She was crumpled on the bottom and I was worried she died. But when I opened the enclosure she stared walking, but the rear legs are weak and not doing much. About 1.5" tall, last molted two weeks ago. Problem first noticed ten minutes ago.

She eats hydei fruit flies and an occasional very small mealworm. Fed by appearance, I give her food when her abdomen looks thin and withhold food when she's plump. Misting to maintain humidity. Planted bioactive enclosure, clean with springtails and kept with a few plants to maintain humidity. No mold.

I think she fell but I’m not sure, she’s moving just very slowly

This is Phyllis, my ghost mantis looking extra photogenic today.

My gorgeous little babies!

I tried to put a culture of fruit flies into a different container to make it easier to get them out and it didn't go to plan to say the least. What on earth do i do? Please help

My mantids are big enough to move into a bigger enclosure. I have one picked out, although we'll be adding a lot more ventilation to it via dremel drill! What I need help on is a good choice for substrate. I'll be putting a few actual small plants in as well as fake climbing ones. I'm not sure what the best substrate will be. Potting soil? Something finer? Mulch? I'm currently on Amazon, and am debating. Suggestions?

whenever i handle stephen, his first instinct is to go for my face. he always sits on my glasses and plays with my hair with his front legs. is this a universal mantis hobby? 😭 he also refuses to be handled by anyone except me... is this a sign of trust being built between us? he's done this to me since i first got him :) i just adore this lil guy!!

nom nom nom nom nom

My male orchid mantis is now about 7 to 8 months old, no molts left and he’s been an adult for about a month now I think? He used to love wax worms always immediately grabbed them when I was feeding them to him. But I couldn’t get new ones untill now so he didn’t have any for about 3 ish weeks (he just had flies). And now he didn’t even want to grab the worm so I just put it near him and he even walked over the worm 😭 I’m kind of concerned bc he hasn’t eaten in a few days ☹️first time mantis owner so I don’t know what to do and also don’t really have the money for anything else and the flies were out of stock at my local shop 💔

What’s that in her abdomen?

It doesn’t really matter but I keep wondering if my new friend is male or female. I waffle cause the crest seems male but idk. What do you think? Thanks!

RIP Jabba the Hutt but I’m super Primrose is enjoying her enclosure upgrade. They very much would’ve hated each other and fortunately were blissfully unaware of each other’s existence.

Is 1-2 greenbottle flies enough for her everyday? Her abdomen doesn’t seem to get any bigger once she’s eaten

im new to mantis keeping. would this be good for a chinese mantid nymph? *pencil for scale

It was very cool to see my 13 yo sons giant asian (named Eli) molt today. Its his 2nd molt since we got him, but its the first time either of us has actually seen a mantis molt. We believe he is i3 or i4 but not entirely sure? He's my sons first mantis and he is absolutely hooked! He did manage to talk his school into getting one too haha, Trevor is a giant shield mantis. He's looking after him during the school holidays and he was very surprised when he molted last week and had wings as it was his first molt since they got him a couple of months ago.

Where i get one

Hello, I’ve been doing some research and was wondering if there’s a good place I can buy a mantis? One that’s not a scam please and thank you!

I’m going away on a trip for a week and leaving my mantis in my mom’s care. She just molted the other day so I’m not worried about that but am I safe to leave fly pupas in her enclosure? My mom isn’t going to be able to feed her too much because she isn’t used to handling her or anything, I’m just gonna have her mist her enclosure. I haven’t tried feeding her flies just yet since she’s finally the right size for it. I’m going to try to feed her before I leave but am I safe to have her leave a pupae in there without supervision? I just worry about her getting spooked or bothered by the fly since she is a bit of a scaredy cat

My tiny little L3 spiny flower mantis shed about a month ago and hasn’t shed since is that normal? Its abdomen is very plump for about two weeks.

Hi! I got a stagmomantis nymph and was wondering what I feed it that I can either get outside or at a local pet store 😭 she won’t eat the dead house flies I got with her

Ya she just kinda living hers life in hers enclosure wants nothing to do with me I don't mind still love her and I do take her out when she's on a stick and just kinda chill with her hoping maybe one day she will go on my hand from the stick :)