Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was sent two mantid egg cases in the mail from Ontario Canada. The guy that sent them to me (for free ) caught a female in his backyard and she laid 3 egg cases. I got the 2nd and third ones.

My questions are:
Do you think they would have been damaged in the trip? They were in paper towel inside bubble wrap in an enveloppe.

They are very dry feeling and are about the size of a dime. They are orange-ish in colour with one side that looks like it has eggs under a transluscent barrier. Do they sound healthy?

I have them at room temp (68-73 daytime and 62-65 nighttime) in a 5 gal. aquarium and I mist them daily. The egg cases are on top of a half piece of paper towel roll on the bottom of the tank. What should I change?

The guy that sent them said they were chinese mantids, he wasn't too sure of it though.

please give me some dos and don'ts or anything I sould add/remove from the setup. I know it's not an adequate setup, that's why i'm here!

thanks in advance!

the egg cases sound a little small...what you'll need to do is keep them warm (mid 80's) and keep the humidity up (just soak a couple of paper towels)....they will hatch in a week or two

keep in mind that mantids are very small and if you have them in a glass tank with a standard mesh top they will crawl right out....i put window screening (vinyl) under the tank top and that keeps them in

I took another look at them, they're more like the diameter of a penny, and about 1/3 inch thick.

I did a bit of research, everywhere I looked it said they would hatch in 3-6 months...you sure it would be a couple of weeks? Theyre young eggs...

A female mantis will lay an egg case even if she hasn't mated. Unless the guy saw her mating, there's not sure way to know if the eggs are good. Even the size isn't a good indication. I had a tiny tiny egg case that hatched out what must have been close to 200 babies. The egg case size seems to be based on how well fed the female is and how secure she feels.

An egg case in the right conditions can/will catch in a little as 4 weeks from laying. To get the most out of the case, try stringing it up off the ground. Fishing wire works great for this. This keeps it from getting too wet from misting and when the babies hatch, it is best for them to fall to the ground. They come out looking like little seeds and pop open better if there is some height to their fall. They hatch out very fast and can get crushed by the others if on the ground.

Yes, a fine mesh is a must have. I came home one day to find over 100 baby manids all over my room. Quite a task to round those little buggers up.

cheese cloth works well...
When i was little (I think kindergarden) my gramma found a "moth case" for me to watch open.... my mom flipped when she came home and saw a million little bugs in it!!! Lol. Lucky for us there was cheesecloth over the opening. They are harder to find in the wild than they used to be! Grams lives in the country, but she hasn't seen too many cases the last few years. I'm gonna have to go hunting for some soon...
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~Lindsay
0.1 panther chameleon (Orion)
1.2 r. brevicaudatus chams (unnamed)
0.1 leopard gecko (Acadia)
1.0 pictus gecko (Raine)
1.1 parakeets (Bongo/Citron)
1.1 cats (Tigger/Bonzai)
1.0 dwarf hampster (Chico the monster)
someday will have 1.1 great danes (will be Osiris and Solaris)