Praying mateises?

Question
Hello, I saw some very small(inch) praying mataises at my locle pet store today and was wondering if I was to get one of those are they hard to keep? how big do they get? what do they eat?  

Answer
Hi,
thank you for your question.
All praying mantids eat other insects and they need live prey. For small mantids you need fruit flies and when they grow bigger, you must feed them crickets, locusts, flies ect.

There are many species of mantids who have different needs and grow to various sizes, so I cannot tell you much on that subject without knowing the exact species you saw (preferably the scientific name, which is specific, pet shops often invent common names).

Mantids are definitely not easy pets, they have very high demands on their environment and die very quickly if those are not properly fullfilled and this is even more true for hatchlings. So unless you have other experience in keeping insects (for example phasmids), I don't recommend them as pets.

On this website you can find very good pictures of different mantid species and some more general facts about mantid care:
http://www.bugsincyberspace.com/mantids/index.html
I hope I was of some help
Jennifer