Buying a mantis

1 where is a good place to buy mantids from?
2 are they easier or harder then T's? I have various T's ranging in "difficulty" never had an issue.

Well, I can give you my experience as I just had one shipped to me this week. See my thread titled "Praying Mantis in Trouble."

Mantids are not as easy as T's when it comes to the molting process. The simplest disturbance can knock them off their molting perch and disable them for life. I found this out the hard way when one I ordered decided it would be a good idea to molt while in transit from the seller to my house.

You can also have problems if their container/enclosure is too small and they try to molt in that.