman]

When he showed up again he seemed fine and he may have made it to my bathroom to find water. Pretty sure I offered him some sugar water or like that figuring he probably hadn't got much food or water. He seemed to like the flower pot for a while.

 

[theocnoob]

When he showed up again he seemed fine and he may have made it to my bathroom to find water. Pretty sure I offered him some sugar water or like that figuring he probably hadn't got much food or water. He seemed to like the flower pot for a while.

Why would you give sucrose to a carnivore? Not trying to be a jerk, but it's important to care for critters properly. If you have a mantis inside you should keep it in a terrarium and mist it thoroughly in the morning. Just feed the mantis crickets from a petshop they do well on them.

 

[LilSprout]

I love mantids, they're one of my favorite arthropods! Such beautiful and fascinating creatures!

Also yeah, mist mantids and feed crickets from the pet store, they only live for about a year but they're such interesting animals to have around

 

[theocnoob]

I used to go looking for mantids in the ravine beside my building when I was a kid. I learned so much about nature from watching the animals there. I would occasionally take one home and keep it in a terrarium with plants and crickets and mistings in the morning, and they would live well longer than they would have in the wild, well into the winter months.

I remember one day I was in the field I frequented looking for mantids and there happened to be an entomologist there looking for stick insects in the trees. He was surprised to hear there were mantids there and I was surprised to hear there were stick insects so we spent the afternoon showing eachother our respective critters and he was amazed I could find so many green mantids in the tall green grass and I was surpsised he could find brown stick insects in the brown tree. I was about 10 years old. Made great convo over dinner with my mom when I got home.

I once found a freakishly large common chinese mantis at my school when I was that age. He was a good inch longer than average. I kept him in the terrarium at school. It was a nice, well planted 35 gallon that my very nice teacher let me keep mantises in. There were no other animals in it.

She let me bring in a class snake as well. It lived there for the school year and I would bring it home for march break winter break and summer break. IIRC it was a corn snake that I had bought at a pet shop. The other kids really enjoyed seeing the snake there. We had a deal with the janitor that he would give the snake water changes on weekends and I would bring him some eclair donuts on Monday lol.

By the way you have not seen insect joy until you've seen a mantis eat a katydid. It's the one thing chinese mantis won't stalk and wait for, they will chase them down. It's hilarious. They love katydids so much.

 

[Dartman]

Why would you give sucrose to a carnivore? Not trying to be a jerk, but it's important to care for critters properly. If you have a mantis inside you should keep it in a terrarium and mist it thoroughly in the morning. Just feed the mantis crickets from a petshop they do well on them.

Well, never really had one before so didn't do much research before he disappeared and for most critters I've dealt with a quick shot of sugar water gives them energy and perks em up and is easily available. I have kept some powdered baby bird formula around in case I find any baby birds needing help. Last I used it was when I disturbed a ground nester, probably a wren. The nest got destroyed so I made up some formula when it appeated mama was too scared to feed him while trying to lure me away pretending to have a broken wing. I topped him off with formula, held him up so mama could see and put him in our half barrel of strawberries where he'd be safe for the night till she decided it was safe to feed him again.
There were droppings all over the strawberries and evidence he'd been fed and looked after and finally followed mama out of the barrel and into the surrounding berry bushes and hidey places. I could hear them all summer around the backyard so pretty sure he grew up and did well.
The mantis stayed in the planter I put him in a few days to a week and moved on.

 

[theocnoob]

I took some great insect videos in the ravine today. Or at least I thought I did. Apparently I forgot to push "record"....

 

[Rolanda]

@ChromeScholar I had to laugh at myself. I waited all day and finally got the guts to open this post. I am grossed out by Flies! You always have such beautiful pics of nature I had to look, but didn't want to upset my stomach at work with a picture of 'flies'. I thought a damselfly was, well ... something different.
I think I'm getting paranoid in my Old Age! LOL
Pretty pic as always

 

[SamandWilley]

I had a mantis as a pet when I was a child. It was a wonderful experience!! I named her Prey (I know, so original!). I know she was a she because we had males plastered all over our screen door for about a week. She chose one and they traveled to the bathroom and they did the deed. I found his severed head. She laid eggs soon after that. I caught bugs for her and fed her all summer long. She loved to hang out on me and would fly to me and sit on my head or shoulder. When winter came, I could find any bugs for her. We didn't have a pet store in our town with crickets or anything like that. She did like to eat hamburger meat, though! She lived almost the whole winter, but finally died of old age. She was one of the coolest pets I ever had!! Okay, well not cooler than the birds, but cool in that it was such a surprise that she was so tame!

 

[theocnoob]

I had a mantis as a pet when I was a child. It was a wonderful experience!! I named her Prey (I know, so original!). I know she was a she because we had males plastered all over our screen door for about a week. She chose one and they traveled to the bathroom and they did the deed. I found his severed head. She laid eggs soon after that. I caught bugs for her and fed her all summer long. She loved to hang out on me and would fly to me and sit on my head or shoulder. When winter came, I could find any bugs for her. We didn't have a pet store in our town with crickets or anything like that. She did like to eat hamburger meat, though! She lived almost the whole winter, but finally died of old age. She was one of the coolest pets I ever had!! Okay, well not cooler than the birds, but cool in that it was such a surprise that she was so tame!

Ah so you discovered the alternative food trick . Boiled chicken is best if you have no insects available but of course a natural diet is 100x better.

 

[faislaq]

I loved holding mantises when I was young. Still see one occasionally and I'm the only grown up that feels compelled to pick them up. I only tried keeping one as a pet, back then. Insects are decently easy to find well into November here, so feeding her was no problem. She laid the coolest looking eggs on one of the decorations I had in her tank before she passed. I kept the tank closed for what seemed like forever just in case they hatched but they never did. But the eggs were so neat looking I set the decoration on top of my radio near the window. Then one day as I'm rushing out the door to catch the bus, I saw that my entire bookcase was covered in tiny off-white moving speckles that were OMG the smallest living things I had ever seen in my life! I called a friend to come help me gather as many as we could so they wouldn't die in the carpet. Of course we were both late to class that morning as we had to walk to school.

 

[theocnoob]

The babies hatch the following year. Takes a long time. You can feed them pinhead crickets or wingless fruitflies when they are newborn. As they grow they will eat eachother so its difficult to raise them without losing any. If you get an egg case its best to position it on a stem facing down in the wild and let it hatch there the next year.

 

[faislaq]

I wish I had known that back then. My friend and I had no idea what to feed something so small, but then realized they'd probably know what to do in the wild, so we put the tank on it's side before we left for school. They had a better shot on their own than a couple of well-meaning kids could do or them.

I still remember that overwhelming army of cuteness bent on taking over my bedroom. I still can't get over how perfect they were! 100% complete, just tiny.