BURBANK, California – Lots of kids have hobbies, but 12-year-old Cole Cramer takes it to a whole new level.
“It’s a cat mantis,” he said, introducing a large, rod-like creature. “Heterochaeta orientalis.”
Cole’s bedroom in Burbank is teeming with bugs. Hand drawn illustrations cover the walls. Under his bed there are at least half a dozen showcases with attached specimens, including a peanut head moth and a five-horned rhinoceros beetle.
“The largest species of cicada in the world,” said Cole, referring to one of his specimens.
Insects are even depicted on his pillows, proof that his interest in insects is insatiable.
But Cole’s greatest fascination is the praying mantis. Though only amateurs say pray.
“All the big breeders just call them mantis,” said Cole.
He would know. Despite being only 12 years old and close to seventh grade, Cole is a true mantis breeder and business is booming.
“I’ve bred about 30 species,” he said, surrounded by shelves of plastic containers. “And I sold a little over 150.”
He first contracted the bug when he was a toddler.
“I’ve loved insects in the garden since I was 2 years old,” recalls Cole. “One day I saw a praying mantis in my garden and I loved her.”
That was probably a California mantis – stagmomantis californica – and that was just the beginning. The middle school student now buys and breeds all kinds of mantis, including some super rare specimens like the devil flower mantis.
He mostly sells to other growers, but during the pandemic, Cole decided to reach out to his local colleagues. He made a flyer listing praying mantises for sale, and his mother Jessica posted him on Facebook.
“He had 10-12 to sell,” she said, “and in two hours they were gone.”
Since then, he has had new listings every month, saying that mantis are the perfect pandemic pet, or just good exercise if your child is bothering you about something more complicated like a puppy.
“You are low maintenance,” said Cole. “These guys live about a year or two.”
While some parents may be terrified of a house full of crawling animals, Cole’s parents have fully embraced and even encouraged his fascination.
“Sometimes it’s hard for kids to find passion early on,” said Cole’s mother Jessica. “It is beating me up because I think about the fact that he has already found his. We just love to support and make sure that we do everything we can to achieve it. “
This is not a fad for Cole, but it doesn’t mean he will become a mantologist.
“Mantologist is not a thing,” he emphasized, shaking his head.
But he wants to be an entomologist. More precisely, a field entomologist. “That’s where they discover things in nature,” he said.
And while there are 1,800 known species of mantis in the world, there could be thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of others.
“So that one day I could spot a praying mantis,” said Cole with a wink.
No doubt he will, and if he does he will be able to call it something like “phyllocrania paradoxa,” though he may do future scientists a favor and just go with Cole Junior.
