Lori laid an ooth on the 8th, and Michonne is pretty gravid, I think a day or two and she will lay one as well. Here are some pics

Carol laid her first ootheca! Yay!! Mating another pair today to see if we can jump start some more!!

Off with his head--graphic pics

Daryl got eaten tonight! Its fine though, he mated with all 3 females, it was time for him to go. I also released Beth because I found a really gravid female outside who looks like she will lay any day. I will hopefully get some day time pictures of her tomorrow while she is still fat so you can see. The new female's name is Lori (after Lori Grimes on The Walking Dead not after me!) Found a full grown male today as well and took him in his name is Hershel. So here are the status of all the ones we have now. Michonne-- mated with Daryl, waiting for her to get fat. Carol, mated with Daryl. Waiting for her to get fat. Lori--super fat and ready to lay any day. Rick--still needs to molt into a full adult. Hershel- new full grown male just hanging out, he's super fast and loves to fly. I'll mate the females all again soon for "good measure" with the boys we have now. With any luck we will get lots of ooths this year.

Daryl's fate...

Carol and Daryl mated for 5 hours last night and Daryl went back to his own enclosure head intact. Now ootheca watch time! Hopefully in the next week we will have our first. Going to give Daryl a few days and see if we he wants to mate with one of the other ladies. Rick still hasn't had his final molt but it looks like he is ready for it before long, his color is getting lighter.

First Mating

Carol and Daryl are currently mating! 10 mins in to it, it could take hours so I am keeping a close eye on them. She ate a huge meal right before, and I plan on putting some small flies in during mating in just a bit. Hoping to avoid Daryl getting eaten so I can mate him with another female. He is the only adult male I have at the moment, Rick our other boy has a molt to go before he is ready but I am on the constantly look out for more outside. Will update on Daryl's condition after the mate, keep your fingers crossed he doesn't get his head chomped!

We have our first full grown mantis! Michonne molted into an adult last night. Here are two quick pics I took this morning, not the greatest as she is still a paler color from her molt and the lighting wasn't great this morning for pics. Documenting here so I know when she can be mated, she needs 2 weeks as adult, as do one of my males, who are still one instar away from adulthood.

Race cars and praying mantis

I have a friend named Lori (just like me!) who went to the nascar race at Bristol Motor Speedway last night, I was already a little jealous because I love nascar so much and then she sends me this picture this morning. Yes, a male praying mantis decided to try to come watch the activities at the track with them! She said her husband tried to squish it but he kept flying right back to her. This has to be one of my new favorite praying mantis pictures, love that you can see the track in the background! Thank you Lori O. for thinking of me and snapping this so I can see.