Praying Mantis Information

The praying mantis is a very interesting lookingget too low.In the wild, the praying mantis eats
creature. Usually, you can't even see them in the wildmainly insects. When you keep these animals in your
because they blend in so much with plants. Thehome, you need to feed them every two to three
African Mantis is becoming very popular as a pet anddays. You should feed an adult mantis crickets and
is relatively easy to keep.A praying mantis can growgrasshoppers. A younger mantis can be fed smaller
to be up to ten centimeters long. They come ininsects like pinhead crickets or drosophilae. If you
many different color variations that range from brighthave more than one mantis housed together, be
green to dark brown. Occasionally, they also are asure to keep them well fed or they will eat each
cream color. The adults have full wings and can seeother.If you plan on breeding the praying mantis, the
extraordinarily well.If you are going to keep thesefirst thing you need to know is how to tell males and
creatures, you must be very careful to keep them infemales apart. The easiest way to tell is to count the
the correct temperature and humidity. They need toabdominal segments. Males have eight and females
be kept in an aquarium that is pretty tall becausehave six. Once you get a pair, feed them very well
they need height for molting. Make sure the tank isfor two weeks before breeding them. If you don't
sealed so that they cannot get out, but use afeed them enough, one will probably eat the other
well-ventilated lid so oxygen can get in. Many peopleinstead of mating. The only thing recommended for a
end up sealing the tank so well than oxygen cannotbreeding tank is a piece of diagonal corkboard. Put
get in and the creatures die.At the bottom of thethe breeding pair together once they have been fed
tank you will need to have some kind of substratefor the two weeks. Watch them very closely and
as well as twigs and branches. Make the substratemake sure the female is not aggressive towards the
ten millimeters thick. You don't need to make themale. If she is, take out the male immediately. If they
aquarium that humid because the praying mantis getsmate, the female will lay several hundred eggs. Be
the moisture it needs from what it eats. It iscareful, because right after they mate the female will
recommended that you lightly mist them though. Atry to eat the male.It doesn't take that much work
younger mantis needs more humidity than an adult. Ifto keep your praying mantis healthy. Getting their
you see dew on the side of the tank, then thatenvironment right is the hardest thing to do. Once
means that the there is too much humidity in there.you do that, you can just enjoy watching these
Don't let the humidity get too high or your prayingfascinating creatures.
mantis can die. Also make sure the humidity doesn't