# Wild caught going crazy! Please help!



## xxdreamchas3r913 (Sep 25, 2011)

Hey everyone! i just caught the guy yesterday and he was perfectly fine for awhile but then he started getting really jumpy and a couple of his legs seemed jerky and weird. I had caught a wild male last year that had similar issues for a couple days after I just caught him. But then he was normal again. So I kinda thought maybe some wild caught ones get really scared and stressed from the sudden change and needed to adjust. I'm really hoping this is the case now but since this morning, he's had his wings wide open. He was doing his threat pose in the morning and didn't seem too bad but by now his wings are still stuck open, none of his legs seem to be working properly, he can barely walk or climb his legs keep doing weird things and his arms are spread open as if he's still doing the threat pose but he's trying to walk with them they just dont work right! he's pretty much going crazy or is having a nervous breakdown or something! has this ever happened to anyone? please let me know I'm thinking about just letting him go now but I don't know if he'll get better before something decides to eat him. not sure what to do any advice would be greatly appreciated! thank you!!!

PS: I'm sorry for not going on here so much anymore! =( I've been kinda occupied with some stuff recently but its still selfish of me to totally forget this place except when I have mantis problems...i'll try my best to contribute more and participate from now!


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## xxdreamchas3r913 (Sep 25, 2011)

UPDATE: he's on the bottom now on his back and it looks like he's having spasms or something he keeps moving but doesn't seem to be able to control his body! This is pretty scary what's wrong with him??


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## angelofdeathzz (Sep 25, 2011)

He may have been attacked by a bird or something of that nature, and escaped with his life as it is now? or something in your tank is setting him off(soap,old mold, etc.)


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## xxdreamchas3r913 (Sep 26, 2011)

i dunno! but i'm pretty sure he was perfectly normal when i found him! he was jumping and running around when i had him on my hand and would fly around and land on my shirt he didn't start having weird symptoms until later that night. even today, he was mostly fine just a bit weird and awkward but now he's probably close to dead. i changed his habitat and put him in a larger inclosure with more things to climb on but he can't even walk anymore he just lays at the bottom and twitches like he's having seizures. it looks like somethings wrong with him internally but i have no idea what would cause this. can mantids die from shock or stress or something?


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## Termite48 (Sep 26, 2011)

Possible chemical toxins in it's system. There may be a delayed reaction to pesticides.


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## ismart (Sep 26, 2011)

Not to sure whats going on here? I will say this though. Mantids can die unexpectedly form stress. I don't think your case is stress related though? When mantids do die from stress it's usually a quick death. Your mantids demise seems to be dragging on. Poor guy. Maybe you should just put it out of it's misery?


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## minard734 (Sep 26, 2011)

Sounds like he ate an insect that ate pesticides. Second hand poisoning... Either that or you had him in the heat for too long after you captured him. I went mantid collecting and putting them in their containers inside my holding bag actually caused them to freak out from the heat. Some of them died unfortunately. Males seem to be extra sensitive to this.


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## xxdreamchas3r913 (Sep 26, 2011)

thanks for the input guys...yea i kept him overnight to see if he would make some sort of miraculous comeback not sure why i still thought there was hope for him. yea it really looks like he ate or was exposed to some kind of toxin its just weird how he only started losing it after i caught him. don't think its heat related since i kept him inside with my other ones after i caught him. checked on him this morning and he's pretty much dead but if blow on him a bit he still moves a little. its really sad i feel like he probably would be fine if i had just left him in the wild but i don't know what i did wrong or if it really was some kind of poisoning. his wings are still open too havent heard about mantids dying like that before but yea i'm gonna put him in the freezer now he's pretty much just waiting to die..=( thanks guys and if anyone figures out what could have killed him please let me know! thanks again everyone


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## Domanating (Sep 26, 2011)

4 years ago i caught in the wild a very pretty male Mantis Religiosa. He had beautiful emerald colored like eyes, and a very peculiar dark green color for this species. So yeah, a very pretty male that didn't like being in an enclosure very much. By that time i had many mantids and not enough enclosures so i made paper towel separations so that each enclosure could carry 2 mantids. Anyway that male was literally freaking out in there. Not in that way you described but was constantly moving and looking for a way out in the corners and walls. One day i found him on the bottom of the enclosure with his body stuck below the paper towel separation, partially in the other side, stone dead. That male lasted no more than 3 days in captivity. The fact of being stuck increased even more the stress levels and he just died of stress. Too bad i never took a photo of those eyes he had.

Now i have one male that is quite agitated too. Not as much as the one i had or yours but he also is aways bumping the walls trying to find a way out in the corners and such. Keeps falling while doing that and he already got an injured leg, one of the joints is becoming black and the leg aint working properly. Besides from that,, he is a healthy and hungry male.

Just like us, some people are more sensitive to stressing situations than others. Male mantids already are agitated by nature, plus the stress sensibility, it's not a good combination


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## Rick (Sep 27, 2011)

If I chased you down and tossed you into a tiny cage I bet you woudl freak out too. Not unusual behavior for a wild caught mantis. Normally they don't die though. I would disregard the pesticide idea though.


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## xxdreamchas3r913 (Sep 27, 2011)

yea, i guess it really was from stress then..never knew they could actually die from that..nearly all the mantids i've kept were wild caught probably only bought a few before but i've never seen this. it's so weird but depressing can this happen to any wild caught mantids? and is it more frightening for adults than nymphs? or maybe it doesnt matter? its just that the adult male i caught last year had similar issues but was normal after a couple days so the only mantids i've kept that showed signs of distress were both adult males. but thanks for the info domanating and rick at least now i know what killed him..sorry to hear about your religiosa dude and i hope the male you still have gets better soon if he hasn't died i'm sure he'll pull through and calm down after a bit. but i'll be alot more cautious in the future and make sure i observe them in case they start to lose it. thanks again guys really learned something important from this


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## RevWillie (Sep 28, 2011)

FWIW I wonder if it was something in your cage environment - new plants, bad temps, cleaning products?


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## xxdreamchas3r913 (Sep 28, 2011)

yea that was the first thing that i suspected when he started getting weird the container i put him in wasn't super duper clean i had kept it outside inside an empty tank and just rinsed and wiped it out a bit before i put him in there...it's not like i used any chemicals to clean it that might have killed him but it's possible that if it already had some kind of chemical on it, there were still traces left. after he started moving strange i washed out the container again. i used twigs and sticks from the same trees i always use for my mantids so i don't think it was that and i kept him with my other mantids in my room so the temps were pretty stable. if he was acting the way he was when i found him, i probably would have guessed it had to do with chemicals but from what rick and domanating said it seems like although its more rare, stress and shock can potentially kill mantids especially being he was wild caught and male. although i'm still kinda confused about what happened to him and his symptoms it makes alot of sense that he died from the sudden change of environment and being contained...it's really sad i've just never experienced this so i didn't know it could actually happen.


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## Sinisha (Oct 2, 2011)

I was Keeping few males of mantis religiosa.And all of them layed on their back after 2-3 days.

I think wild males are sensitive,and cant handle the change.

So i released em in my garden and never saw them again.


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