# Chinese Praying Mantis Caresheet/Set Up



## Indelible (May 18, 2009)

Hi Everybody!

 Firstly, before I start this thread off properly I just want to point out a few things. One of these is that everything I have written is based on my own experience of both good and bad, I will explain more later. The second thing that I’d like to point out is that I do not know everything about Mantids, if anything I know very little but again I’m going on experience and what has worked for me. 

 I wouldn’t like to call this a care sheet but I guess it’s the only thing I can really think to call it at the moment in time.
 This “care sheet” also helps to show how easy/cheap you can make this great hobby, currently being out of work myself makes having these little guys growing up a great pleasure... Anyways, enough with the babbling and more with the explaining...

Introduction 
 Although this ‘care sheet’ is based on Chinese Praying Mantids (Tenodera sinensis), I previously had two Giant African Praying Mantids (Sphodromantis viridis), one Egyptian Praying Mantis (_Miomantis_ paykullii) and one Chinese Praying Mantids, this was my first collection and I was proud to have them all moult and eat fine. Randomly though, two – three days between each other these Mantids all started dying, this started as what can only be described as paralysis. Once they’d all died I was gutted and thought I’d never give Praying Mantids another go, until I saw a cheap group of five Chinese Mantids at Instar 2 and 3. At this point I thought I’d give it a shot and hope to correct the past, by doing this I’ve discovered my mistakes and learned from others, these mistakes and lessons learnt are what I hope to pass on in this Care Sheet. 

A Little Info About Praying Mantids and Tenodera sinensis 
 First things first, some people may not know the terms above that I have already used so below is a quick description of what these mean.

 Mantids – This is when we are talking about more than one Praying Mantis, although this has recently been changed to Mantises due to reclassification but I like to keep it old school and say Mantids.

 Instar – When a Praying Mantis moults it goes through Instars, this can be species specific but varies from 6-10 for most. Their 1st Instar being when it’s hatched out the egg and the 2nd Instar being after the first moult.

 Tenodera sinensis – This is the Binomial/Scientific/Latin name for the Chinese Praying Mantis (and the others having their name follow them in brackets too)


 In my opinion the Praying Mantis is one of the most violent creatures about due to there feeding behaviour. As most creatures have a “technique” to killing their prey items, for example snakes can either constrict or use venom to kill, other animals will rag the prey around and kill the prey item, however, Mantids actually just grab and eat, even if their food is still wiggling about trying to get free.
 Chinese Mantids can vary in colour, this can be a light green to light brown. 

 Females tend to grow bigger than the males, I cannot however comment in this care sheet about breeding as I am yet to experience it. What I can inform you of though is that both male and female Chinese Mantids grow wings that are equal to the length of their abdomen and that both can fly, however, females cannot hold flight as long as males if not on some occasions at all.
 
You may find that your Mantis will point blank refuse food and stay resting in one place, this can be for a few days, this is more than likely due to the Mantis being in moult and ready to shed its skin. Once the Mantis has moulted its exoskeleton is soft and requires time to harden, you may also notice that it appears bright but slowly dulls in colour. I give my Chinese Mantids around 24hours but as they get bigger they will require longer. If the Mantis is hurt during this potentially critical time then it can/could be left deformed and consequently die. 

Feeding 
 Chinese Mantids will take fruit flies from 1st instar, although these may seem big and/or fast, Mantids are surprisingly fast and deceptively strong. Fruit flies will provide a good meal for your Mantis for it’s first few instars, the way I used to feed mine was put around five fruit flies into the enclosure and leave the mantis to eat, if they were all gone then I would offer more next time, if they weren’t then I’d offer the same amount. I did this until the fruit flies became too small to provide a sufficient meal.
 
--This was one of the first things I have learned from. I acquired a bag full of fly pupae from a local Fish Tackle shop and split a small amount into each enclosure and then a larger amount into a pint pot. These can take up to 2-4 weeks to hatch depending on temperatures, I had unfortunately timed myself wrong and was stuck without food for a week and ended up getting a couple of maggots from the same shop just to keep the little guys going. One refused and didn’t make it. My advise and future plans will be to buy the pupae before the fruit flies are too small so that they should hatch in time.
 









I have yet to figure out how I’m going to pick one fly out to feed to one Mantis but I shall update this when I do. These are house fly pupae which are actually hatching as I type and the Mantids have all had a nom and are now nice and plump. 

 Although not feeding, I feel humidity should be put here due to the Mantids drinking the sprayed water. I spray my Chinese Mantids every day or two, depending on weather and how damp their enclosure still is. Sometimes if it’s warm and the tissue has dried up more quicker than usual, I will add a few sprays on top and let the drops go through into the enclosure.

Enclosure Set Up 
 When I started out with my first lot of Mantids I got everything as a present so for things similar to what are seen in the pictures below I would advise browsing eBay or going to your local £shop. 
 I used these pots for my Chinese Mantids between 2nd - 4th Instar. I have used your average house hold sponge as a size comparison.

