# What's wrong with my mantis?



## Monty (Aug 12, 2015)

One of my Hirodula hasn't been eating all that much, and i woke up today to find him passed out on the floor of his container. He'll move weakly and wake up a bit with a few sprays of water, but generally seems pretty lifeless. Is there any way to salvage this little guy?

He's been living off of mostly house flies and wax worms, did I do something wrong?


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## PrayingMantisPets (Aug 12, 2015)

Try giving him honey and water. He could be really dehydrated.


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## Monty (Aug 12, 2015)

Sadly I think this ones dead.  I've got another Heiro under the exact same conditions and it seems to be fairly healthy, though.


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## Sticky (Aug 12, 2015)

I dont think it's your fault. These things happen. Im glad you have another, that helps you feel better.


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## [email protected] (Aug 21, 2015)

I was feeding mine wax worms before. They seemed to do good with a few wax worms, but too many made my mantids sick. I would try to find something else to feed your healthy one. Does anyone else have any ideas about that?


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## MantidBro (Aug 22, 2015)

Idk if its just me but his abdomen looked kind of off, like swollen. Might something have burst?


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## Sticky (Aug 22, 2015)

Moths, flies and roaches are great feeders. Waxworms are very fatty. Best to hand those out as treats.


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## Domanating (Aug 24, 2015)

He looks rather pale. Probably suffers from sepsis


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## rbird (Aug 26, 2015)

[email protected] said:


> I was feeding mine wax worms before. They seemed to do good with a few wax worms, but too many made my mantids sick. I would try to find something else to feed your healthy one. Does anyone else have any ideas about that?


If possible, a variety of foods is always best ; bees, flies, small butterflies, moths, etc.


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## Monty (Sep 4, 2015)

I've been trying to feed my mantids a variety but the various fly pupae i'm ordering always seem to take forever to hatch, i think it's close to like 70-30 on waxworms to flies diet. Maybe I should just learn to make a culture or just keep heading out to the store or something.

In addition, the surviving mantis seems rather healthy, but recently has had trouble grooming itself. It can't seem to wipe it's head with it's left arm, but it can do so with its right arm. It also seems unable to lick its feet, like it suddenly isn't flexible enough anymore, it forces itself to tilt in awkward angles to do so. Is this the result of a mismolt in a small container or a lack of humidity? Should I be concerned?


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## CosbyArt (Sep 4, 2015)

Monty said:


> I've been trying to feed my mantids a variety but the various fly pupae i'm ordering always seem to take forever to hatch, i think it's close to like 70-30 on waxworms to flies diet. Maybe I should just learn to make a culture or just keep heading out to the store or something.
> 
> In addition, the surviving mantis seems rather healthy, but recently has had trouble grooming itself. It can't seem to wipe it's head with it's left arm, but it can do so with its right arm. It also seems unable to lick its feet, like it suddenly isn't flexible enough anymore, it forces itself to tilt in awkward angles to do so. Is this the result of a mismolt in a small container or a lack of humidity? Should I be concerned?


I've had great success culturing waxworms, and I wrote a small guide on it. Currently I have about 150 waxworm's in cocoons that will soon hatch to wax moths, which my mantids prefer even more (and lots of waxworms in different instars as well - all from 48 waxworms I started with).  

Not sure where you are ordering the fly pupae, or how you are letting them hatch, but at my room temp of 75 F they hatch out in 1 to 3 days at most (with the fresher pupae hatching faster). However once they hit the 2 week mark in the refrigerator they rapidly go bad, perhaps they are just old pupae. If you are using GB or BB flies I'd recommend you get them from MantisPlace, no problem with the pupae when I get them from there. Or for houseflies you can get a deal on them at SpiderPharm, and he is a great seller.

Sounds like it had molting issues, and if it is still a nymph hopefully it will heal up on the next molt. Humidity will affect the mantid during molting (which can cause the old skin/exuviae to be hard to shed if the humidity is to low or high too); however, when it is not molting humidity can affect it's breathing and fluid intake - both of which should not cause moving/stretching issues.


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## Monty (Sep 5, 2015)

I've ordered twice from Mantispets/Green Oasis, and both the house flies and the blue bottle flies seem to take an unusually long time, usually around a week or so, but at the very least 3 days to hatch. The blue bottles are the most inconsistent, I've been sticking them in a tupperware container and leaving them in my living room. Maybe that place just doesn't sell good pupae, I'll try the links you put, Spiderpharm is new to me.

The mantis seems okay doing everything else, guess i'll just keep a better lid on the humidity.


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