I never kept wandering violins but I did keep almost 20 different species of mantis and bred a number of them. Please read this Petko. Even if a mantis is described as communal it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I would NEVER keep adults with younger nymphs. Even with an abundance of food it is only a matter of time before an adult finds a young mantis before it finds a fly. As adults, it is also generally safer to only keep the males together. Also in the new enclosure that you will be making make sure to place organza mesh at the top instead of the glass panel, it will be a lot safer for them to moult.

@hattylaird9756

2 жыл бұрын

Ahh I hope he sees this!

@suzieandtheanimals

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely 💯

@FatesxofxthexDead

2 жыл бұрын

Liked and commented in the hopes he sees this!

@It-b-Blair

2 жыл бұрын

+1

@OhGhostie

2 жыл бұрын

Well said. Just to add on, violins are one of the least likely species to cannibalize, I know people who have grown multiple gens together with minimal cannibalism. Their reason for success is due to lots of room, excessive amounts of food, and plenty of sticks. Another person I am close friends with had males of this species eat their females surprisingly, I’ve found male Empusids to be much more aggressive than females, especially at subadult. So yes, with a grain of salt any ‘communal’ species of carnivorous insect that doesn’t live in a visible, wild documented colony should be kept alone.

I love the way they look at the cricket before attacking like " WHAAAAT IS THAAAAT?!?!!"

@retard_activated

2 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣🤣

I’ve always liked mantises but after watching this video I’m starting to like them much more 😍😍😍

Today is my father's birthday for the first time since he passed away September last year and I've been feeling really down, your video cheered me up a little thank you

They're just so beautiful! Such amazing little fellas. I hope they do well in the Den. =D

Conditions of maintenance: Hygrometry: spray water on the mantis 1x every 2 days. Temperature: hot spots at 40 ° during the day, hot spots at 28-30 ° at night. Terrarium size: 30x30x30 minimum for 1 specimen, group Brightness: heating bulbs, good brightness. In the terrarium: branches, plants Food: flies, ringworms, mealworms (max. 1X per month, cut and give with tweezers). Avoid crickets at all costs which will be very poorly digested. That’s all advice I can give you 😉 I hope it can help you

Those grasshoppers! WOW! The ones in my area are nowhere near that size. I had no idea they could even get that big! Can't wait to see Linda taking one of those down!

@caitchri2426

2 жыл бұрын

In southern USA we have a type of locust (kinda the same thing) that are JET BLACK with red spots that are that size or bigger. They are fat crunchy suckers that appear and disappear in mass.

@DeathRepoXT

2 жыл бұрын

Here in the UK I am part of a locust breeding team, but jeez these guys are waaaaay bigger 😂😂

@bugloverspiderlover8490

2 жыл бұрын

In Texas we have big green ones close to that size,the look like birds when they fly.

I’m SO happy that you have mantis now!!!!! I love watching them eat and catch stuff!!!

Awh it’s a shame you won’t breed the gras hoppers I love the little- well big guys! I’d love to see em in an enclosure

@verstappen9937

2 жыл бұрын

IKR can’t believe he only sees them as live food. They’re awesome

@bugloverspiderlover8490

2 жыл бұрын

Grasshoppers are kind of hard to successfully breed,they need damp sand or soil and the eggs can take months to hatch.

Awesome little creatures! Saw one take down a Camel Spider that had eaten 3 mantis'! The mantis flipped it on it's back,locked in it's vice like arms and literally ate it to death by feasting on it's torso until it died. Disturbing AF as the Camel Spider's legs were flailing and it was obviously in agony.

Petko my man, I've binge watched all of your videos in just a month lol! Love your channel

That's not a grasshopper... that's a MONSTER! Man, anything around me like that is tiny!

FINALLY ANOTHER MANTIS VIDEO, really exited, love love violin mantids, but I have a feeling you should separate the real small once from the bigger once because the big once could snack on them, they might mismolt by hitting the decor, do I would say keep a little less decor at the top for the nymphs, but it’s ok for the adults, :), great video BTW, you should totally make more mantis videos.

Mantids would be the best pet insects if they lived longer 😩

@reydelmuerte

2 жыл бұрын

some of the bigger mantids can get 2 years old. Females of course.

I absolutely love it when you use the word buggers, do not stop using the word as it will make the world a little darker!

They’re not grass hoppers they’re house hoppers !

One time my Son and I put a bucket of rotting fruit next to a preying mantis and he ate so many flies that his belly was literally blowing up like a balloon right in front of us. I think we counted 36 flies in either one minute or 5. Super fast easily just grabbed them out of the air. Is it mantis? Amazing creatures!!!!!!! Pencil your videos are awesome especially intro always love it!!!

you might have trouble with bad moults because of decor lower in the enclosure.

