mantid questions.

well you know this little guy wants to hang out ON me all the time... I mean hes not even remotely happy unless hes out ON myself or my wifes friend Melissa. He waves his arms around like he wants to hop onboard. He also likes meal worms right from my hand. Hes almost like a dog. I am kinda thinking god ... am I causeing him stress? should I be handeling him everyday? I havent had much experience with mantids so any advice would be great. his name is "sex machiene". I didnt name him heheh.
everyone who comes over oggles over him.. then I show them a T and they mostly all shy away. heh
I love mantids-- I would like to get a few more thats for sure... Espically after looking at Eddys posts.

your friend-
looseyfur

maybe he's trying to give you a sign, that you and melissa belong together, or that he's trying to tell your wife that theres something btwn you 2


serious - are you giving him enough room to hang upside down? maybe he climbs on you as a way to "hang out"...to get higher up

bwahahaha melissa is a lesiban ... so that cant be right.

honestly hes got everything he could want he just wants to be freerange heheh

loosey

lesiban

Click to expand...

Ha Ha! What the hell is a lesiban??

By the way, that is really cool looking.

That is a Number 9 or Oscellated mantis (same species, just different common names). The reason why he likes to eat out of your hand is because they do not actively hunt their prey, instead you have to offer it to them with tweezers or, in your case, your fingers. If you keep the handling sessions from being too lengthy, then you are probably not stressing him too much. I have a huge wild caught mantis who has a crushed eye and a broken jaw (the reasons why I caught her), and I have to take her out of her cage to hand feed her mealworm guts every few days because she can not chew. The handling never seems to stress her out, she even throws a fit when I try to put her back in her cage. My Number 9 mantis male was always very friendly when he was young, and he still is now but I am wary of taking him out of his cage because he is now an adult and has long wings. Good luck with him!

Aubrey

Also, mine will "dance" for a tiny yellow scorpion that he lives next to! It is actually quite cute, when the scorpion is next to the wall of the Kritter Keeper that my mantis is in, the scorpion will stand up against the wall of his container and my mantis will stand on the ground as close to the scorpion as he can be (through the plastic walls) and move his arms, head and butt in a dance. He is fixated on the scorpion when he does this, and it is not threatening at all. He also sometimes dances to drips of water on leaves that catch his attention! He really does the funniest things.

Aubrey