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Mantis Questions(we've got alot of them)

Hey again. My mom and I have a more questions.
This time it’s about a Praying Mantis we found in our garage, who we decided to keep as a sort of pet… it was that or let him go to be maimed or eaten by our cats. Due to his size I really wanted to hold on to him for a while, if not keep him until his death. We’ve been feeding him house flies, and he seems to not be starving. He’ll ignore the some of the flies we put in there for a long time before hunting them again… anyway, enough back story, on to the questions.

---Do they have eyelids? We’ve noticed his eyes change from the color of the rest of his head to the color black (or a color so dark it looks black). I didn’t notice this until tonight, because the other day I was saying how I wished his eyes were more visible so we could tell what he’s looking at. And tonight I checked on him and his eyes were completely black. My mom has said she’s noticed that when he’s hunting his eyes had definite black spots, but they weren’t as obvious.
---Can they change the size/aperture of their eyes? My mom is wondering this one because she thinks his eyes may have changed so he could see better in the dark, because he is on our porch, and we had just been out shopping since daylight, and the porch light wasn’t on, so any hunting would have to be done with some sort of night vision.

---How can we tell male from females? We assume Manty (our mantis) is male because one of my sisters teachers said the male mantis that is common in our area is the straw/tan-ish color Manty is…. Leading to the next question:
---All the Mantids we’ve seen in our area this year are straw colored, are they all male or have the adapted to the surrounding vegetation? Our lack of watering out lawn has lead to most of it being straw like in color, and out house is almost the same color. We did see one Mantis that was a darker color, but it was still dull, and not the bright greens we’d seen last year.

---How much will a Mantis eat each day, and can they over eat and get sick/die?
---What do they eat other than flies? That’s all we’ve been able to catch and give him, and we are wondering if it would be worth it to try and catch other types of food for him.

---If you maintain the habitat you are keeping your Mantis in, how long will it live? Do the always die when winter starts regardless of how warm you keep the habitat, or will he go on living for a while longer?

Manty is approximately 3in (7cm) long, I don’t have an exact measurement due to me and my mom being a bit to worried about holding him for measurement. I had to compare his size with my ring fingers length. He’s straw colored as stated above, but he is also developing some black spots on his lower body section (abdomen?). Either that or I didn’t notice them before, but they seem to stand out too much for me to have not noticed, although things like this have managed to slip my attention before. I did some looking at pictures via google and have found a Mantis that looks like Manty in body shape but not color. This is the photo (it‘s times like these I wish I had a digital camera). Also Manty’s antennae are shorter.

And for my mom’s sake… will he bite us if he is given the chance?

Thanks in advance for any answers you can give us. =)

Contributed by Emily Neef on 28 July, 2005 - 1:54am

Sorry if this is in wrong pla

Sorry if this is in wrong place, caint figure out how to post questions?!
My egg hatched here in north central Texas this morning,..it’s gonna get chilly nights for awhile, question,..how cold is too cold for newborns?
Afraid to turn them loose,..but,..also can’t feed them either! Help. Please!!!!

… Kita, 9 May, 2019 - 4:34pm

When I'm away

Hi there. I had a new mantis as pet. Had been keeping her for 2 days now. I learned that i only need to spray some water droplets into the nest for both humidity n for mantis to drink n they don't drink from a dish. But what if i'm away for a few days n i don't have anyone to help me to spray the water? Is there any options to give mantis water for drinking?

… DavFoo, 31 October, 2017 - 11:54am

Water

Wet cotton or fruit might do the trick. Yes, mantises eat fruit (and dead insects), despite claims that they are strict predators. I have fed it to them myself. Be careful of mold, though. Allowing fruit to dry out prevents this for a while.

Also, I don't think they will refuse water in a dish. There is so much misinformation about arthropods online. A large number of different spiders will feed on plant matter, according to more than one research article.

… C, 7 November, 2017 - 7:03pm

dead mantis

but i heard from my brother, who kept a mantis last time, said that his mantis died when he put a soaked cotton for her when he's away.

