Is it illegal to sell Madagascar Praying Mantises? The reason I’m asking is that I wanted to buy a Madagascan praying mantis and I was about to get it when the owner told me that she might need to refund my money back because she just read on a discussion board that it was illegal to own or sell these types of praying mantises. The owner didn’t know if this was a discussion board hoax or not, but she didn’t want to take any chances. In the meantime, the praying mantis apparently had baby praying mantises and the owner had to destroy all of them just in case.
Before it gets out of hand, I’d like to know if it’s illegal.
As far as I know no mantis species is illegal to own or sell in the US (as of a few years ago when I researched it). Things might be different in Hawaii, only because there’s a chance they could become introduced into the wild there. The only restriction I could think of would be on importation.
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The seller destroyed the babies?! They can be hard to mate and even if they’re illegal to sell I’m sure a zoo with an insect house would have loved to take them off his/her hands.
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Just an additional heads up. Very few mantis species live longer then a year so you might be buying something that only has a few months of life left. I don’t know if any of the Madagascar species longer lived though.