# How Long Do Chinese Mantids Live?



## KyleB (Feb 12, 2021)

In early September I started with 4 L2 Chinese Praying Mantis nymphs. We lost 2 to disease of some kind, one at only about a month old, the other at about 4 months.

The other two seem to have gotten less active over time. They both molted relatively recently into adulthood (1-2 weeks). Neither of them had properly developed wings.

I froze one this morning because it wouldn't eat, molted with its rear legs non-functional and was laying at the bottom of the enclosure with extreme lethargy. Its abdomen also looked deflated, which I hadn't seen before.

The other one has better looking wings and I haven't seen it eat, but I put 4 flies in its enclosure a couple days ago and I can only find 1 left, so I'm pretty sure it's eating. 

It has also been very lethargic since its molt and I'm starting to see his abdomen look deflated as well.

Could these mantids be dying of old age even though they just finished molting? They are currently 6+ months old.


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## Synapze (Feb 12, 2021)

Females tend to live longer than the males. It's not uncommon for females to live about a year.


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## KyleB (Feb 12, 2021)

Here is a picture


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## Synapze (Feb 12, 2021)

Chinese mantids are notorious for mismolts.

Maybe you should try hand feeding... it definitely looks like it needs to eat more if it will.


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## MantisMart (Feb 12, 2021)

she is extremely skinny please feed her


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## KyleB (Feb 12, 2021)

He wouldn't eat any food last night when I tried hand feeding. He has a blue bottle fly in his enclosure now he could care less about. 

Additionally, his abdomen did not look like that even 24 hours ago. It seemed like a sudden onset, so not sure it's from lack of food.


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## MantisGirl13 (Feb 15, 2021)

KyleB said:


> He wouldn't eat any food last night when I tried hand feeding. He has a blue bottle fly in his enclosure now he could care less about.
> 
> Additionally, his abdomen did not look like that even 24 hours ago. It seemed like a sudden onset, so not sure it's from lack of food.


It's female, not male. Keep attempting to feed her.

- MantisGirl13


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