Mantis NI

PRAYING MANTIS CARE

General Praying Mantis Care

Praying mantis can be a great pet, but you should ensure you’ve done your research into proper care and how to give them the best life, ensuring you have the correct information and set up for your specific species.

Temperature & Humidity

Most mantis need to be kept at a higher temperature as they mainly originate from Africa, Asia and other warmer environments. This may mean keeping them in a room with a space heater to ensure its warm all the time or using a heat mat (with mat stat) or heat bulb (with dimming thermostat), particularly in the colder months. Different species will have different temperature requirements. 

If using heat mats, ensure they’re placed on the side of the enclosure and not underneath so they can move away from the heat. Mantis don’t do well in high humidity environments for prolonged periods of time, it is good practice to spray once a day on an evening (some may need spraying more or less often depending on species. Ensure you allow their enclosures to fully dry out in between misting) A water bottle on a mist setting with spring water is recommended (tap water has added chemicals that may harm your mantis). 

Mantis will drink this water from the leaves or the sides of their enclosures, but also get water from the foods that they eat. It is important to have a thermometer and hygrometer in your mantis enclosure to ensure correct temperature and humidity levels are maintained.

Adult size & Gender Determination

Males tend to be smaller than females. This is more pronounced in certain species for example orchid mantis, where the adult male is about half the size of the adult female. Depending on species, mantis can vary from 3cm when fully grown, right up to 17cm, so best to do your research on the specific species you’re interested in. 

This is particularly important when choosing which enclosure to go for. Most become adults at L7 for males and L8 for females but there are certain species e.g. African lined mantis that both the male and female reach adulthood at L10. 

You can determine gender around L3 (species dependent) by counting the abdominal segments. Males have 8 abdominal segments and females have 6. Some species have other signs that help determine gender, so best to research individual species.

Feeding

Mantis eat predominantly flying prey, progressing from smaller fruit flies when smaller, to green bottles and then blue bottle flies.

They may also enjoy wax worms and wax moths as a treat.

Some mantis will also eat small or mediums locusts as they get bigger.

Crickets should never be fed to your mantis as they carry diseases that may harm your mantis and they’ve also been known to bite or even kill mantis.

It is important to supervise feeding of bigger prey items to ensure no harm comes to your mantis. Remove any prey that has not been eaten that day.

There is no set rule for how often mantis should feed, go by the size of their abdomen. A flatter abdomen indicates hunger, a satisfied mantis will have a plump abdomen.

Mantis can sometimes go off their food just before they moult, if they don’t eat and look like they might moult, ensure prey is taken out of the enclosure as moulting can be a delicate time during which any uneaten prey could cause harm to your mantis.

Moulting

Moulting is the process of shedding the exuvia and replacing the exoskeleton and is how mantis grow. Mantis tend to moult on average every 3 weeks. Some moult more often than this and can moult as often as every 2 weeks, others may even go 4 or more weeks. A mantis requires 6-9 moults to reach adulthood dependent on species and gender. You know they’ve reached adulthood when they grow their wings. 

The time between moults can vary due to the age of your mantis, the temperature and humidity you’re keeping them at, the species of mantis and even how much and how often they’ve been eating. The whole process can take 20-30 minutes, unless its moulting into adulthood which will take significantly longer due to needing to ‘inflate’ its wings. 

It’s important not to disturb this process as it can cause a mismoult which can lead to injury or death. After a mantis has moulted it is not fully dry for 24-48 hours (less time in younger mantis and longer the closer to adulthood). It is important to wait until your mantis is fully dried before trying to feed or handle them, do not be tempted to rush this process as they are still very fragile at this time.

Housing

Males tend to be smaller than females. This is more pronounced in certain species for example orchid mantis, where the adult male is about half the size of the adult female.

Depending on species, mantis can vary from 3cm when fully grown, right up to 17cm, so best to do your research on the specific species you’re interested in. This is particularly important when choosing which enclosure to go for.

Most become adults at L7 for males and L8 for females but there are certain species e.g. African lined mantis that both the male and female reach adulthood at L10.

You can determine gender around L3 (species dependent) by counting the abdominal segments. Males have 8 abdominal segments and females have 6.

Some species have other signs that help determine gender, so best to research individual species.

A Mantis N.I small enclosure with a mesh roof and built in cross-ventilation is an ideal enclosure for most mantises for the first few moults dependent on size. At which point they may need moving to a bigger enclosure.. Mantis N.I offers a range of purpose built enclosures suitable for all species & sizes of mantis.

A general guide is the enclosure height should be at least 3 times taller than the mantis and twice as wide.

A smaller enclosure may mean the mantis does not have enough room to moult which can cause injury or death.

Acrylic enclosures are best however some species need entirely mesh enclosures (for example thistle mantis),

A butterfly mesh cube of appropriate size for your species is an inexpensive way to house these types of mantis. You can also buy some specific acrylic mantis enclosures ready with mesh tops.

Whichever option you choose, you must ensure the tops of the enclosure are mesh. This gives ventilation but also allows the mantis a place to hang to moult from.
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In the bottom of the enclosure, you can use kitchen roll or substrate such as coco fibre, ensuring you are cleaning it out regularly to prevent mould or bacteria growth.

Decoration branches or twigs should be bought from a shop where it will be ready treated. If you bring it out of your garden, ensure it is washed and then put in the oven for 1 hour at 100°C to ensure you kill any pests or bacteria.

Some flower mantis have difficulty climbing the sides of acrylic enclosures so mesh needs to be added to the sides- )see picture on right), or kept in a mesh enclosure.

Must have adequate cross ventilation as their environment being too humid for prolonged periods can kill mantis.

Keep their enclosures minimalist with a few places to hang from until adult to prevent obstacles to moulting.

Can be kept in a bigger enclosure from earlier but may need to be moved to a smaller container for feeding to ensure not having problems catching their prey.

Mantis are better kept individually due to high risk of cannibalism, some may be kept communally like ghost mantis, but need to be kept full to reduce the risk of cannibalism .

If housing multiple mantis separately but in the same room, ensure they are not next to each other or you create a ‘screen’ between them as if they can see each other they may rub their faces against their enclosures to get a better look, causing an injury called ‘eye rub’.

Never house a mantis in a glass container, this does not allow for adequate ventilation and can ultimately kill a mantis

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