So my actual favorite species of praying mantis is the Orchid mantis. It's so pretty. But I'm also very partial to the green mantis. Because that is one of the first species of praying mantises I actually came in contact with I was younger. And it landed on my head and it freaked me out to no end. And then several years later while still at home. We had a whole group of them hatch. And they hatched out on our air conditioning unit which is really weird. So I was out in the backyard and I so want them like there's a mantis there's a mantis there's Amanda's. So I walked over and I started to come play with them a little bit cuz they were so stinking cute. The more I played with them the more of them crawled up. So then I got down closer to their level and one decided to crawl onto my nose. It made me happy Ida praying mantis on my nose lol well I decided to take some of them and give them to my neighbor because he actually had a garden in his backyard and there are some bad bugs in there eating his garden and he didn't want to use chemicals to kill them so I handed him bunch of praying mantises he said thank you and I said you're welcome. Then I took the rest of the praying mantis babies and I took them over to our hummingbird trumpet vine thing we had it was Taking Over The Back Fence it was like spreading like crazy. And I started to put them into the vine and they dispersed all through it. But the one that was on my nose didn't really want to seem to go into the vine. And it just kind of said there are you was happy where it was. But then I took a small twig and I kind of booked them in the butt to get praying mantis to move off my know so then praying mantis crawled off my nose and into the vine. But I think the praying mantis baby was very happy to be in the vine after I got it to leave my nose.

@samanthawhite3127

2 жыл бұрын

Orchid is my favourite as well ;)

Don't let the grasshoppers be food! Can't we keep 'em? Pretty please? 😔

You could easily add 5 minutes to your video, just showing one of your mantids eating its prey. Or even a 5 min. shot of all of them, the way they mimic leaves in the breeze is quite mesmerizing. Your videos are always the best!

This enclosure was soooooo beige lol not one of my faves lol...... I guess this is what mantis like, I love and look forward to ur vids.... hope wife and baby are doing well petko and as always huge huggles from Scotland uk 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤗🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤗🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤗🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤗

@matyaskassay4346

2 жыл бұрын

I think it fits the mantids' coloration well, they blend in nicely. Although the background could be a bit more naturalistic-looking.

I am a new subscriber as of this morning and have been power watching your video's all day lol. I have also just recently become fascinated with the world of bugs along with all Ocean, Sea and fresh water life. I have to say that, so far, in the world of bugs, Mantis are my favorite to watch. You do a great job filming this type of content and an even better "Bug and Small Creature Dad", keep up the great work!

Hi Petko! Love the vids!! Hopefully going to order my first T soon, and I'm excited to say most of my decision is because of you! Thank you for all of the video's and information!

Was waiting for this 👍🏻👍🏻

I would get maggots to feed them. You can keep them in the fridge and just take out what you need and let them hatch into flies at room temperature. Gorgeous mantids.

Love praying mantis’!!!!!! I wish I could keep some myself!

@mart9214

2 жыл бұрын

They are not that hard. Just a 30x30x30 (cm) terrarium, some twigs, some dirt. don't feed them crickets and don't keep them together and you will be fine.

Such beautiful creatures! Mantids are just so unique; so many different beautiful colorations and defining shapes!

AWESOME video mate STUNNING Mantis

I’m new to the Dark Den Community, I just want to say that I love everything you do ! Man, Amazing Content ! Please keep them coming !!!!! 🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕷🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🦗🦗🦗🦂🦂🪳🪳🐌🐌

I have been waiting for this 👍🏻

This was great I love the feeding clips!

SUPER COOL!!! I usually have a wild mantis on my plants on my bedroom balcony. They are so amazing !

Cool Mantids The way they hunt is amazing it’s like they are heat seeking by locking on to the target!

My little ghost mantis will throw prey when she is done eating or if she is afraid of it once she starts eating it. She looks like she's punching prey when she's not interested in eating, especially when she's in premolt.

Super cool👍hope to see more

they are amazing!!! love it!

AWESOME VIDEO BROTHA KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Black soldier flies would be great. The larva are perfect for smaller tarantulas and insectivore reptiles. The adults can be caught or fed as well.

Don't worry about the bugs that got away, as long as they are wandering arround in the tank they will be picked off, mantissa are capable of catching crawling prey too

I love praying mantises and i thought i had seen them all. Ive never seen mantids that look like that. Those are so cool!!!!

I miss my mantis, the worst thing about them is that they don't live more than a year. I honestly like them more than tarantulas other than that.

Love video 😍

So incredibly alien-looking! I am in a confused state of awe and horror. Very funny feeling.

The mantids are awesome but those big locusts are nothing to glance at either..beautiful!

2:05 Petko: *I got a couple of big ass grasshoppers...* Right here I fell out🤣 and they look like locust at that size

I ❤️ Mantis so much!! Thank you 💕😊

Mantises aren't communal. Some species are less aggressive than others. You must keep them extremely well fed. But even then canabalism can still occur.

