Feeding babies is a bitch. When I first hatched an egg case in a terrarium, I naturally assumed that I would eventually end up with one fat mantis, but they don’t seem to attack another mantis the same size they are.

They won’t eat ants.

The trick is letting most of them go outside, then using a dustbuster to vacuum up little insects from the grass and dump them in the terrarium. They grow by molting, and need things to hang on to do that properly. A lot of mantises die just from not being able to molt properly.

Eventually, they get big enough for the littlest pet store crickets.

After doing this once or twice, I decided to let nature take its course. I buy a couple of egg cases from the garden store in the spring, and let them hatch outside. Eventually (with luck) I get one or two adults that I can bring inside if I want. Now that the kids are grown, it isn’t the crowdpleaser it used to be.

If I find some outside, sometimes I’ll feed them a cricket, same as with the “Charlotte”-type orb spiders.

I don’t think my area (naturally dry in summer) is prime mantis territory. Not enough moisture in summer, and not as many flying insects during the warm months as the Midwest.