Keeping the Praying Mantis: Mantodean Captive Biology, Reproduction, and Husbandry

I heard about this book on the uk mantis forum and ordered it straight away . The book is fantastic , its very well written and contains great photos . The information contained in here is very useful and it is an interesting read . I would recommend this book to any mantis owner or would be owner .

The book was informative in the care of my Mantis.

Fantastic product

Thank you

The quality is rubbish - just like its been photocopied!!! Wouldn't have even paid a tenner for it but couldn't be bothered to send it back.

For someone to write that this book looked liked it was photocopied must clearly not buy many mantis books (or any books for that matter). I have been slowly reading the book but my initial opinion is;- The book was way bigger than I was expecting, so it is substantial. I was expecting something along the lines of A5. - Colour would be the key word that springs to mind here – lots of colour pictures, making this a book not just for reading but also for browsing- On the assumption that Orin is from the US, I was expecting limited information on foreign species but in fact, the range covered is good. - Some previous mantis books list a range of species that are in culture at that time but because mantis species are just as vulnerable to fashion as any other, this list can readily become out of date. There are photographs of some species right on edge of being cultured and so make this book ‘current’ for a while into the future.Perhaps some of the chapters are heavy going but I think this is due to someone with enthusiasm writing about a subject he clearly understands very well. I didn't think I would learn much more about mantids but if fact there are some interesting pieces of advice in this book for everyone.Well worth buying and once it goes out of print I think it will be a sought after book with a price to match.

Very dissapointed. I had read the reviews and now agree the quality is terrible. The hardback cover is black and waxy feel which i like but the paper quality inside is like copier paper. I wiil teturn and buy another book

Excelente libro!

tops

"My" praying mantis was waiting for me on my doorknob when I returned from breakfast with my family during a snowstorm about 10-days before Halloween, 2013. Brought him inside. Left him on a Boston Fern and went to brush my teeth and patch up my finger. No real problem with my finger but I felt lucky not to have lost my head. Later found him in the wiring in the basement above the Boston Fern. Bought him a Large 5-gallon Critter Keeper and told the cricket-lady I didn't expect to have to feed him beyond Thanksgiving. Spent the rest of the fall and winter season through Ground Hogs Day, 2014, researching him on the internet. He settled down and we became good friends. I have tons of pictures. There are several fine short videos. As the days, weeks and months went by he slowly ran out of steam. His lunch ate his head off overnight Wednesday, 05-Feb-2014. I bought this book anyway.It has Lots and Lots of Pictures. Orin McMonigle knows so much about the Mantis that he does not know where to begin ... But he does begin. He meanders a good bit through loosely organized sections of his experience and knowledge. He touches on much. He talks about 28-mantis species common to the continental US including the Chinese Mantis, my mantis, but does not say which one that is, though he talks about the "Chinese Mantis" in one section. He generally does not equate any of the scientific names in one section with his use of common names in another. He rarely follows through on the many opportunities to stitch things like that together. There is no step-by-step to anything. How humid is humid-enough ? How Warm ? What is "too dry" ? He touches on much. There are lots and lots of pictures.I found this book on the internet. I had already found the answers to all of my questions on the internet. After reading this book I do have lots more questions to research on the internet.One thing ... "Crickets are Dangerous !"

Rare things are often pricey. This is a rare find in the (thinly-populated) world of preying mantis literature for popular reading.Being an active mantis hobbyist, my initial concern about any complete work on the subject was either: 1. It would be too academic and boringly dry, or 2. Just the opposite - it would not do justice to helping the reader understand the wonder of these incredible animals. McMonigle's book carefully avoids either pitfall.This book covers every aspect of the preying mantis, written in an easy, friendly cadence, yet just enough technical information to please diehards like myself. And the book is absolutely loaded with four-color photographs - mandatory for enhancing descriptions and anecdotes in the text. This is *not* a textbook. It's focused on the hobbyist who is interested in learning how to keep mantids healthy and happy in captivity and how to successfully breed them.Although I was not terribly happy with the quality of the page paper - it *is* non-glossy, which makes reading, in my opinion, much easier on the eyes. Get this book and go out and find a mantis or two. You'll be amazed.

My six year old son loves it. I catch him reading it all the time. We both keep learning a ton of new information from it. There are many great pictures of species we did not know, though the reproduction of the shots is not great. Good enough, but higher quality graphic reproduction would make this a truly beautiful book. My son keeps reading in order to plan for keeping a mantis next spring. We hatched an egg sac last summer, and he already has two waiting for this spring. He also wants to order an exotic species. The book is a bit expensive, but not unreasonable for the content.