Tame a Praying Mantis
Praying mantis can be very skittish, flying away or scratching in self defense. But this article explains how to tame your mantis without any scratching or fleeing.
Contents
Steps
- Slowly slide your hand under the mantis and let him crawl onto your hand. Keep your hand over the cage so, if he jumps, he will land in his cage and not outside.
- Don't make any quick motions, as he's likely to fly away if you do.
- Slowly stroke him on the thorax, if he tries to escape, stop for a moment, and try again.
- Hold a cricket or other small insect in front of him. Let him catch it. Let him begin to eat, and put him in his cage. (Hold the insect by its back legs, taking care that it dangles away from your fingers, otherwise the praying mantis may accidentally catch your fingers with those ferocious spines on its arms.)
- After several times, he will associate you with food and let you hold him at will.
Tips
- DON'T FEED YOUR MANTIS: canned tuna, lunch meat, tofu, etc. This is very bad for them. Unless you want to find a dead praying mantis in the bottom of the cage, stick to the real stuff - insects.
- Offer them water on a Q-tip or in a spoon. Don't put a cup of water in their cage - they could drown. A sponge or paper towel on a yogurt container lid works much better.
- Praying mantis' will eat: crickets, houseflies, small butterflies, moths, and other small insects.
- Don't feed your mantis wasps. These types of insects have vicious mouth parts and painful back ends. Anything you wouldn't want to mess with (being significantly larger than your little pet), your praying mantis probably won't eat either.
- Don't worry if your mantis is a nymph and it won't eat for a few days, this usually means it will molt soon.
Warnings
- Don't drop your mantis, or you may wake up the next morning to find him dead, because falls often result in fatal internal injury!
- If your mantis scratches, don't fling him away. It could result in his fatal injury if he falls from high up or hits something.
- Hand-Feeding causes the praying mantis' to lose the ability to hunt on their own. By giving them a roomy cage and supplying them with small insects (e.g. medium crickets, small butterflies, houseflies), they will be able to continue their original hunting practice, allowing you to later release them into the wild without leaving them dependent.
- Feed newly hatched praying mantis' wingless/winged fruit flies flightless fruit flies, available at the local pet store, or fresh from your counter.
- Keep praying mantis' in separate habitats!
- This is a very, very important part of keeping them. Left together, they will attack and kill and eat each other.
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