… DavFoo, 12 November, 2017 - 3:07am

When do you need to separate them?

When do we need to separate our 2, month old mantids? They are about 2 inches long, healthy, well fed. They have been in the same mantis screened bug house 1' square since they hatched. When do we have to separate them so they don't kill each other? it is still too cold out to put them outside I think. But my kids would be devastated if one murdered the other one.

… NeneGirl, 24 April, 2017 - 7:09pm

separate them

Once they reached L2, separate them.. they will start canibalising if u don't

… DavFoo, 1 November, 2017 - 3:01am

Questions:

Hi Emily (& Mum),

Hopefully I can answer some of your questions:

Mantids do not have eyelids - the reason your mantid is changing it's eye colour is due to the relative humidity of the environment - so if you are keeping him/her (I will come on to this!) in a jar and its eyes are black he is likely suffering from dehydration - the solution is to take a spray (an empty perfume bottle filled with water is perfect providing it is cleaned) and spray his jar/cage just a little every other day (make sure not to spray the mantis directly) - alternatively place a small bottle cap with water in the bottom of the jar/cage and that should suffice - he probably won't drink but the moisture will help!

He does have definite black spots in his eyes - think of these as pupils* - they are really just clusters of sensitive photoreceptors!

No mantids cannot change the size of their eyes - because they live in a suit of armour - their exoskeleton :) - they cannot change the size of most of their body parts! - breathing is hard enough when you're an insect! - They also don't have night vision as of such - they just have very sensitive eyes so can see very well in the dark

Colour often has little influence on gender in mantids - however there are two sure fire ways to tell:

1.) if your mantid is considerably larger than most adult mantids in the area it will be a female

2.) look at the antennae - in some species males have different antennae to females (unfortunately it varies in species - but it may be a way to determine a different sex) (normally males have slightly bigger, *furrier* antennae)

The different colour of your mantids may be a result of lack of water but equally could be another species that is more abundant at that time! - unfortunately I would require photos to say any more!

FOOD: I have never heard of over-feeding a mantis - and other good foods are crickets/grasshoppers (they love those!) and moths/butterflies (equally good) - but any insect will do - your mantis may tackle prey his/her size but nothing larger so don't try sticking a lizard in there or anything! (although there are some mantids that exist that have been known to eat fish and mice!)

Your mantis may not die in the winter provided he is kept warm - however, like us, they have a natural lifespan and likely will live between 6 - 18 months (6 for short-span mantids, 18 for the longer lived ones) - if yours live's for 12 that is pretty good going - although I imagine as he/she seems to be an adult already anything from 4 - 6 months is exceptional!

The black spots on the body are likely adult coloration and nothing to worry about !

For your mom - please tell her not to worry - your mantis won't harm you - he *may* bite you - but it won't hurt and he won't be able to break the skin so he will give up! - the mantids that I have kept have never tried to and most quite enjoy perching on your fingers! - if you get good you can have him on one had and offer a moth/fly in the other and he will take it directly from you! - be careful though - an adult does have wings and may fly - although they are normally quite slow and don't go far so as long as it's inside you can re-capture him!

Best of luck with your mantis! - if you have other questions send me a message!

P.s. I'm getting six new mantids tomorrow!

Sean, (Zoologist)

… Zaphod, 5 September, 2009 - 9:58am

Let's find something different to talk about

It appears the civility is bending a little so lets move on. Not trying to be infammatory myself, but it appears that the both of you need to either be more careful with the keyboard or find some way to use a spell-check. I'm also quite sure that Mantis vs. Tarantula speculation is not what the original creator of this thread had in mind.

… Nick Fensler, 22 September, 2006 - 12:11am

.........

E and I are pretty far apart i doubt it was a typo and neither was mine stop reading so many books and get a life p.s they dont sell lives at barnes and nobles

… Rage, 21 September, 2006 - 11:05pm

Money On The Mantis

I have my money on the mantis 2 but the thing is that my mantis only has one arm to fight with although it is strong and big for a mantis it has a disability which could lead to his death. the tarantula i wood put in there is a almost full grown rose hair tarantula. not very aggresive but still bigger than mantis so .... thats y theres question .cmon People wut you all think> thanks

… Rage, 21 September, 2006 - 12:28am

Why...

