When I was a kid, we went to Tennessee for summer vacation.
I caught a giant mantis there, and took it home to Florida. (5..6 inches)
We kept it out front on a particular bush, and I often took it slivers of raw meat.
My Mom would put a tiny bit on a toothpick, and I'd take it out *
feed the mantis, check with the pic to see his teeth were clean
Years later in Vietnam, I caught one nearly as big.
More years later, I brought back an egg-case from Tennessee to California.
It hatched, and we had a whole mess of little ones for a while.
Sadly, I think the local birds must've gotten 'em.
That, or they couldn't find enough bugs to eat - after all,
Los Angeles is a desert.