Perfect Praying Mantis Cups

Do you want to keep young or small mantids without breaking the bank on store-bought enclosures? Do you want to do everything possible to make sure your young mantids molt properly? Are you sick and tired of escaped fruit flies and mantid escape attempts?

I've found a reliable way to make cheap, high-quality, reusable, safe, and easy-to-use small mantid enclosures. They feature:

• Nylon bug net top to prevent damage to tarsal claws and provide superb grip for molting
• Great airflow, with cross-ventilation
• A soft and uniform substrate for even humidity
• An easy feeding hole for use with an insect aspirator (also known as a "pooter")
• A single stick to mitigate the risk of crushing

Follow along if you want some perfect praying mantis cups of your own!

Materials:

• 24 oz disposable deli cup
  • I get these from the deli at my local grocery store. I usually buy something for lunch then just clean them out, but you could also try politely asking the deli for a couple of empty cups.
• Nylon bug netting
  • This is the same stuff sold to keep bugs out of patios and gardens. It keeps bugs in, too!
  • This mesh allows the mantis to have superb grip while molting, minimizing the risk of a fatal fall.
  • Do NOT use metal mesh under any circumstances! It destroys the feet (tarsal claws) of the mantis, making it unable to climb!
• Toilet paper (or tissues, or paper towel)
• Some sponge to cut up
• A stick between 1/4" and 1/2" thick that is longer than the container

Tools:

• A low-temperature hot glue gun (plug it in now to warm up)
  
  • High-temperature hot glue will burn your fingers and melt the plastic, so you cannot use it here.
• Sharp and pointy scissors
• A sharp craft knife
• A tool to poke tiny holes in the container, like sharp tweezers or a needle
  • These holes must be smaller than fruit flies, just keep that in mind.
• A drill bit set (will be used by hand)
• A spay bottle filled with water
• Something to help cleanly cut the stick (optional)
• Popsicle sticks (optional)

A container that only has ventilation on the top will have issues getting fresh air to the bottom of the enclosure. To solve this and give your mantid as much fresh air as possible, we will add cross-ventilation holes. These allow air to flow more freely through the enclosure, like opening 2 windows on opposite sides of a house.

Use your poking tool to make a small hole about 1/4" up from the bottom of the container. Make sure to keep the hole smaller than a fruit fly's head, to prevent them from escaping. Repeat this at regular intervals along the bottom of the container, with holes no more than 1/2" apart. (This ensures there are enough holes to properly ventilate the enclosure.)

Because your mantid will likely be spending most of its time hanging from the lid of the enclosure, it's a good idea to have an alternate way to get fruit flies in. When we take the lid off, we risk the mantid getting injured or escaping. To prevent this, we will add a hole on the side of the enclosure where we can use an insect aspirator (or "pooter") to blow fruit flies in.

It's very easy to DIY a pooter from dollar store items, but that's outside of the scope of this guide. For now, I'll just say that I made mine with a TSA travel bottle, the tube from a spray bottle, some hot glue, and an old T-shirt.

Start by using the poking tool from the previous step to make a "pilot hole" in the center of the container wall. Using your hands to hold the drill bits, gradually work your way up through the sizes until the hole is big enough to fit the tube of your pooter. This does require some finesse and finger strength, just be patient. The plastic is weak and can "tear" if you put too much pressure on the bit or step up the bit sizes too fast. Just take it slow and do one step at a time. After the final drill bit, make sure the burr is on the outside of the cup.

Now we need to clean up the feeding hole so that the sponge we will be using to plug it won't get destroyed.

Use a craft knife as shown in the pictures to cut off all 4 sides of the burr. Do not cut past the 1/3 point of the hole! This will cause the knife to cut into the cup and will ruin the shape of the hole. Only cut into a single side about 1/3 of the diameter of the hole, then move on to the next side. Even though the knife isn't serrated, patiently using a sawing motion tends to yield the cleanest cuts here.

Optionally, you could try using some sharp wire cutters instead of the knife, but the hole is likely to be rougher and less even.

Now we need to make a plug to stop fruit flies (or daring mantids!) from escaping out of the feeding hole. We'll be using a cut-up sponge.

