Housing a Praying Mantis
Get a cage that's 3 times the length and twice the width of the insect's body. You can use a small vivarium, for instance. Make sure it has a secure, screened lid to allow for proper airflow. The cage can be made of plastic, glass, or mesh, as long as it has some holes in the top for ventilation. The whole cage can be made out of mesh as long as the mantis is an adult, as they like to cling to it. However, some younger insects will be able to slip through the mesh, so this isn't a good choice for a young mantis. For a small praying mantis, you can even use a glass food jar as long as you poke holes in the top for ventilation. You can also cut a large hole out of the center of a plastic lid. Then, put a piece of toilet paper across the top of the jar before putting the lid on. That gives the container ventilation and provides something for the mantis to hold onto at the top. However, you don't want the cage too big, as they'll have trouble hunting down their food.
Place a substrate like sand or potting soil on the bottom. Though not absolutely necessary, it will absorb some of the water you add to the cage and release it into the air more slowly. Plus, it will make it easier to clean the cage, as you can just dump the substrate and add new. You'll need less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) of substrate. You can even just use a paper towel.
Add sticks and bark to make your mantis feel at home. Place sticks at different angles in the cage, giving the mantis space to climb. You can also add pieces of bark or even rocks if you'd like. The mantis will like having natural items to crawl around on. Make sure at least one stick goes up almost all the way to the top so that the mantis has most of the jar to hang down in when molting. You can also add dried leaves or even silk flowers.
Provide humidity with a light daily misting or bowl of water. Praying mantises don't actually need to drink water, but it can be good to provide a small bowl of water anyway in the bottom of the cage. The water will help keep the air humid enough for the mantis. You can use a small bottle cap, for instance. Otherwise, lightly mist the cage once a day. If you have hatchlings, put a damp paper towel down on the bottom of the cage.
Keep most praying mantises at room temperature. With most species, you can keep them anywhere in your home, as long as it's 68 to 77 °F (20 to 25 °C). However, check out particular information about your species, as some prefer more warmth, up to 90 °F (32 °C). If yours does, you can use a warming lamp set about 1 foot (0.30 m) over the cage. If you use a warming lamp, check the temperature of your praying mantis's cage with a thermometer to make sure it's not too hot.
Put praying mantises in separate cages. If you keep them together, one may try to eat the other, as these insects can be cannibalistic. It's best to get separate jars or cages and only put them together to mate if you are breeding them. If you have just hatched mantises, they can be kept together, but get them separate cages as they grow older.
Feeding Your Insect
Give your praying mantis 2 live insects every other day. These insects will not eat dead prey. It has to be moving to attract their attention. You can keep live insect colonies on hand for your praying mantis or simply catch food for it around your home or garden. In addition, they only need to be fed every other day or even every third day if they don't catch the food you offer every other day. Adult females may need a bit more food than adult males.
Use fruit flies or gnats for a just-hatched praying mantis. You can buy flightless fruit flies online or at places that sell insect and reptile food. These tiny flies are perfect for young hatchlings, as they won't get out in your home! However, if you have fruit flies in your home already, you can catch some and feed them to your praying mantis. To catch fruit flies, poke holes in the top of a plastic container. Put fruit in the container, which will attract the flies. Once you have a couple, place the whole container in the freezer for just a few minutes, which will stun them. Then you can drop them into the praying mantis' container, where they will come back to life. You can use any small insect of this size you find around your home or garden, including gnats and aphids.
Base the size of the praying mantis's food on their forearms for older insects. Praying mantises eat live insects and typically grasp the prey in their forearms, making it a good way to judge the size you need. Adolescent mantises can eat small cockroaches or crickets, for instance, as well as house flies. As they grow, increase the size of the insects. You can purchase these from reptile stores, but you can also try capturing them yourself.
Watch your praying mantis eat to make sure the food isn't escaping. Some prey, such as roaches or caterpillars, tend to hide, and your mantis may not go after it. If it's not eating these insects, try something with more movement, such as a cricket or fly to see if that works better. You can also hold out the food on tweezers, which will encourage the mantis to take it straight away.
Remove any insects your praying mantis doesn't eat. Large insects could injure your mantis if it doesn't eat them, so if your praying mantis doesn't seem interested in 15-30 minutes, you may need to take them out. Also, take out any bits of insect left behind by your mantis after feeding. Mantises aren't the tidiest of diners, and they'll leave behind all manner of debris including legs, wings, chewy or hard bits they didn't like. You need to remove these daily. When this debris piles up, the praying mantis will stress out and won't cope well in the artificial environment. When cleaning out the leftovers from its meals, also remove your praying mantis' fecal matter, which is pellet-shaped.
Cleaning the Cage
Move the praying mantis to a holding tank. Your praying mantis is delicate no matter how strong it appears. Don't try to grab it, as you can hurt it. Instead, let it crawl out on your hand or encourage it into another container while you clean its main one. It also helps to feed your mantis before handling it, as it will be less likely to perceive your hand as prey. Be patient! The mantis will typically crawl out on your hand or finger eventually if you hold it in front of it. Usually, they will just sit there on your finger or hand. You can even take it out when you're not cleaning the cage. Praying mantises have wings once they're adults, meaning that they can fly. If you want to hold it, close all the windows and doors before removing it from its home. Don't touch your mantis if it's molting. You could hurt it!
Remove the substrate to scrub and dry the cage. Dump the substrate out into the trash and rinse out any debris. Then, scrub the cage down using hot water. If you have a glass cage, you can set the glass in the sink and pour boiling water in it to disinfect it, but make sure to wait until it cools down before you handle it! It's best not to use any detergent, but if the cage is very dirty, you can add a drop or 2 of dish soap. Make sure to rinse it thoroughly. Once done, dry the cage and put in new substrate.
Add springtails to soil substrates to help clean the cage. If you notice lots of feces or even mold growing in the substrate, you can just replace it. However, you can also put in tiny bugs called springtails. These critters will take care of the feces and mold, effectively cleaning out the cage. You can find these online or in reptile stores.
Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds when you're done. Scrub your hands with warm water and soap, making sure you get in between your fingers. Then, rinse your hands thoroughly. Like most critters, praying mantises can transfer bacteria to you.
Caring for a Molting Praying Mantis
Avoid feeding your mantis right before it molts. It may look a little plumper than usual, as the new skin grows underneath the old. Plus, it will likely stop eating and try to scare away insects you want to feed it. You may also notice cloudiness on the skin and larger wing bumps. The praying mantis may become lethargic. If your mantis has wings, it's reached the final stage of molting and won't shed its skin again. If you think your mantis is about to molt, make sure to remove any insects, as they could feed on the mantis skin or knock it off its perch.
Leave the cage alone while the praying mantis is in a molting position. The insect will hang upside down from a limb or mesh. If you move the cage, you could knock it off and damage the insect in the process. In fact, if the mantis falls, it only has a 25% survival rate. Molting only takes about 20 minutes, but the mantis won't fully dry for 24 hours.
Provide a more humid environment if you notice a lost limb. Praying mantises can lose limbs for various reasons, including low humidity in their cage while molting. If you notice yours has lost a limb after molting, try to increase the humidity by misting more often or providing a water bowl. Then, it may re-grow the limb after it molts next. If you think your mantis is dying because it's only half-emerged from the shed skin, you can place it in the freezer to humanely euthanize it.
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