 








 

 --Now this was my original mistake, although the pot had air holes around it, I believe that the paralysis was actually caused by lack of ventilation in the enclosure, maybe that as they got bigger it affected them more? I’m not entirely sure.
  What I do know is that my solution to this works perfectly and has kept my Mantids with plenty of ventilation.
 
I used some cheap thin Blue Dish Cloth to cover the Mantis enclosure over with once cut to the size I required, other keepers have used fine mesh to cover the enclosure with but the choice is yours entirely, again, this is just what works for me. I then cut a small cross into the fabric to allow the Pooter to fit into so that I can provide the Mantids food without any escapee fruit flies.

 

































The Next step is to pick out your choice of substrate but as I said I’m keeping this cheap and cheerful so once again, here is what works for me. In small enclosures like these pots or half pint pots I just you one piece of kitchen towel or two pieces of toilet paper. I then fold this a little and shove them into the pot, I make sure that at least one side has tissue going to the top of the enclosure; this ensures that the Mantis has something to grip onto well when climbing up, I change the tissue roughly every three days or when it becomes dirty. I also like to add a twig that goes from the bottom of the enclosure to the top.
 

























It may seem empty but it works, please also note that I used the word “shove” before, this is because I like the tissue to be a little scruffled making the Mantis have to work that little harder to get higher. 
 This simple enclosure can be copied into pint pots when they are ready. 
Your Mantis should be in a enclosure around 3x the size of it, giving it plenty of room to move and also plenty of room to moult as this requires space while they are pushing out of their old skin. 
These pint pots were also already purchased for me but I believe they came off eBay or here.
 

















Now you’re probably looking at this enclosure and thinking “How does a Mantis catch something in that!” but believe it or not, they can.
 










Summary 
 These are great creatures to observe and deal with on a daily basis and anybody wanting something out of the ordinary and very amazing, I would advise looking into the Praying Mantis as a first choice.
  That’s all I can think of at the moment unfortunately so please feel free to PM if you have any questions or ideas, and constructive criticism would be welcomed. Or comment below.
 

 Thanks for Reading,
 Cheers
Gav


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Very informative care sheet! I've never kept Chinese myself due to the high mortality rate at lower instars, but they are a nice species. :no1:

Although a couple of things

When buying from a fishing tackle shop, best to get maggots and then let them pupate for the fridge, or just put the maggots in the fridge. Sometimes fishing tackle shops add stuff to the casters to stop them from hatching. 

Also to get one fly out at a time put the box of flies in the freezer for 30 seconds to 1 minute, knocks them out so you can just pick them up and feed them to your mantids. :no1:


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## Indelible (May 18, 2009)

As far as i can tell these are hatching fine, i've had three so far, and i got a crazy amount for free and the bloke knew what i wanted (as in flies) so i'm not complaining lol 

Thanks for the reply (Y)


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## andie (Sep 23, 2007)

Nice little intoduction into Mantids but please be aware that this species is probably one of the hardest to keep and has a very high mortallity rate which could discourage new keepers from the hobby. You won't find many keepers that have bred them here in the UK. As a first mantis please try one of the many exotic species commonly available first. Saying that the Chinese mantis is very beautiful but needs plenty of room even as a small nymph because they like to run plus they must have good ventillation.

Just one thing about using elastic bands to hold the netting down on the top of the pot,,don't, because they will snap over time and you will lose your mantis. Also accidents will happen putting a mantis in or taking one out, one slip and it's squished. Cut a hole in a top and glue mesh/netting onto the lid, its much safer.


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

andie said:


> Nice little intoduction into Mantids but please be aware that this species is probably one of the hardest to keep and has a very high mortallity rate which could discourage new keepers from the hobby. You won't find many keepers that have bred them here in the UK. As a first mantis please try one of the many exotic species commonly available first. Saying that the Chinese mantis is very beautiful but needs plenty of room even as a small nymph because they like to run plus they must have good ventillation.
> 
> Just one thing about using elastic bands to hold the netting down on the top of the pot,,don't, because they will snap over time and you will lose your mantis. Also accidents will happen putting a mantis in or taking one out, one slip and it's squished. Cut a hole in a top and glue mesh/netting onto the lid, its much safer.


I've never had any issues with elastic bands and I've kept hundreds using this method. : victory:


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## Indelible (May 18, 2009)

vivalabam said:


> Also to get one fly out at a time put the box of flies in the freezer for 30 seconds to 1 minute, knocks them out so you can just pick them up and feed them to your mantids. :no1:


Well all the flies hatched and there was absolutely loads! (glad I put them in a tough container). I tried your freezer idea and it worked great, thanks:2thumb:


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Indelible said:


> Well all the flies hatched and there was absolutely loads! (glad I put them in a tough container). I tried your freezer idea and it worked great, thanks:2thumb:


:no1: Happy to help!


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