Materials: Borrby
Description: We adopted a praying mantis female from the garden (before the frost) and were looking for vases to make into terrariums. We stumbled across the large Borrby lanterns – scoree! A perfect size, beautiful, and a much better access than a vase (door on the side).
A few modifications were needed, starting with removing the nail sticking up in the middle (I thought it would snip off but it required some dremel work).
Next was the “windows” which were are probably small enough to keep the mantis in, but certainly too big to contain her food (crickets) – so I glue-gunned mosquito screen from an old window on the side vents. I left the top level of vents open, and instead put a piece of screen across the entire access to the “attic” section.
A piece of cedar shim glued to the back wall gives a nice rough surface to climb on.
The tabs and slots construction left some large openings around the bottom walls, so they got a bead of caulking.
A piece of a plank became a base for plants and sticks, and a dollar store pot holder turned into a nice woven carpet.
Linda (the beast) seems lo like her new abode – she loves to hang out on the screen ceiling, and if we open the door she climbs out all over her house.
~ David d’Anjou, Montreal