(also called PRAYING MANTISES)
FEEDING
Mantids eat living insects and do best on a varied diet.
- Newly hatched mantids eat each other, the stronger wiping out the weaker. The surviving mantids do well on aphids, greenfly, whitefly, blackfly and small fruitflies.
- Medium-sized mantids can eat insects larger than themselves. Suitable food includes: caterpillars, flies (such as houseflies, bluebottle flies, greenbottle flies and cluster- flies), moths, and sub-standard stick insects (ones that have lost legs) of certain species.
- Adult mantids can eat insects larger than themselves, and like sub-standard adult Pink Winged stick insects and Thailand stick insects. They also like large flies, large caterpillars, large moths and small earthworms.
The following are NOT suitable as mantid food because they can harm the mantid (either by poisoning or attacking it): ants, bees, wasps, spiders, woodlice, crickets, Indian stick insects, Peruvian stick insects,
The mantid's abdomen should look fat. If the mantid has had a particularly filling meal, it will not be hungry for several days and will refuse food. This is normal and no cause for concern. The mantid should eat again after a few days.
Caution! Do not overfeed a mantid - it can burst.
WATER
HOUSING
The mantid does best in a large, well-ventilated cage and so the
Bug Studio Professional is ideal housing. Keep the cage clean by placing a Liner on the floor, changed weekly.
HANDLING
The Chinese mantid is aggressive and not recommended as a pet.
TEMPERATURE 
Mantids do not need heated cages. They do well in a room that is comfortably warm in the day and cooler at night. Avoid putting the cage on a windowsill as the mantid may overheat in the summer and get too cold in the winter.
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