Why would you even want to. Sounds a little juvinile to me.

… Gloria Bolinger, 21 September, 2006 - 8:44am

Old

Sounds to me like you didnt read my whole post as i speciphically said that i am not going to i am just curious as to what other bug lovers think would happen if i did soooooo...... anyway you spelled juvinile wrong it's juvenile read a book.

… Rage, 21 September, 2006 - 12:52pm

Who can't spell....

I did read your whole post, and I do read books, a lot of books, and I can also spell juvenile and specifically. Mine was a typo. And yours..... But anyway, how long have you had your mantis and what kind is it? You didn't say where you lived. I'm glad you aren't going to pit them together because they are both super fantastic animals and deserve to live a more natural life where normally they wouldn't come in contact with each other.

… Gloria Bolinger, 21 September, 2006 - 3:50pm

Mantis VS. Tarantula

The one armed mantis i have seems to be a pretty strong little guy and i was wondering how large another insect would have to be ,to still be concidered food for the pray mantis? For example, the mantis seems to have no problem overpowering the fairly large spiders that i have put into the tank so it intrigues me to think about whether or not the mantis would be able to take on a large spider ,like a tarantula? I will not do this in fear of causing my one armed mantis to fall prey to the giant spider but i am very curious as to who would win the fight, can you please tell me what you think.Thanks again!

… Rage, 20 September, 2006 - 8:05pm

Good question

I'd have to see the mantis and the tarantula, but I would still put money on the mantis.

… Cliff Bernzweig, 20 September, 2006 - 9:04pm

Praying Mantis With One Arm

hi i am the proud new owner of a Praying Mantis i am glad you answered all those questions but now i hav som of my own please see forum if you can help

… Rage, 19 September, 2006 - 11:25pm

Regrowing limbs

I know spiders can regrow limbs, but I don't know about mantids. Arthropods in general (which includes both spiders and mantids) can only grow by shedding their "skin", which they only do a certain number of times- so if they've molted their last time, that's it.

If your mantid has mature wings (not just little stubby wing "buds"), then he or she is through growing and will never regain his or her "arm" whether mantids in general have that capability or not.

… Chuck Entz, 19 September, 2006 - 11:44pm

Wow.

Talk about a run away hit... I don't have internet for a few months and look what happens...

Manty laid her(yep definatly a her) eggs today, attached them to the side of the jar we have her in. She seems perfectly healthy, I'm just worried about keeping her in food over the winter(if she lives long enough). We'll probably be able to get her plenty of moths in the early part of out winter, but december-february is really bad weather here, and almost all insect life seems to die if it isn't in a house. So any suggestions on winter food would be nice.

The green mantis I spoke of earlier, we put him in with her, and we assume they mated over night because in the morning all that was left of him was a few legs and wings.

Again I wonder about the average life span of a mantid... ahh and around what time to the mantids hatch? And should I put Manty in a seprate container from the one that will have the hatchlings in it?

Hmm, I think that all I have to ask at the moment... but if I think of more questions I know were to come =)

Note: Sorry if I've missed some of my typos.

… Emily Neef, 5 October, 2005 - 4:51am

Male demise!

Unfortunately I have to report that Manty is something of a murderer! - It is impossible that Manty mated with your other mantis as she (from what I gather) had already laid an egg and mantids only mate once - also the information surrounding mating (i.e. that females eat the males) is something of a myth - it happens, but only if the female is very hungry - it has never been observed in the wild truly! (even wildlife programs have only ever filmed this behavior is a mock environment!

Unfortunately, Manty just was feeling a little peckish!

… Zaphod, 5 September, 2009 - 10:31am

I suggest you go ahead and se

I suggest you go ahead and seperate the ooth and Manty. If the babies hatch and she is still alive she may eat several before you even know they hatched. Oh, and just because you found the males parts on the cage bottom, doesn't mean she mated, mantids just do that sometimes. I hope that they did mate of course, or that she already had mated.

