New Expo pickup, micro alien!

[Tavia]

We were good at the Expo we vended this past weekend and only bought one thing, a very young female Ghost Praying mantis.
They had Orchid mantids there too, that I was super tempted by but we figured we'd just start out with a Ghost and see if we can keep her alive and thriving before jumping in headlong. Sounds like next year the vendor is going to have an amazing array of mantids to chose from, so we might really be in trouble!

Here are some macro shots of her, very hard to try and get any meaningful size perspective in these, but she could sit on my thumb nail and not reach the edges.

 

[MysticExotics]

So cute! I love mantids!

 

[Tavia]

 

[Myca]

Number two shot cracked me up. She's a rock star.

 

[Dragonling]

So cool! I want one! I used to catch local mantids and keep them for a while as a kid. It's one of very few types of insects I will hold willingly. :laugh:

 

[Tavia]

My brother and I used to catch and keep the local mantids too when we were young. Never had any luck with the babies though, so we'll have to see how we do with this girl. Didn't have near the access to supplies and proper feeders back then either.

 

[Zombiegirl]

Ohmaigad!!! *squees* she is ADORABLE!!!!! Every year around this time of year we have TONS of the regular type that hang out outside my work (along with grasshoppers...)...no idea where they come from and they are only around for about a month or so. I LOVE the orchid types, soooooo pretty...what are the care requirements for these guys?

 

[Joba]

Okay, that's pretty cool.

 

[Tavia]

Care is fairly easy, although at this size, feeding them is the hardest thing, probably. Fruit flies or slightly larger than pin head crickets are needed. The Ghosts are interesting in that they are one of the few species that can be housed together with little risk of them eating each other. They are also one of the longer lived species, up to 18 months.

I got her from a vendor that is, I believe, based in the Boise area and she is right now putting in an order for 4 or 5 species of mantids, some very cool ones, that people can add to. I'll PM you some links to get in contact with her. She'd be able to answer your care questions better than me too.

 

[Zeina]

Soooooooooooo this is totally awesome.

 

[honey.bee]

Number two shot cracked me up. She's a rock star.

Yea I love the second photo too. haha. These macro shots are really fascinating.

 

[snappi13]

I'm amazed how complex she is. I've never seen anything like her before. You have certainly peaked my interest [emoji2]


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[spyderk]

What an adorable little alien!

 

[FTK Slim Shady]

Are they hard to keep. What about the regular old green mantis ?

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[Tavia]

These are one of the hardier mantids and some of the longest lived, up to 18 months. They are also one of the few that are "communal" and can be housed together with minimal risk of cannibalism, though even they will eat each other if they run out of other things to eat.
The ones wild in the US usually live around 8 to 11 months, I think. Either is reasonably easy to care for, if you have the right equipment, which is not generally very expensive. The hardest part is when they are newly hatched up until their second or third molt. They are tiny, require secure, small enclosures with decent airflow and very small food during that period.

My brother and I tried to keep some of the regular local ones that were fresh hatched when we where young, about 14 to 18 years ago and could never keep them alive past the second molt. But we were using DIY cages, that were hard to vent properly and did not have ready access to things like pin head crickets or cultured fruit flies, so we were reduced to catching the little nats that live in the grass around here for them, got pretty good at it too, but it wasn't enough.
Now you can set up your own culture of fruit flies or breed crickets and the same tall deli cups and lids one uses for the fruit flies work great for the mantis to live in for months, are readily available and cheap.

 

[Tavia]

She molted for the first time with us awhile ago and has doubled in size. I took these pictures a few minutes ago, unfortunately they aren't quite as good as the ones my husband took just after we got her.