A year of mantids
By Jessie
I didn’t really know
how to start this, an almost a years summery if you will. Heck I never thought
id ever get insects as pets, let along get so attached to them. It was a weird impulse
buy on my part, just one day how it came to my head. My dad was struggling at
the time with high blood pressure, and we thought for a short period of time
that he was having problems with his kidney.
One day I just asked
my dad out of the blue, “I saw you can have praying mantis as pets, could I get
one?”
My dad’s words “what
the heck sure”. Knowing I needed something to distract me from the bad news as
of late.
Then came the
research part of the story, the quest to find out the information on how to
take care of them.
I remember like it
was yesterday…
I bought my first,
Bugsey from a place called insect sales, I got a Chinese mantis kit. Which
included a mantis and some of the supplies I would need.
But I didn’t stop
there…no.
I did hours of
research something now that I look back on I laugh about, since this is a
mantis which is one of the most easy to care for. I remember how little Bugsey
was, a yellowish green. The very first day I got him and he tried to make an
escape. He jumped onto the shower curtain. Luckily I found him very fast.
As the days went on I
got very attached to my little Bugsey, his personality so big for such a small
creature.
His life became my
own, we were very close very fast. I remember taking a lot of pictures, singing
to him at night. Everything was perfect.
And then Tigger died.
I came home from
working at Applebee’s when my dad said something happened, I thought at first something
happened to Bugsey. But no, my dad said Tigger my cat had a massive heart
attack at 7 am that morning. He didn’t tell me as he didn’t want me to be upset
for work.
It was a hard time
for me, I mourned him. I got angry, I got sad. I felt like life had stopped
before me.
Yet somehow Bugsey brought me out of my depression. I kept holding
him, loving him. Somehow singing to him made me feel better. I slowly started
finding myself again.
When I found out Prince had kidney failure stage 4, I got my
hand at my first exotic mantis. A heterochaeta named Rahzar. From TMNT.
I thought when I saw it that I would be scared of it
forever, it took a half hour for me to get it out of its container. I used a
stick lol to open the top. But as time went by I realized just how gently this
giant mantis was. I would hold it. Let it climb on the tree I bought for him.
It would sometimes sit on my shoulder and eat its food. Once I did make the
mistake to try and make a bird cage for him. Yeah that didn’t turn out well.
But he didn’t attack me like I thought he would.
While I heard they were skittish he never did a threat pose
before, until the day before he died. He had been wobbly for a few days. I am
pretty sure he had Black Death. But I didn’t know much about that at the time.
I got 2 giant Asian mantis, Elsa and Anna. From a good
friend of mine. She’s stuck through everything with me. And I very much appreciate
her friendship. I still have them as I write this Jan, 4th 2018. But I know
their time is nearing. It will be a sad day when I lose them.
I have had a many mantis’s within the year I have started. I
have made some mistakes, and what started out as a ton of new friends. Now it’s
very limited to the people who actually talk to me now. People have the wrong
idea of me and it does hurt, it’s come to the point however in my life that I am
doing me. People can think what they want about the person I am. Yet I know
that I am a good person, even though some may have seen me during a bad time.
For those I have wronged and people who judge me. I am
sorry, I am sorry I came off rude towards you. It was a trying time for me, and
I wasn’t myself. Nearing my cat’s one year death. Which is ironically a month
after my year anniversary with my mantis. While I made mistakes, I don’t regret
the choices ive made. I have grown stronger since at the beginning.
I think writing this not only shows people just how much ive
learned and what these mantids for me, but also a way to let go of the past.
Let go of all the people who hurt me, and made me feel like giving up on the
hobby. I am not perfect by all means, but my mantids are everything to me. Their
my best friends, and I’d do anything for them.
I carry each and every one in my heart, and for those who
died by choices I made. I am sorry. And I hope they know that I love them. The
longer I do the hobby the more I hope to learn, to become better and stronger
as a mantis owner.
The love I have received from these insects astonishes me.
But I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything in the world.
Every mantis has a personality, every bond with a human is
different. Some are super friendly, and others get scared easily. Much like
people, we all have our own different quirks that make us. Well us. I will
never stop crying each time my mantis dies, I will never give a mantis less
love being afraid to get attached. A day, a week, months. It doesn’t matter to
me. Each moment is special, we don’t know how long we have in this world. We
need to make the most of it.
And as I move into year 2, I hope I discover not only more
about the mantis’s. But me as a person, and the bond I have with these guys. I
will be not buying exotics anymore sadly since their so expensive. Instead I
will be going for the ones a lot of people have forgotten, because their
native. Exotic, native I don’t care. I will give them the love and care that I
would any other mantid.
And as I come to the end of this year, I also got my first
beetle. I will be making a page for it. As it’s a new insect and I think it’d
be awesome to record my time with it.
To those who stuck around all this time, I thank you. I know
I can be a difficult person to deal with at times. But I do mean well, and to
those who have hate or dislike towards me and to everyone who dislikes me in
the group Mantis Keepers. I apologize from the bottom of my heart for my
behavior, it was not called for how I acted to a lot of you. I can’t change
what I did, but I will try to do better. And I hope one day some of you can
forgive me.
Thank you to the mantis community for being you, and giving
me the opportunity to find joy and love in these insects. I hope you have a
great 2018.
Jessie