Good luck
______________________________________________________________
Camera = D-480 Zoom
Favorite Insects = You guessed it, mantids.

… Mantis Keeper, 6 October, 2005 - 4:26pm

Food - Exotic Pet Stores

If your mantid likes small crickets and insects like that, I would try some of the exotic pet stores (or a pet store that sells tarantulas and small reptiles); they often sell the crickets as food for these types of critters (or at least give you a contact for a supplier).

This is only a suggestion, as I do not raise mantids or anything smaller than my lazy house cats. :)

… Christopher Hunt, 5 October, 2005 - 10:02am

Food

We're got a pet shop in town that sells crickets, I think we'd only get them as a last resort, because it is much nicer to find free food then to have to pay for them =D

… Emily Neef, 6 October, 2005 - 8:32am

praying mantis

I, too, have a "pet" mantis; it is living on the porch railing on my back steps. I usually have an "insect phobia" but this one is different; I talk to it and it seems to understand me. This website has been a godsend for finding out about this creature. Just now it was eating a large fly (my husband said it was eating it from the inside out). Is that how they eat? Later, it dropped the "carcass".

… fogglebark, 28 September, 2005 - 5:58pm

Mantis Questions

Hi, Emily. Here are a few answers. Praying mantises definitely don't have eyelids—no insect does. That was a good observation you had about eye color, though, because mantids do change eye color based on the amount of light, much as a human's eye changes by shrinking or enlarging the pupil. By the way, with mantises it is easy to see their "ocelli," simple eyes that are located between their two large compound eyes.

Mantises will eat most insects: even bees. Roaches, flies, crickets, and grasshoppers are other favored foods. They will even eat smaller mantises!

Mantises don't change color based on their background like a chameleon or anole does. They don't change color except just a little bit as a part of the aging process.

Research on some species shows that in those species brown mantises are more common in dry years. That would make sense, since they must blend in with dry vegetation.

As for the "do they bite" question, believe it or not entomologists disagree about this. I have heard the question answered both ways by entomologists. But even those who say mantises won't bite humans say that their "arms" can give a very strong pinch—and perhaps that the bristles around the "arms" will hurt too. Your mom is probably wise not to handle the mantis much.

There is no real easy way to tell males from females, except that the female abdomens are usually a lot plumper, particularly as they prepare for egg-laying. A mantis with a noticeably slender abdomen is more likely to be a male.

I doubt Manty will last more than a month or two (maybe less of course, depending on his/her age right now) but maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. Let us know!

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

… Stephen_WV, 28 July, 2005 - 5:32am

Biting mantids

Hi Emily and Stephen. I thought I should address the biting question, as I do have a diffinitive answer. Yes Mantids can and do bite! What are the chances that you will ever be bitten by a mantid? For most people somewhere between very slim and nil! But people like me who have been keeping mantids for years (it is part of my job as curator of a live insect gallery) know that some species, if they are handled, will occassionally bite you. I have had Heirodula (a mantid from southeast Asia) grab me with the front legs, which in itself hurts a bit, and start to chew on me. It takes a while, but eventually the mantid will break through the skin and draw blood. Once it has latched on, it can be difficult to get it off. I have also noticed a certain numness around the wound, that lasts for maybe an hour or so, and I suspect that this might be the results of the digestive enzymes. This, by the way, is the only mantid that has ever done this to me, and I have handles a number of species, including Chinese Mantids. So, most mantids will not bite, but some will.

… Terry Thormin, 1 October, 2005 - 10:54pm

I was pretty sure that he (I

I was pretty sure that he (I doubt I'll get out of the habit of calling him a he even if I knew he was a she) didn't have eyelids, but I wasn't certain, so I figured I'd ask.

We tried giving him a beetle and he completely ignored it, I guess he prefers flying insects. And that's good because my mom spends hours at a time trying to control out fly population. And she's figured out ways to "stun" the flies so she can give Manty live ones.

We are currently in out 7th year of drought, so that would explain the lack of greens mantises this year.

