BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Exotic Pets Praying Mantis - Who has had insects as pets?

I would love to hear about your experiences of having any insect as a pet. I have had some interesting insects as pets.

This article includes care instructions for the praying mantis, as well as an introduction of the praying mantis as an exotic pet. How to care for the praying mantis.


Praying Mantis or Praying Mantids

Angela, you can purchase egg sacs at garden supplies or even from garden catalogs. I buy them every time I move. Except for this time, South Dakota is just too cold for Mantis. I had ants too, they are a blast to watch. If I had to do it over I'd buy a queen. Back then you could, not sure about now. It would have been nice to keep the colony going. I would love to see Jamaica!!

As a kid I had an ant farm for quite a while and I used to catch flying grasshoppers and kept them in jars for as long as...

Where we live in Mexico it is really buggy during the rainy season and one time last year in about an hour's hike I photographed 27 species of insects and I am sure some of them would have made nice "pets" but...

That must of been an incredible experience! 27 species of insects is a pretty decent number. We use to help with the butterfly counts, bird counts ect. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and it was an experience of a lifetime. What were some of the more unusual species? These are some of my favorites. I go every year and spend hours taking pics. Cicadas, I also love to listen to them.

Angela, I raise them outside to eat the bugs that eat my plants. Years ago, our dentist who was also a personal friend asked for one of my egg cases. He was heavy into gardening too. Except for he forgot and left it in the house. The warmth caused them to hatch, he had babies climbing all over the house.

They climb all over me, never bite or nothing

I do have pictures somewhere. I doubt if they are in digital form though it is possible. It was during the time we switched from 35m to digital at the newspaper. They are on one of the older computers or in the basement in one of seven bins of pictures. When I get a chance I will look through the computers. During the next tornado warning I'll look in the basement Except for, I never make it to the basement during tornadoes because my 85 mother-in-law can't get down the stairs. I stick her in the upstairs bathroom (no windows) which is next to her bedroom. Then I can't justify leaving her alone in there so I stay. If the kids are here George takes them to the basement. I'll find you some pictures

The pictures I posted are called Cicadas. Their life cycle is quite interesting. They stay in adult form after shedding the husk (you can see the emergence in the picture). They then make a lot of noise trying to attract mates, they breed they die, in a very short period of time. Right after they breed they drop eggs to the ground which then go underground for I believe it is seven years. Then they emerge looking like the husk, they climb usually a tree or what ever is handy, shed the husk, dry so that they can flyand start the cycle all over again.