Ant Farming Naturally Leads To Other Orders

When I built my first ant farm in about 1960 little did I realise that it would lead to a life-long love affair with the insect world. Ant Farming became an overwhelming passion for me and if my memory serves me correctly, I built about five or six of them, each one more elaborate than its predecessor. I still have one on my desk today, but for me the beauty of ant farming was that it opened up my interest in all the other orders of insect. The most recent one to attract my attention is the Mantodea.

I have created my own mantis habitat, but the interesting thing for those who perhaps don’t have my long experience of rearing insects is that you can now buy a kit that contains everything you need to get started. I haven’t actually tested one of these yet but I’ll be placing my order shortly and will report back on how I get on. This thing you need to watch for when keeping mantids in captivity is sexual cannibalism where the larger females tend to eat the smaller males. You may need to keep individuals apart until you know what sex you have.