Manty's abdomen isn't slender, but I also wouldn't call it plump. If Manty is female it's probably to early in the season for plumping due to eggs anyway. But again, I may be wrong about that.

Based on size we figured Manty was well into adulthood, but that may not be true if they get bigger faster if they eat more (again something I don't know). The reason we made that assumption was because all out of the Mantises in this area don't seem to get much bigger than 2 inches in length, and as I said Manty is easily 3 inches.

Thanks for all your answers, I'm just getting interested in insects and the like, mostly due to Manty.

Ahh, there was another question we for got to ask.
Are they some-what nocturnal? Or do they have times of day that they are ore active? Manty seems to be especially active in the morning, then he seems to nap during mid day, and after 4pm he gets active again. We are wondering if this may be an effect of our heat. In the mid day hours it's well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were thinking the heat might have an effect on his activity.

… Emily Neef, 28 July, 2005 - 9:43am

Crickets

Emily, I have kept praying mantises in my classroom many times and they really seem to like wild crickets the best. The crickets will crawl up on sticks and this gives the praying mantis a good platform to strike. If its a female, you may even witness the laying of an egg sack. I have hatched a couple of egg sacks as well and 200 to 300 babies come out of those. However, the egg sacks were laid after early September so I'm not sure if they have mated by this time. Good luck with Manty!

Bill

… knapperbill, 28 July, 2005 - 3:27pm

question for anyone re: laying of eggs

Our male just died (Sept 13) and we found a female waiting on the front stoop to take his place. She must have knows we had lots of crickets. She's very plump and we wanted to know how to tell if she has already mated and is ready to lay her eggs. If she does lay eggs, does that mean they are already fertile? Do we just keep the stick and egg case in the cage until spring or should we put it outside overwinter? This is our first summer with these wonderful creatures and we have enjoyed the encounter with both of them.

… sondi moore, 16 September, 2005 - 10:02pm

A new mantis

Interestingly enough this morning, we saw, and caught a green mantis. It is identical to the one in the picture I linked to. Seeing the Green One and Manty side by side they are the same type of mantis. Which again brings up my question about weather or not the color could tell male from female like my sisters teacher said.

If we do have a male and a female I was thinking about finding out when the egg laying/breeding season was so we could try to have then mate and have eggs, then babies. Assuming we do hatch mantis eggs I am planning on releasing them in my mom's rose garden, seeing as I'm not keen of raising and keeping 200 mantisis.

I would love to feed Manty crickets, but catching them is next to impossible (for me) and we don't have the money to buy him any. My mom did catch a moth for him, and he ate most of it, but hasn't touched it since. And that was something me and my mom had talked about was if he had something big and didn't eat it all, would he go back and eat the rest of it? Looks like the answer to that is no.

… Emily Neef, 30 July, 2005 - 12:56pm

cricket catcher

An easy way to catch crickets is to bury a glass jar in the ground so that the opening is level with the ground. Put in a slice of vegetable such as a carrot or something and they will fall in and not be able to get back out. That's how I catch them for my pet lizards and it only takes a few minutes every day to check the trap. Good luck.

… knapperbill, 7 August, 2005 - 8:11pm

Sexing

I just have one thing to add to this. You can tell the differnce between male and female mantids. Count the segements on the abdomen (bottom section) of the mantis. If it has 8 segments it is a male, if it has 6, it is a female.

Good luck with the mantids, they can be fun.

… Mantis Keeper, 16 August, 2005 - 3:02pm

Sexing

Are you sure about that i thought it was other way around

… bugyboyx, 29 September, 2005 - 11:09am

Mantis

Mantis Keeper is right, the males have eight segments and adult female have six

… Christopher C Wirth, 29 September, 2005 - 11:24am

Help me too!