@dylansmith5606

2 жыл бұрын

I was just thinking this

@krazymuncher2288

2 жыл бұрын

That may be true for most mantis species but not this species, in the wild they live and breed in large groups and as long as they aren't starving to death, they wont cannibalise each other.

I love the teal color on the long part of their thorax

It's interesting the prey they catch when hanging from trees.

Gongylus gongylodes is soo nice. I remember when I was a keeper of a pair of them

Anyone else hoping he says "And friday" at the end of every video? :'( Fridays are dull now

Wow it’s amazing!! Btw pls make another Phillips contents i really love how the way u keep him

Love it!

So cool...always loved mantis.

they look so cool!!! 😍

thanks for the great video! much love from ontario canada 🇨🇦 ❤️

They remind me of the creature from the movie “Alien”.

They are adorable!!! 😍😍😍

They were so cool to watch 😎🥰

They are fabulous. I love mantises😊❤️

There so awesome love the channel keep up the good work

You have BUGGERS!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 your so funny Petko, I love your accent 🦗🪱🦟🪲🪳

to make it look nicer u could have used the expanding foam as a background then coated in silicone and then put the substrate in it

The intro is music to my ears 🥰💯🔥

Soooo cool 👍 these alien mantis look fantastic 😁

Cool new Dark Den inhabitants! Feeding them looks like it's fun. Also hope you'll make a video of Linda smashing those huge grasshoppers, that would surely be a sight.

the enclosure looks a little small for that many animals. And while they are fairly easy to keep in a communal setup, not sure you wont have issues with cannibalism considering the different stages of development you are keeping together.

Those grasshoppers are stunning

Yeah with most mantids the better way to tell gender is the abdomens. Males will have longer / more segments to theirs versus females are shorter with less segments. Pretty cool about the antenna with that species though.

Maaantis!!!😍

I found a mantis on the street today and it was injured but sadly I didn't had any space to keep it

Super cool insect!

Ahh so adorable 🥰

I love that you can see the Mantis tracking the Roach. Very cool.

Hello great video feeding Petcko

They're all so pretty 😍

Finally a mantis video

I can see they already bred as there is a fresh egg case and one of the females has foam on her abdomen tip.

I would love to see more frequent uploads again. I know you just cut it down to 1 per week, but I would love for that 2 per week to come back.

Very amazing mantids! I don't know if you knew about this, but there's a genus of mantids very similar to these guys (they're in the same family) called Empusa, which can be found in the warmer parts of Eastern Europe as well, including Croatia. I had the pleasure to find one species called Empusa pennicornis on my field practice in the Danube Delta.

I'm more scared of those giant grasshoppers than any spider...

They’re great but I can’t wait for the Linda Vs those crickets video!

Just about 5 mins ago i was like Monday always promises something but i forgot what it was. And then BOOM Dark Den Video yesss Greets from Germany

I must, you must, we all must for Mantus!

I watched a horror movie when I was younger... The family was actually an alien Mantis family but they pretended to be humans. I can remember that each turned into a giant Mantis before they started eating people. I cannot remember the name of it though. If you read this and know, please tell me! 😆 That movie was crazy!

@IM-yu8tw

2 жыл бұрын

Didnt they eat that weird professor dude or osmething

Those Mantis have the most amazing, space alien looking face! Cool as!

At this rate you´re going to run out of space at the end of the year lol. Much love from Germany!

Prang mantis are awesome! I remember catching the mas a child!

I love mantis, they are great.

Never seen anyone keep huge grass hopper before how interesting

Very cool mantis species

Came for the texture, stayed for the mantids! 😆

Let’s go another upload, I miss Friday uploads 😩😔

Those aren't grasshoppers, those are crazy beasts. In Canada, well BC I have never seen any that big. Wow 😳

Smaller nymphs, especially newly hatched nymphs probably won't be able to catch and eat even the smallest of _Shelfordella lateralis_ nymphs. So you should get some fly cultures as soon as possible. Great video as always!

@matyaskassay4346

2 жыл бұрын

I assume baby crickets would do as well?

@ahmetkerem4769

2 жыл бұрын

@@matyaskassay4346 Well, perhaps pinhead crickets might be small enough for small nymphs. But I am not comletely sure. Besides, it would be a challenge to have a constant stock of newly hatched crickets. Having a fruit fly or springtail culture would be way more convenient.

*Trying really hard not to remind you of the whole "man tits" meme*... damn i failed xD All jokes, much love man

@TheDarkDen

2 жыл бұрын

xD

They are so neat! But I was wondering - will the one handed one regain his "hand" if he molts?

Sand for the texture I freaking love you lol

Those are some cool looking mantises or, should I say, long - necked boys and girls