Mantis Care Guide

Mantises can be kept in a variety of both commercial or DIY enclosures. Ventilated deli cups of an appropriate size are commonly used as a cheap and simple option, especially when keeping young/small and/or large amounts of nymphs. DIY enclosures can be made from other containers as long as adequate ventilation is created. Common commercial enclosures include Zilla microhabitats, ExoTerra, and others. Mesh insect enclosures can also be used, though this may affect maintaining of humidity, if relevant.
An easily grippable material/mesh must be added to the top of any enclosures housing mantises — for nymphs, this is crucial for molting. Note that many keepers believe metal mesh should be avoided as it may damage your mantis's tarsi or limbs, and recommend looking for soft/flexible materials instead, such as fabric, plastic, or fiberglass.

Size
The standard in mantis keeping care is to use enclosures that are, at minimum, 3x the mantis's length in height and 2-3x its length in width. This height, assuming the enclosure is not too cluttered and blocked by decorations and objects, allows nymphs to have enough space to safely molt (while still having room for some substrate.) If in an empty deli cup with no substrate, nymphs can molt with a height of 2x their length. Larger enclosures can be used, but removing the mantis for feeding may be necessary if it will be too hard for it to find its food, or if small feeders such as fruit flies are could escape from ventilation/gaps. It is typical to start out with smaller enclosures or simple deli cups when nymphs are very small and move them up to bigger enclosures as they grow. This is not mandatory, but can save you from having to buy or use adult enclosures right away.

Ventilation

Cross-ventilation is often recommended, though not always required, depending on the enclosure, species, and humidity in the enclosure. It can be important for some species that are more sensitive to stagnant air and prone to infections, such as orchids or spinies, especially if you are keeping the enclosure humid. High humidity and low ventilation can cause issues, especially in these sensitive species. See Humidity for more information.
Cross-ventilation, as the term implies, is when airflow can cross through the enclosure in some way, and can be achieved with ventilation on at least two opposite sides of the enclosure, side(s) and top, etc.
You can add ventilation to an existing container/enclosure by poking/drilling a sufficient amount of holes or by cutting out sections and covering them with mesh. Since mesh should be added to the top of enclosures anyway, cutting out the center of lids is a good way to provide lots of top ventilation. This also makes it easy to mist your mantises without needing to open the lid when you are using deli cups or other top-opening enclosures!

Decor

Most keepers will want to add decor to their enclosures to make it visually appealing and give the mantis some things to climb on. This is fine, but just avoid completely overcrowding your mantis's enclosure. It should have room to move around freely and, should it molt when you aren't expecting it (particularly if you are newer to keeping and aren't used to recognizing premolt), you don't want it to be colliding into all of its decorations because it did not molt in an open enough space, or into the ground because it molted from very low or cluttered sticks/plants. You should always try to envision the space your mantis may try to use for molting — it should have clearance of around 2x its body length from surfaces it may hang from. See the Molting section for more notes and information on identifying premolt.

If adding natural decorations from outside (sticks, leaves, etc.), it is recommended to sterilize them before use to prevent introducing unwanted pests, bacteria etc. to your enclosure or home. This is usually done via appropriate baking or boiling. There are many different instructions online, and I am not sure what the "best" are, but I usually bake sticks at a minimum of 250°F for around 30-60 minutes.

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Environment

Temperature

Some species may benefit from or require supplemental heating by default, unless your house is always very warm, as praying mantises tend to come from tropical or otherwise warm regions; but many of the beginner-friendly and commonly kept species ultimately do fine at room temperature (at least 70°F minimum, but I would recommend at least 72°F.) I personally keep most of my mantises at 73°F and they do fine. Slight drops in temperature at night are acceptable, but if the room that your mantis(es) will be kept in is below 70°F during the day, you should either raise the temperature of the room or provide some heating to the enclosure(s). Note that even if you have a species that can be kept at "room temperature," you will likely find your mantis being slow to molt if kept at the bare minimum temperature; however, as long as they do still molt this is not necessarily a bad thing, and technically may result in a longer lifespan (see the notes on metabolism in Molting.)

Supplemental heating for mantises is typically best achieved with either a heat lamp or a ceramic heat emitting bulb. Heating devices that are capable of reaching high temperatures should be used with a proper thermostat to automatically control their power and prevent enclosures from getting overheated, along with a thermometer or temp gun to make sure the thermostat is working properly to maintain the correct temperature. CHE bulbs do not emit light, allowing you to keep heat up without constantly having a lamp on or needing to use a dimmer. I prefer to just keep rooms warm enough for my mantises, but I have also used basic desk lamps with low wattage bulbs for very small bumps in temperature during the day over certain mantises, simply keeping it high enough above the enclosure to achieve a certain temperature.

