Chinese Mantid nymph - Tenodera sinensis

Help! My Praying Mantis Suddenly Very Sick

My praying mantis 2 L was walking and jumping around this morning, by mid day it started squirming and freaking out in pain with a flat abdomen, won't drink or eat anything, and not it's very still and looks like it's dying. My Christmas tree had a pod and I got 50 mantid babies, I have 5 left now (gave some to a friend) I think they are chinese mantids. They eat crickets and I spray their habitats once/day. Any advise would be appreciated, thanks.

… Roya H., 19 May, 2020 - 9:50pm

Amazing grip

I saw one of these creatures on the side of my house literally upsidown on the wall! Later that day I came back to check on the bug and it wa still their!!!

… Letsgome, 14 October, 2012 - 7:56am

The female does not die after

The female does not die after making an ootheca (egg case), she can make several before the cold kills her. Just keep the ooth at room temperature and in about 4-6 weeks it should hatch. Keep moist paper towel or spaghnum moss in the bottom of the enclosure to retain humidity levels up. Or you can keep the ooth in the fridge or outside to delay hatching. Be prepared for hundreds of nymphs and if you don't plan on hatching them in the spring and releasing them you need to have fruit fly cultures established in order to feed them.

… RichardTrone, 28 January, 2007 - 7:34pm

Nice

Nice picture!!!!!!! I'm "raising" a female and it's about to have babys!!!! Can you give me advise so that i can raise them well along with their mother?

… Krissy, 3 October, 2006 - 5:27pm

so cool

… horse2340, 29 March, 2012 - 11:12am

Great Pets!

I've kept Praying Mantis's a few times. It takes them awhile to get accustomed to being handled but they will eventually calm down. In my most successful story: I brought in 5 mantis. Four were females, 1 male. I was able to keep them alive well into February by feeding them live crickets (camel crickets if possible). Also I was able to give them free roam of a large heated moist room and I'd spray them directly with warm misty water. I offered them crickets every day. They did produce a few egg sacks which I froze and took outside in spring. One hatched (by accident, inside) and I had many babies but no fruit flies small enough to keep them alive. This is a great project for kids! One word of caution, as the male aged he become sluggish and his last mating episode ended with his death (she ate him).

… Barbara Durant, 27 November, 2010 - 7:06am

Mama Mantid

Hi Krissy,

Females generally die right after they lay their egg mass (or ootheca) and that is usually done this time of year. The eggs will mature over the winter and hatch in the spring.

In the garden center where I purchased these, the instructions mentioned keeping the egg mass in the refrigerator until the weather remained at a constant temperature (so the nymphs don't freeze by a sudden cold snap).

I sprinkled the newborn nymphs out in our gardens and surrounding areas very quickly and that was it. If you keep them contained they will begin eating each other, so get them out as soon as possible!

I am sure a Google search will bring up a more detailed rooster on rearing them from nymphs to adults...good luck!

… Tony DiTerlizzi, 5 October, 2006 - 2:22pm

Sprinkled?!

lol are you thinking of them as just some kind of fertilizer or something? Dont do that they are more delicate. The L1 nymphs will probably not eat each other and just starve if they did not have food but older ones, maybe young as L2 would eat each other but certainly L3 to adult. You can buy some wingless fruit flies (keep them breeding from wild ones so that the wingless dont disappear) and breed them in rotting fruit or special media for them. For when they get older you will need something bigger like some feeder roaches (Turkistan Roaches, Lobster Roaches and many others).

… Walter Nathaniel Long, 21 May, 2013 - 11:25pm

Sprinkled?

I had many baby mantids and kept them all in a huge habitat together, they did eat each other till only 10 were left. I separated them when they were 1L. So if we release them outside in the spring they will die?

… Roya H., 19 May, 2020 - 10:01pm