I have a female mantis that a few peers and I cought the other day for a project in my agriscience class (drawing it and writing a paper) we had a male too, but she either ate him or he ran away. Anyways, she laid her eggs today while we were all on a field trip, and I need to know what to do with them! Another thing that worries me is, when we found her, her side was split, and it looks like the dirt she was is kind of plugged it up, and it's not "bleeding" anymore, or oozing intestines, this worries me very much! So, here are my questions.
*What temperature is good?
*Do they need humidity?
*What kind of habitat do they require?
*I read somwhere that the females die about a week after giving birth, true or false?
*What should I feed the babies if they succesfully hatch?
*What should I feed the female if she lives?
*Any suggestions on how to catch anything other than crickets?
*How many eggs will hatch if I am correct and she is a chinese mantis?
Thanks in advance!
~*Kristin*~

… Mantismaniac, 30 September, 2005 - 6:11pm

Okay, I'm gonna start with th

Okay, I'm gonna start with the wound. I'm not sure if she will survive long, the wound sounds kinda serious. If she lives, I would feed her, crickets, grasshoppers, moths, etc. Almost anything you can find. Moths are easy to get because they will come to your porch light at night. She will lay more than one ooth (egg mass) in her lifetime. So no, she will not die shortly after the first. If the ooths hatch, and it is a chinese mantis, you will get between 20 and 400 baby mantids. As for habitat, a container three times as tall and two times as wide as the mantis should do. Add twigs and leaves. Try and keep the temp up around 70 or 80 degrees and the humidity around 60%. This usually works for me. Good luck
______________________________________________________________
Camera = D-480 Zoom
Favorite Insects = You guessed it, mantids.

… Mantis Keeper, 1 October, 2005 - 4:42pm

Thank you!

You're my new best friend! I love you! Thank you so much!

… Mantismaniac, 1 October, 2005 - 8:16pm

One more thing...

Does the female need to stay with the ootheca or can I set her free? She's acting a little lethargic and I think I wouldn't feel so bad if she was in the wild again. She won't hunt, or I haven't witnessed her eat anything. We put three little cockroaches and two flies in there so far and the cockroaches are gone,and so if one of the flies as far as I can tell, but I spotted the other fly dead on the ground, so the same fate might have befallen the others as well. Would another female take care of this ooth? Like a surregate mother? That is of they even need a mother past the birthing. I would really like to let her go. She seems to be doing fine with her side in case you wondered. But the only thing other than the ooth that would hold me back from setting her free is, her left hind leg is chopped off. We found her like this also. She seems to have had a rough wild life. Any thoughts on that?

… Mantismaniac, 4 October, 2005 - 7:16pm

Help me, too!

I also just found/caught a wild pregnant?? female mantis, three days ago. She is 3-4 inches long, green, with a shrinking swollen abdomen.

She, too, is lethargic: hanging motionless from the top of her ventilated enclosure, moving from one side of the lid to the other only about 3 times a day when I move the cage to see if she's still alive. Plus she isn't eating: I added 5 live small crickets on Days 1 and 2. . . today, I cleaned her enclosure of dead crickets: that left 4 live crickets, hopping around down below her!

Is she reacting to the dramatic change in environment?? Sick?? Re-absorbing her eggs?? Preparing to moult??

(Her enclosure is a Kritter Keeper 10.5"x6.5"x8.5"; base of moist container mix 25% each potting soil, sphagnum peat moss, compost and perlite, with a small water-filled lid sunk into it; two boxwood end branch/leaf. Her enclosure is sitting on a regulated heat pad, set for 74 degrees F.)

… BetNC, 20 October, 2017 - 7:17pm

Not doting mothers

Mantis aren't doting mothers, and in the wild they probably never see their egg case again after they make it, much less their offspring.

So in short, you should feel free to let your mantis go. Hard to tell about the injuries, but the mantis will probably feel less stress in the wild than in captivity. It is always possible she will become somebody's prey, but then that is the life of a bug.

Good luck!

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

… Stephen_WV, 4 October, 2005 - 7:30pm

Doting mothers

You say the Mantis does not make a doting mother, does that mean I should remove her from the "Critter Keeper" she is in with the egg sac she laid overnight? And... should I put the egg sac outside? I'd like to observe the whole process - all the info I see on hatching say "Spring" but nothing about the month.

… Strangerskeeper1, 1 October, 2015 - 2:52pm

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