# Can a brown recluse kill a sub-adult rhombodera?



## caliman707 (Nov 14, 2008)

I found a spider in my house earlier so I could feed it to my mantis. This spider was like 1/20th the size of the mantis so I thought there was no way its fangs could puncture the mantids exoskeleton. As soon as the mantis caught the spider it kept switching the spider from one arm to the other until it finally just dropped it after a couple of bites. Now its moving really weird and wont stop nibbling(cleaning) its arms. I'm probably just being paranoid but I could definetly use some words of wisdom.


----------



## Peter Clausen (Nov 15, 2008)

I've seen this exact same thing happen before. Could be a bad sign, but time will tell. Doesn't have to be a brown recluse. Bee stings too!


----------



## Rick (Nov 15, 2008)

I would be surprised if it bit your mantis. I have feed black widows more than once and never had an issue. I know the two are different. My mantids ate them just like anything else.


----------



## The_Asa (Nov 15, 2008)

The spider was probably too small for the mantis, so it could not get a grip on it and was being bitten. Doubt if that would kill the mantis.


----------



## PhilinYuma (Nov 15, 2008)

Good news, Caliman!

There aint no brown recluses, or even members of the same genus anywhere near San Francisco. In my area, we have the desert version, Loxosceles deserta, and that has a nasty bite like its cousin.

It is worth mentioning, that unless, like Rick, you know enough about spiders to at least be able to identify black widows and recluse spiders and live within their range, you are likely to recieve a bite which can be very painful (black widow) or cause you to develop a nasty chunk of necrotic tissue where you are bitten (recluse).


----------



## sidewinder (Nov 15, 2008)

FYI:

Brown Recluse and California

Scott


----------



## caliman707 (Nov 15, 2008)

Thanks for the advice guys! Its been about 20 hours and the mantis seems to be fine. I have heard rumors about people running into the brown recluse out here so I naturally expected the worst. I dont know much about spiders so I checked out some links and I think I was mistaken. I still wonder if it was able to bite it though, because of how the mantis was acting. But if a rhombodera can take down a black widow without getting bit, Im sure this pewny little thing couldnt do much. Thanks again for the info!


----------



## caliman707 (Nov 15, 2008)

Peter said:


> I've seen this exact same thing happen before. Could be a bad sign, but time will tell. Doesn't have to be a brown recluse. Bee stings too!


Bee stings are able to penetrate the exo-skeleton as well? Can that kill the mantis?


----------



## The_Asa (Nov 15, 2008)

caliman707 said:


> Bee stings are able to penetrate the exo-skeleton as well? Can that kill the mantis?


I've never seen a mantis let the bee get in a position where it can manuevere itself into a position where it can sting the mantis. But if you put it in small cage with a number of bees than the mantis would die.


----------



## Christian (Nov 17, 2008)

> But if you put it in small cage with a number of bees than the mantis would die.


Reference?


----------



## acerbity (Nov 17, 2008)

Christian said:


> Reference?


Put a mantis in a small enclosure with 50 house flies and it would die too.


----------



## The_Asa (Nov 17, 2008)

acerbity said:


> Put a mantis in a small enclosure with 50 house flies and it would die too.


Yeah, basically the same principle... :lol:


----------