Substrate

Enclosures may need a substrate that can be misted to hold and release moisture if you want to maintain a certain humidity, depending on the ambient humidity already in your home along with the species and instar of the mantis. Store-bought soil, coconut fiber, sphagnum moss, or even paper towel are common substrates; the specifics of the substrate are not very important if your enclosure does not have a cleanup crew or live plants, as mantises do not eat or live on the soil.
Humidity
In general, contrary to what most care guides will imply, mantises don't actually require constant high humidity to survive and grow; instead, they require adequate internal hydration, which becomes most important during molting in nymphs or ooth laying in adult females. Species native to very humid environments may require higher internal water content. Humidity is said to help balance out water loss, which is more of a concern with very young/small nymphs, who cannot hold as much water and may become dehydrated much quicker in drier environments. Because humidity may affect how long a mantis can retain water, higher humidity can make hydration from water or food last longer, and therefor may ease how often you would need to mist to keep them hydrated. Therefor, it is a good idea for enclosures with very early instar or very small nymphs to be able to retain some humidity, or else you may need to mist very frequently to avoid dehydration and/or mismolts. As they get larger, you do not actually need to stress too much about maintaining a constant exact humidity % (which often seem to drastically vary between care guides, anyway) as long as you are regularly allowing your mantis to drink water to stay hydrated. In addition, note that very moist environments are breeding grounds for bacteria and, in a space like an enclosure, can lead to issues like mold, stagnant air, and infections if you do not have good ventilation along with either regularly cleaning the substrate or having a "cleanup crew" such as springtails. Because of this, inexperienced keepers simply drenching enclosures in an attempt to have "high humidity" can do more harm than good, especially with species that are more sensitive to these issues. Proper bioactive setups are also an option to maintain a humid environment if you are interested in doing something much more complicated! However, if you are new to both mantises and bioactive enclosures / live plants, this may be too much to try to manage at once, and is really not necessary anyway.
Hydration

Mantises obtain some hydration from their food, but they also need to drink water! Like most insects, they drink from water droplets (this would be from rain or dew in the wild), so you will need a spray bottle with a good misting option — do not put a bowl of water in your mantis's enclosure. For the majority of species, I recommend directly misting the front of your mantis and the surface it is standing on every day or every other day to give it the opportunity to drink. The mantis will clean the water droplets off of its face/raptorials, and bend down to drink if it is extra thirsty. Spraying the enclosure does not do much good if they are not actually drinking any water, and misting them directly ensures they do. Don't worry about guides that say to avoid it because they "don't like it" — they would get rained on in the wild! The only thing to be cautious of is overly large droplets / water accumulation with very tiny nymphs.
It is recommended to use a filtered water such as distilled water or spring water. Tap water contains chemicals that may not be safe for your mantises to drink, and distilled water has the added bonus of preventing the white mineral stains you may get in your enclosures from misting with tap water. Grocery stores will likely have jugs of water for around $1 or $2.

Sometimes when being handled, a mantis may bend down and seem to be searching or "nibbling" your hand. It's not trying to eat you, but is actually trying to drink! It is looking for the moisture in your skin — give it some water!

 

Cautions

• Eye-rub: With plastic/glass enclosures, mantises (especially larger ones) have a risk of developing "eye-rub," where they damage their eyes by rubbing them against the hard surface of the walls — generally due to trying to see or get to something interesting outside the enclosure.
  Eye-rub will appear as a dark spot on one or both of their eyes, distinct from their pseudopupils or their "night eyes" (the temporary darkening from low light conditions.) Eye-rub can cause vision impairment or, in very severe cases, may cause infections and/or turn necrotic. Nymphs may be able to heal eye-rub through molts; however, adults have no further molts, so damage such as eye-rub will be permanent!
  You can help prevent the occurrence or worsening of eye-rub by keeping mantises out of sight of each other or other insects/animals, blocking/covering some of the enclosure walls, keeping their enclosures away from frequent visual stimulus such as PC monitors and TVs, or using mesh enclosures. Some mantises (species and/or individuals) are more inclined towards eye-rubbing behavior than others, so you can take more preventative actions if you notice it. Voracious species are typically much more likely to be obsessed with movement outside their enclosure than timid/picky species.

• Cohabitation: Some species are often advertised as being "communal" and able to be "safely" kept in one enclosure. In general, praying mantises should not be housed together as they are solitary predators and opportunistic hunters, and thus can be highly cannibalistic. Note that mantises are not social animals, so a "communal" species simply means they are less likely to hunt each other … but even with these less aggressive species, such as ghost mantises, cannibalism or at least fights are still known to happen, even with hatchlings. There is always a risk, but the risk is drastically increased when there are any size differences, such as when kept together despite individuals molting to different instars, or if they are not kept with enough space and consistently well-fed.
  Cohabitation is most common and practical with breeders who are keeping hatches together rather than always separating dozens to hundreds of nymphs; but for the average keeper buying and keeping a few individuals, especially if you are hoping to breed those individuals in the future, it is much more of an unnecessary risk. Be educated and prepared for the risks if you want to attempt it in any case.