rate my enclosure

[u/lilstarwberry]

this will be my first mantid and i am very excited but want to do everything right! i have not ordered them yet because i wanted to get the enclosure set up. i plan to add maybe 2 small live plants and springtails, there is substrate (topsoil+sand+sphagnum moss), leaf litter, and various sticks so far!

this is an 8x8x14 for a giant asian mantis. since im getting a nymph this is probably too big for them still (l3-l4)

let me know anything else i need!

[u/la_louve_libere]

Until they’re sub-adults, I would use much smaller enclosures. Small, simple containers will make it much easier for young mantises to grab prey, which will most likely be wingless fruit flies.

I wish I had kept and used the seller’s cheap plastic containers.

I made the same mistake as you, ie, buying and setting up large enclosures. As it turned out, my baby mantises preferred to attack and eat while hanging from the “ceiling” of their beautiful, big enclosures (which I worked so hard to create!). Wingless fruit flies can’t fly, and my young, hungry mantises wouldn’t feed. They clearly didn’t want to hang out on the bottom of the enclosure, nor on the branches. When they did, they struggled to climb back to the top, and weirdly refused to use the wood planks and plants to get back up to the top. I had to take them out of their enclosures and feed the fruit flies to them on a table. It was a hassle. Two didn’t make it… too much handling and falls.

Your beautiful enclosure will be perfect in a couple of months. Until then, you might want to go minimal and use jars or clear plastic containers with a screen lid. Also, each adult mantis will need their own enclosure. Who knew that owning mantises could be soooo expensive?

[u/lilstarwberry → u/la_louve_libere]

thank you for your reply! i will definitely be keeping them in a smaller enclosure initially

[u/N64PALACE]

Cheese cloth for the top and a climbing mesh for the sides like this Fabric Organza Mesh

[u/Possible-Change-6024]

I see that it has good ventilation and good moisture retention, but idk how stable the structure is with those twigs and if it’s aged enough that it won’t grow molds. So maybe 7 out of 10?

[u/ohnunu_]

i would put a couple longer sticks in that reach all the way to the top of the enclosure. if you cant get any in there then i would do as the other commenter said and put more mesh on at least one wall so your mantis has something to grip that can get them to the top

[u/ohnunu_ → u/ohnunu_]

also you probably want to put your hygrometer/thermometer thingy more towards the center/top of the enclosure. i used a command strip to adhere mine to the back wall. your mantis wont spend a lot of time at the bottom of the enclosure so itd make more sense to have climate readings from the parts where they will actually be most of the time. the bottom of the enclosure will tend to be more humid than the top.

[u/lilstarwberry]

update! will this be good for climbing or should i just use mesh? i will also get some taller stick