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Look a sunflower
Jan 6, 2010

There may be a boogeyman or boogeymen in the house.
Wish I had this thread a year ago!

Last march my boyfriend and I bought two L3 Idolomantis diabolica, the Giant Devil's Flower Mantis.



We chose that species for its insanely cool threat display, which we were lucky (unlucky?) enough to see a few times (we never harassed them of course, but they hated us coming in the tank to remove old fly cups or put new ones in). The truly amazing colors only showed up in the adult form, but after they mated and the new L1s hatched, it was the most precious thing ever to watch the babies try to intimidate each other by lifting their arms up and swaying :3:

Everything we read about them talked about how difficult they were to raise, and we honestly didn't have any problems although we did follow the recommendations very strictly. Far and away the worst part was having to adhere to a schedule of ordering fly pupae, since they would take so long to arrive and then hatch that we'd have to plan ahead well.

If anyone else here has praying mantises I'd love to talk about them too! They're totally cool bugs and absolutely fascinating to watch. I thought that was true especially when they were very small, because they were so incredibly articulated and could make the tiniest, most precise movements. They look like little robots! Long story short, get some praying mantises if you want a neat robot-dinosaur-alien thing living in your house and (probably) watching you sleep.

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Look a sunflower
Jan 6, 2010

There may be a boogeyman or boogeymen in the house.

Sir Azrael posted:

I haven't had mantises, but I would be thrilled if you'd be willing to write a blurb on mantis care for the thread!

I'd love to! I can probably do that over the weekend :)


Improbable Lobster posted:

That sounds absolutely adorable. Do you happen to have any photos?

Unfortunately not :( I tried hard to get photos and video both, but either due to the quality of my camera or the density of foliage in the enclosure they all just came out looking like pages from those I Spy books.

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