BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Exotic Pets Praying Mantis

I had a praying mantis as a pet once. They are common here, but I happened on one at a reptile show and took it home. It was amazing to see the subadult molt and grow its wings. Very beautiful! Unfortunately, like a lot of my little creatures, one of the cats got into its tank somehow and killed it. I was heartbroken. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Moe,

Mantids tend to go for crawling insects versus flying ones. If you have crickets and beetles, you should be able to support an adult mantis population. Of course, as they themselves grow, the stronger mantids eat the weaker ones.

I was wondering exactly what you meant by a "mantis chain"? I ask because last night I had some strange looking bugs (baby bugs?) hanging on a thread from my back patio. The only thing that I could think of were stick bugs or mantis, so I looked online for pictures today and I found this thread. I found one of the bugs this morning and it looked like a baby mantis. I live in Hawaii and have never seen any here before. I am afraid that the local geckos will eat them all and frankly I'm afraid to catach them and bring them inside. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear it.

If you want to bring them inside, this book has great information on keeping them as pets

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4175.asp

Thank you so much for the information. I will be picking up the book later today.

I love praying mantis. I have had them hatch in my home too. We get them around here all the time. As to the question about what they are. They are insects, rather large ones, that live all over the world and have some really interesting colors and shapes. They do eat other insects but have been known to eat hummingbirds, small rodents, frogs and toads.

I also have a small mantis tattoo. When searching for pictures of mantis tattoos, I came up with practically none. Here is a pic of mine.