My baby Praying Mantis is a dork!!

I found this tiny chap who was a couple cm's .. it shed on the first night and is proving itself to be a wee dork, trying to catch dinner!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• praying
• mantis
• insect
• bug
• food
• dinner
• dork

[sammyblot]

im sure i have seen fruit flies in petco but i have never seen mantises for sale anywhere here .. but of course one near you might well have or ask staff if they can get them. Make sure you have done research and know which type of mantis you want, and check online to see what prices they sell for so you know whats a bargain or not. OIf course if a local shop can get one then you dont have shipping to pay!! .. Im gonna do exactly this myself soon too.

[sammyblot]

If your in america i can send u some links to online sellers that look ok!!

[RoflPwnFtw]

Agreed with JoeCapricorn, they will likely do this to anything and everything before they molt, too. I observed my mantis hitting a chopstick in the same manner and you could see that the outer section of the claw was extended, and it is just hitting it with the inner.

[cair99]

Were u got the plant

[vvelvettearss]

@JoeCapricorn yeah watching that video I see your point and it does look more defensive than anything else at first, so it's more like "Agh where dyu come from!? get on the floor so I can eat you! nom nom " :D

[vvelvettearss]

aww man I feel so sorry for the poor thing :( incredibly cute though

[evand848]

@sammyblot mantisplace(DOT)com has good ones

[JoeCapricorn]

Here's an interesting little tidbit that I know from observing mantises and their strange behavior... those strikes this mantis did were not to catch the cricket or fly, but rather bat it away. I can see the mantis being startled (how it seems to step back, then strikes at it).

A hunting strike is different, it isn't quick and from an upright position. Instead they slowly move in and aim their strike to grasp.

The mantis was startled likely because the cricket was at its eye level.

[TheSirMagus]

He's a bully, pushing others off the branches =(

[TheColoradoan]

Having caught a preg-o mantis and subsequently raised many of her gleefully cannibalistic children, I came to the realization that mantids are just not very smart. For all of her attentiveness and graceful precision, our mantis would repeatedly try to strike at bugs that she could see, but were on the wrong side of a branch.

...bummer for them if she caught them in the clear, though.

[iTouchedYuu]

o_o When it ate the thingyy at the first part was cute :3

[Duochan]

Oh really? Thatd be cool, Yeah I live in Southern California Ive heard you can get like... the egg sacks at a nursery or Home Depot.. Ive gone to a reptile store and asked that guy if they sell them but he said that you cant buy them from anywhere youve gotta order... I dont know exactly the kind I want, Preferrably one thats the trademark green, I prefer those over the brown and the orchids might be a bit too much work (though theyre beautiful I saw one with eyes that looked like amythests)