Recording Molts

Our Little one molted last night, June 5th.

I tried to measure her but with the molt

came a burst of excess energy...

she/he wouldn't sit still long

enough for me to even get a

guesstimating...let alone a

decent picture.
LATER: Ok, got the measurement: 1.02 cm

We are keeping record of her molts and size through

this blog then we'll document it

on notebook pages.

Second Molt

June 18, 2010

size: 1.06 cm

Third Molt

June 28, 2010

size:2.0 cm

Fourth Molt

July 9, 2010

size: 2.4 c

Fifth Molt

July 27, 2010

size:

Just a note our larger mantis

molted on

June 3.

size:

Second molt

June 17

Size:

Third molt

June 29, 2010

size:

Fourth molt

July 8, 2010

Fifth molt

School project...traditions...friends

For the last two years we have kept
baby mantis to observe as

they molt and grow.

It started as a school project....

but now in our third year of keeping a mantis it is
no longer a 'project' but has become a
family tradition.

ahhh...look at that face...so cute!!
This little one ( 0.7 cm) was given to us by
a sweet friend, Ms. Bea.

Two days later we get a knock
on our door and Ms. Bea with her hands fold up,

says, "here take it..."
Another mantis much larger ( 2.03 cm ) but still in
the nymph stage...

We're hoping this one is a female and the smaller

one a male...yes, we could mate them is they

are the same species, which I think they are.

Then we could save their egg sack (oothecae)

until next year, however we're a little reluctant
to mate them because often the female
will eat the male and we don't want that...
it's too sad :-(

Answered Prayer!

Last year we prayed to find a Praying Mantis and Father was so good he had a friend spot one on a green bush...we kept her for a couple of months, on her last molt she had her beautiful wings and was ready to mate, so we let her go.

Because the Mantis brought such pleasure to us

we began to pray to Father for another Mantis.

Today my oldest dd came over to swim with her sisters,

as she was lounging she felt something crawling on her

leg and behold it was a praying mantis in a nymph stage (baby).

We caught her and fed her a small grasshopper.

here are some pics of Madaline II.

We won't know if she is female until she molts a few times,

but knowing Father he gave us what we wanted

another female.

Here is Madaline eating the grasshopper

This was the largest Mayfly I've ever seen it was about 2" from head
to ovipositor (the thing that looks like a stinger)


This was a beautiful moth my girls came across today
we know it's a moth because it was resting with
it's wings fold down over it's body.

Lot's of finds today...Father is so wonderful and his
creation is awesome!

Born Free...

Our mantis Madaline has molted for the last time, she has a full set of wings and very soon will be sending out pheromones to attached a mate. We were able to witness this last molt, it is something like a butterfly hatching out of it's chrysalis. Her wings were compacted together and after sometime they began to fill out.

After she molted she is suppose to hang until her soft body hardens, however, she couldn't get a good grip on the side of the container and slid down to the bottom, not good! I cut a piece of netting a taped it onto the outside to container and let some hang on the inside. That did it for her she climbed up onto the netting and hung out for a few hours. Whew! I was a little nervous but all ended well!

We decided to set Madaline free, she was born free and she should be able to live her adult life free. My girls cried...it was good that we let her go, however it was sad for my girls...the teared up some.
Last night we went to the place we let her go, just to see if she was still there, yep, she was...here are a few pics of her as we let her go...the first two pics were the first place we placed her, then changed our minds and placed her higher~ up in a tree blooming with pink flowers. We learned to much from observing her...she was a great teacher!

Mannie is now Madaline

On the 25th of July Mannie refused food, batting at, but not snatching it? I found out this is what mantis do to prepare for molting their exoskeleton. This refusal of food lasted 7 days, I was a bit nervous, but was reassured by others who keep mantis, this is normal for a well fed mantis, which Mannie was. We fed Mannie daily one moth or grasshopper, now I find out it's best to feed them every other day. Anyway on the seventh day which was yesterday I checked in on her at 7:00am and still nothing. At 9:00 looked at her cage (I didn't have my glasses on) and I saw her laying on the bottom of her cage, my heart sank, she died...I lifted her cage and saw something on the lid of the cage move...
it was Mannie she had motled! I thought her exoskeleton was her...

This is what I saw...
I know it looks like a dead insect...
this is what Mannie looked like before her molt

And this is Madaline today (We call her Madaline because we found out he is a she...lol)

After she molted she grew about an inch or more...she is really getting big. When my girls found out she was female the said they want to mate her...we would have to find a male for that...I don't know if I could handle watching her eat her mate....I just don't know....lol

Yah's Creation is Amazing!

Our Mantis 'Mannie' is very curious...he loves to sit on our hands and look about, he will turn his head left and right, he will cock it to one side, and he will sway his body to look around you. He is so comfortable with us holding him he will clean himself, he'll lift his front arm and begin grooming his face, something like a cat would do, it's quite amazing. When I read up on the 'European Mantis', which I thought he was since he looked just like them, the article said that European Mantis are 'docile', OK this is NOT mannie he is very active, curious, and really enjoys us. He is so cute he will see us pearing in at him in his plastic container and begin reaching for us, I kid you not he reaches his front arms out and starts to scratch at the container like a puppy would...it's too cute!

Mannie the Mantis

This is Mannie our newest member of

the family. Our science curriculum recommends

catching a living insect to observe while

working through the curriculum. I did a Google search and found that you can order Mantis through the mail, at the starting price of $10.00...We opted to pray and ask the Heavenly Fatherto bless us with one. That was about 2 maybe 3 week ago...Yesterday my friend, who lives in the country, called and said she had caught a Mantis for us. Whoo hoo! Isn't Yah Good! Blessed be the Name of YHWH our God!