How to take care of a praying mantis

Question

what to feed it

how to manage its environment

how to give it water

u know stuph like that

Answer 1

uhm.  Just let it live in the wild.  I have no idea what they eat.  Sorry.  I've seen a bird eat them before, but thats it.  Good luck takin' care of it though.

Answer 2

Have a roomy escape proof tank with branches and fake leaves. Provide a small dish of water with a sponge in it(replace water daily to prevent bacterial and fungal build up). Put some soil at the bottom as well. They should eat an insect once a day. These guys have big appetites. They can eat any non-noxious insect(that means nothing with stingers or things that secrete foul stuff). Crickets, cockroaches, flies, meal worms, etc. Make sure to mist the cage with water once a day using a previously unused spray bottle.  

Answer 3

Find one. The first step to observing a praying mantis is to find one. Look in places where there are many green bushes, crickets, and butterflies. These are some of the mantises' favorite foods.

Look carefully. These little bugs are masters of disguise. Most are long and green. Some can be fat and grey, or even have a pinkish hue. Some look like flowers, but those are mostly found in countries such as Africa and Asia.

Ready a container for your mantis. Get a small container to put your mantis in once you find it. It does not have to be very big - just a 6"x6" square should do for most mantids. The container should be well ventilated and preferably made out of mesh, or chicken wire, to give the mantis and its prey something to cling onto. It should also have a secure top.

Catch your mantis. More than likely, you won't need any gloves, unless you are squeamish about touching bugs. Simply place the opening of your container in front of the mantis. Coax the mantis into the container using a twig, or your hand if you are okay with that. Soon, he or she should willingly go into the container. Close the top, because mantises are smart, and they will seize the opportunity to escape.

Feed your mantis properly. To feed your mantis, catch butterflies or crickets. Buying crickets from the pet store is not necessary, although some people will tell you that using wild crickets could make your pet sick. This may be true for store-raised mantises, but for wild-caught ones, not much harm should come to them. As for store-bought crickets, some caution should be exercised. Many pet stores do not feed or properly care for crickets, and that can pass on to your mantis. A few days of feeding crickets high nutrition diets to help manage the bacteria in their gut, and they should be fine.

Be prepared for nursery duty if you catch a female mantis. If your mantis is a female, it will have a big fat belly, and lack the ability to fly. When your mantis lays eggs, it should be in the early fall, or late spring. Don't worry. You will have plenty of time to prepare for your eggs to hatch:

They hatch the next spring. The egg case will look kind of disgusting, and have a ridge along the center of it.

Come springtime, the eggs should soon hatch, and the nymphs should emerge through tiny holes in the egg case. A word of caution, they can, and WILL often eat each other if they are not separated, and when they reach molting stages, many mantises will stop eating for a day or two, so it's easier to squeeze out of that old shell.

You can set them free in your garden, or feed them gnats until they get a bit bigger

Answer 4

let it go, it's not meant to be caged, if it is, it probably will not last more than a few days, no matter what you do for it. Sorry.  

Answer 5

just put it back in the wild!

what kind of person has a pet praying mantis? lol

why do you have him?

Answer 6

Hate to say it but i don' t think that you could make a good place for him to stay i think you should let him go

) : ) : ) : -_-

Answer 7

Mantis's eat other bugs.  That's why they're called preying mantises.  They really like crickets, cockroaches, flies, and other mantises.  The best enviornment for them is an aquarium with plenty of sticks to climb on and some leaves that they can hide in.  You can put a 2 liter bottle lid in there and fill it with water so they can water themselves.  Feed it the bugs alive because they won't eat them if they can't kill them.