My Summer with a Praying Mantis

If you haven't seen my previous post, this is Charlie, the praying mantis. I rescued Charlie from a parking lot in June 2017 when he/she had apparently just hatched from the egg nest. So frail, so tiny yet I saw this tiny whisp of White seemingly floating across the hot asphalt and it caught my eye. I bent to see what the item was and to my surprise, the teeniest, tiniest little praying mantis was looking back at me with a quizzical look. Right then and there, my heart was taken by Charlie.  My husband went to the car, grabbed an empty cup and lid and I gently place Charlie in the bottom for the ride home.

So, now what? How do I take care of such a tiny little creature with such big eyes? Thankfully we have Google to the rescue.  I placed Charlie in a bug container we already owned that you can buy for children to catch and put their bugs in and keep them or just look at them. I added a few twigs, nice and secure so Charlie could climb around the enclosure.  Google suggests feeding the new mantis fruit flies, oh my! I don't need a fruit fly problem in the house, we've dealt with that before from bananas. It certainly would be easy enough to do, just go to the 99 cent or dollar store and buy a couple of bananas there, let them sit a few days and you certainly will have fruit flies! No, I wasn't going to do that, we have plenty of ants around our property. Everything I read said the ants aren't a good idea, they may hurt my Charlie but what choice do I have other than fruit flies? Besides, our ants are Southwestern fire ants that sting for no reason.
 I would go with a small container and capture two of the smallest ants I could find and only put one in with Charlie. Guess what? Charlie had no problem catching and eating a ant. The ant was caught and promptly chomped in half, a half in each of Charlie's hands, eating them like little apples.  At this first stage of life, only an ant a day was needed by Charlie, another was offered but not eaten so that ant gets removed from the enclosure so as not to injure Charlie via a sting.  
 Mantises will molt  I believe eight times to become adults, these molts give the mantis different life stages called NStar. After the first molt, the mantis is a 1st NStar, second molt, 2nd NStar and so on. A time comes  when I offer Charlie his bugs and he just doesn't eat. The bugs walk under him, he lifts his legs as they go underneath of him, rather funny to see. This occurs for two or three nights and then Charlie will molt. The mantis knows exactly what it is doing! It is not dying by not eating, it is slimming down for the molting process.  Charlie and other mantises will hang upside down to molt, do NOT bother them nor move their enclosure during the molt. This is a very stressful and important time for the mantis. Should the molt not complete, your mantis could die. If the mantis falls, a limb which is now extremely soft can be bent or break and this too can be catastrophic.
  I wait a day after molting before offering food again. Charlie ate only ants through the 4th NStar stage. As he grew, he would eat more ants per meal, up to three. I only offer one at a time so Charlie is safe as ants can go after Charlie if they choose to.
 Charlie enjoys little trips out of the enclosure, sitting on my fingers and looking around. Don't be fooled, these little guys can run and run very fast!  My Charlie seems to have a love affair with a flashlight, maybe because that flashlight always meant feeding time? When Charlie is out, he just loves to go to the flash light and sit on the lens. He is fascinated by the light, maybe because he doesn't go outside, I can't figure it out? Charlie also likes cameras and camera lenses, hopping right on my best Sony camera every time I try to use it to take his photo!  In the photo above, I believe Charlie was just a 2nd NStar, look how tiny he was walking on my Sony camera strap after jumping on my lens. I used my phone to capture him as he was then headed toward the flashlight.

Charlie molted again just two days ago into a 6th NStar, suddenly he is really getting big! This molting, I finally see short little wings beginning to form on both sides of the body. The hearing organ which develops on the abdomen, should also be just about finished developing now. They aren't born with any hearing organ. Charlie has two beautiful, big, pink eyes and up between those eyes are three small residual eyes that sense the light for Charlie. With his regular eyes he sees in full color, perfect vision up to 60 meters.  Pretty amazing for a bug! 
 Now, look at Charlie's arms, they certainly are well developed now and perfectly made for catching and holding prey. The fore arms have tiny spikes that go right into any prey they catch and there is no getting away. I find the arms a real work of art how they fold down into each other, fitting perfectly between those spikes.  As a 5th NStar, I began offering Charlie daddy long leg spiders and found that these were a very fond treat. I started with small ones, afraid that Charlie may be the prey instead of the predator but he snatched that first spider up like a pro.  Now I feed Charlie one large daddy long leg a day, I haven't tried more yet, maybe I should? I get to feeling bad killing good spiders to feed another good insect. 
  Charlie may live till September, if I am lucky, maybe October since he is living inside.  
   All three photos were taken with my Samsung J7 phone. The close-up at 4X zoom. I have much better photos in my Sony camera but have not unloaded them yet. I also have video on YouTube of Charlie eating a spider! Look for, "Charlie, The Baby Praying Mantis" on YouTube.  Link :  https://youtu.be/RfK3CaFTiHo
 Questions you may have? 
  1. Does Charlie need water? He doesn't need a water bowl. Online I read where people put a wet paper towel in the enclosure which I haven't done. I will gently spray Charlie with a fine mist about every three days. I do live in the desert, so my Charlie may be different than say a mantis in Iowa.
  2. Will you let Charlie go? Probably not as I have raised Charlie almost since he was hatched. I have a lot of predators in my yard like big lizards and I would fear Charlie may become a snack.
  3. How do you clean the enclosure? Charlie will leave a few spider legs here and there plus as he gets bigger, his poop gets bigger. The poop is hard, like little pieces of charcoal so I just turn the enclosure over a trash can for the poop and use my fingers for the spider legs. Mantis don't want a messy enclosure.
 4. Would you do this again? Yes, in a heartbeat! What an awesome experience, this little guy has such a personality for a bug.
 5. Would you recommend this for children? Absolutely, the easiest creature to take care of. Please use supervision to protect your mantis from the children.

@Denise-wiggle