Use the craft knife to cut the sponge to size, as shown in the pictures. When it's small enough to fit, roll the sponge up tightly and push it halfway through the hole. Check to make sure there are no gaps, and if there are, start over and cut a bigger piece of sponge off.

In order to provide maximum ventilation, we are going to remove as much of the lid as possible. This will be replaced with bug netting in the next step.

Using the craft knife, carefully cut a circle out of the lid. Leave a rim of about 1/2", as shown in the pictures. It's okay if it's not perfectly even, as long as the rim is more than 1/4" thick, we will have room for hot glue in the next step.

Remember to cut away from yourself, and to only cut on a surface that you are okay with scratching up.

Now we will add the mesh to the lid. This is the hardest part. I use my fingers for this and have developed a special technique to avoid burning them (too badly), but you can also use popsicle sticks with pretty good results. If you do use popsicle sticks, make sure to use a clean one each time you press down. Whatever tool you choose, I will refer to it as the "squishing tool".

First, lay down a thin line of low-temp hot glue, as shown in the picture. Then center the mesh on the lid and place it down on the hot glue. Quickly use the squishing tool to push the mesh against the lid and squish the hot glue, then quickly remove the squishing tool to lift some hot glue off of the lid. Repeat this process of pushing a clean squishing tool down then quickly removing it until the hot glue gets tacky, and then tap the tool lighter and lighter until it fully cools. This should leave a somewhat rough but fairly flat texture. Don't let the squishing tool stick to the lid!!!

Do this process of applying hot glue and squishing the mesh down on it all around the lid. Work your way around in small segments to make it more manageable. Make sure to keep the mesh a little taught, and don't leave any gaps between hot glue segments. Also make sure to work quickly, because leaving the hot glue on the lid for too long can melt it, as shown in the last picture. Don't press too hard either, as this can also deform the lid and make it hard to snap on later.

After there is a complete seal around the lid, cut the excess mesh off with scissors. Cut close to the lid, but be careful not to cut the plastic! You may also need to carefully clean up excess hot glue with a craft knife if it's preventing the lid from snapping on.

Mantids prefer to be upside down, and so they need a way to get up to the top of the enclosure. They are unable to climb slippery surfaces like plastic, so we will add a stick that they can climb up. We only use one stick, because it's possible for the mantid to get crushed between them if we add multiple.

The stick needs to be just the right size. If it's too short, it will move around and possibly crush your mantid. If it's too long, the lid won't close properly. Because we can't make a stick longer after cutting it, we are going to overestimate the length, and gradually cut it down to the perfect size.

Use your fingers to grab where you plan to make your first cut. It's recommended to actually cut the stick using a small saw so that there are no sharp splinters, but you could carefully break the stick on the edge of a table if you don't have anything to cut it with.

Test the stick in the enclosure, and if needed, cut about 1/4" off, as shown in the pictures. Repeat this until the stick fits in the container with the lid closed, and only barely moves when the container is tilted. There should be about 1/16" between the stick and the lid.

As a final optional step, carefully use a knife or saw to remove any leftover parts of branches. Remember to cut away from yourself!

Mantids need humidity when they molt, otherwise, they could die during the process. It's best to make sure there's even humidity inside the enclosure, and we also need to make sure there are no pools of water for the mantid or its prey to drown in. For this, we add some toilet paper as a substrate. This humidifies the enclosure throughout the day and also provides a soft landing place if your mantid falls. You could also use tissues or a paper towel.

Fold the paper into a square. Place this into the cup as shown in the pictures, trying to keep it centered. Spray a little water in the center to keep the paper from shifting around. Fold and flatten the paper as shown in the pictures, making sure to keep the cross-ventilation holes unblocked. Finally, spray all of the paper so that it is wet, but not dripping when the cup is tilted.

Put the stick in the cup, put the lid on, and enjoy your new perfect praying mantis cup!

To maintain the habitat, evenly wet the substrate daily by spraying a stream of water through the mesh. When the substrate gets too dirty, transfer your mantid to another habitat and replace the substrate.

Please remember that this enclosure is only for small or young mantids! A praying mantis requires an enclosure that's at least 3 times its length and twice its width. This refers to the length of the insect when its abdomen isn't curled up. Please move your friend to a bigger habitat as it grows!

For more information or advice on keeping mantids, I highly recommend the r/Mantids subreddit!