How to Raise Praying Mantises
If you have pests in your garden, or you simply want to raise an interesting new pet, consider the elegant praying mantis. Praying mantises, with their long, thin bodies, bulbous eyes and scythe-like arms, look almost like alien insects. These tiny predators enjoy feasting on virtually any insect smaller than themselves, making them ideal for pest control. Raising a family of praying mantises is an enjoyable way to learn more about these useful creatures. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Large jar or terrarium
- Twig
- Insects for food
- Moist paper towel or water dish
Instructions
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Prepare the container that you want to use to hold praying mantises. If you plan to breed mantises, use a 10-gallon terrarium. If you only want to raise one mantis, a large glass jar, with holes poked in the lid, is adequate.
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Collect a twig or piece of a tree branch, depending on what will fit into the container. Branches with leaves still on them are preferable to those with no leaves. Place the branch into the container diagonally.
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Capture mantises in the wild, if desired, or you may be able to buy live mantises online or at garden supply stores. If you are hunting for mantises yourself, bring a jar with you. Look on the leaves on plants in the spring, when the weather is turning warm. Coax a mantis into the jar. Cover the jar.
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Put your mantis into the prepared container. Add a dampened paper towel or small water dish. Mist the inside of the container with water every day.
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Capture live insects to feed the mantis. Flying insects, like flies and moths, are favorites of mantises. Catch them with a net or tweezers. Mantises also enjoy some caterpillars, small spiders and bees with the stinger removed.
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Hold the insect in the tweezers and lower it into the container. Either drop the insect into the container so the mantis can catch it, or wait for the mantis to take the insect from the tweezers. Feed your mantis about two or three insects every three days.
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Observe the mantis carefully. When it refuses to eat, this indicates a molting is about to occur. In 24 hours, the mantis discards its old shell, and is ready to eat again. Mantises go through this molting about six times until they mature.
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Determine if you have a male or female mantis. When your mantis is mature, look at its body. Female mantises have shorter wings that only cover three quarters of their body. Males have wings that reach the end of their body. Females also appear fatter and like to eat more. Males like to move around more than they like to eat.
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Add a mantis of opposite gender to the container if you want to have baby mantises. The two mantises will mate and the female mantis will usually eat the male afterward. In several weeks, the female lays an egg case on the branch. She will likely lay more at a later date.
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Wait for the egg case to hatch. This occurs in mid to late summer. Up to 50 baby mantises emerge from the case. Feed them with aphids, or the babies will begin to eat each other. When the babies grow larger, feed them with flies, spiders and moths, just as you fed their parents.
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Tips & Warnings
Release your mantises into your garden if you have an ample supply of insects living in it. Mantises will stay if there is enough food for them.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
