# Parasites crawling out of live Mantis!



## Seattle79 (Sep 13, 2010)

I just returned from Perscott, AZ with a bunch of Stagmomantis limbatas. They all survived the trip but one was really sick. She was acting "different" before I left AZ. When I took her home to Seattle I noticed her abdomen was black and rotted. When I held her up to the light I could see her abdomen was translucent and seemed hollow/empty. 24 hours earlier before I loaded her into the car she was green and looked fine physically.

Today I found her at the bottom of her cage and her abdomen wasn't there, just loose skin, looked like she exploded. There were maggots crawling around the bottom of the cage! They were huge! About 10 maggots all together. They looked like maggots of a house fly or something. She was still alive crawling around, just her upper body was intact. I had to put her in the freezer, too much suffering  . She was a wild caught adult when I found her.

How did this happen? Is there some sort of parasitic fly in AZ that injects eggs into other large insects? Have this happened to any of you?

Thanks,

-Kevin


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## kitkat39 (Sep 13, 2010)

oh man what a horrible death!


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## Jesskb (Sep 13, 2010)

That's awful and more than a little creepy. Sorry for the loss! Hopefully someone will have the answer for you.


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## Rick (Sep 13, 2010)

Parasitic flies. Was she not an adult yet? These problems seem to prevent them from growing at a normal rate. I documented this issue last year with some pics. I had two different mantids with two different parasites.

Here is the thread. You will probably find it interesting:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15604&amp;st=0&amp;p=109403&amp;fromsearch=1entry109403


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## hibiscusmile (Sep 13, 2010)

Thank you for not posting the pics here


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## LauraMG (Sep 13, 2010)

How sad! That must have been a horrible death!


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## Seattle79 (Sep 13, 2010)

Rick said:


> Parasitic flies. Was she not an adult yet? These problems seem to prevent them from growing at a normal rate. I documented this issue last year with some pics. I had two different mantids with two different parasites.
> 
> Here is the thread. You will probably find it interesting:
> 
> http://mantidforum.n...=1


She was an adult, had wings and when I caught her she seemed pregnant. Thanks for the tread Rick. The maggots look just like the ones in your pics. Your last pic of the Mantis in your hand, my female looks very similar - Green and healthy in the upper body, black and rotted in the lower body/abdomen. I flushed the maggots. I was so disgusted. I should have kepted the maggots and see what they would develop into. Man, I wish now that I did not flush them.

-Kevin


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## saphirasflight (Jun 6, 2012)

Does anyone know how to help my mantis. It looks like she has tiny black worms coming out of her side. Is there anything that can kill them without killing her?


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## MantidLord (Jun 13, 2012)

Sorry but there's nothing you can do. Do you have any pictures? Also where are you located? And please introduce yourself to the forum, welcome!


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## massaman (Jun 13, 2012)

black worms prob horsehair worms but they make the host a zombie and that zombie jumps into the water and drowns and thats how those parasites escape!


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## maybon (Jun 13, 2012)

massaman said:


> black worms prob horsehair worms but they make the host a zombie and that zombie jumps into the water and drowns and thats how those parasites escape!


That is amazing and disgusting all at the same time.


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## Andyfrog321 (Jun 17, 2012)

It may not have been as horrible as you think - 'Insects don't feel pain' - http://en.allexperts.com/q/Entomology-Study-Bugs-665/insects-feel-pain.htm


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## Sneaky123 (Jul 2, 2012)

If you get more of these and they become adults, it's probably best to keep these contained, just in case.


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## Mirk (Jul 16, 2012)

Andyfrog321 said:


> It may not have been as horrible as you think - 'Insects don't feel pain' - http://en.allexperts...s-feel-pain.htm


I think the insects feeling pain is fairly debatable. Also that post you have really proves nothing other then that insects dont have the same nervous system as people do. I honestly dont have an opinion either way on the matter but i still dont feel it is right to make that conclusion without a little more concrete evidence.

I spent 2 min on google searching "pain without nociceptors"( the link from andy cites these as the reason insects can't feel pain). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22266836 talks about a lady with spinal injuries reports abdominal pain despite only having very limited nervous connection to her body, "her brain-gut axis was limited to vagal pathways" "This illustrative case argues against an exclusive role of specialized nociceptive pathways in visceral pain, but supports a concept of intensity coding with the composite of vagal and spinal input contributing to conscious perception and pain."

http://www.utilitarian-essays.com/insect-pain.html Also there is this site. I did only skim over it and will read more later but it seemed informative

Anyhow I think there is still a fair amount to be learned even in the scientific community.

Also sorry to go off topic but this is kind of an issue that bothers me. It just seems there is alot of info on the subject that is fairly contradictory. So I dont think it is fair to say insects don't feel pain when they show what appears to be discomfort during and after an injury.


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