# Possible black death disease?



## Domanating (Nov 8, 2011)

Since weekend, one of my female Mantis Religiosa is developing some kind of illness which might fit with the the known black death disease. I would like some second opinions about her issue though.

The first thing i noticed was the tip of the abdomen turning black. Then she started pooping a black and smelly paste like liquid. 2 days later some black wounds were starting to appear, one in each side of the abdomen, the right one larger than the left one. Her last meals were barely eaten and now she doesn't want to eat insects or even honey. On the other hand she drinks a lot of water.

I thought in putting some drops of water over the wounds. She didn't react to the water over the side wounds but she reacted to the water on the tip of the abdomen demonstrating some pain. Another thing, all the black wounds are accompanied by a bit of red, i don't know why. The face also has some very tiny black spots. Not the eyes though.

For the time being she is very active, so it's good news. I warmed her up today to make her metabolism run faster to see if she can fight the illness more effectively. As she got warmer i noticed some very aggressive behavior, striking every moving thing, maybe indicating that she isn't well and tries to stay away from everything.

I read a topic about a similar illness event and many said it was old age. I strongly doubt it's old age in this case. This species rarely dies so early, specially a female, although and can't say it's impossible...

Here are some pictures:


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## Rick (Nov 8, 2011)

I really can't see much wrong from those pics. When mantids become ill there is little you can do about it.


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## Domanating (Nov 8, 2011)

In the 1st 2 pics it's not very clear, in the 1st you can see the side wound but in the 3rd you can clearly see the darken area with a bit of red there. she can still hold firmly upside down but refuses to eat anything even hand fed and can't clean up herself. I'll give her 2 days max.


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## Domanating (Nov 9, 2011)

Well, instead of 2 days she died in less than 12 hours. I wasn't expecting to die so early.

Yesterday i said that she could hang perfectly upside down, which could mean she was still strong. Today i found her in the exact same position but this time she was dead. It was like she was frozen into place.

I had a similar death with the 1st mantis i ever had when i was 4 years old. One day i found it standing on the floor in a perfectly normal position but it was dead. It's a freaky event. In my opinion this death couldn't be caused by old age, which has a lot of convulsions and spasms. Instead these 2 mantids had an oddly peaceful death. Anyone ever had this situation before? I'm thinking maybe this way to die might be caused by the black death disease?


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## PhilinYuma (Nov 9, 2011)

I think that "black death" as applied to mantids is a catch all name for deaths that are accompanied by necrosi. In human's necrosis -- gangrene -- can be caused by a variety of problems, from frostbite to the application of a ligature. the fact is that we know very little about what afflicts our mantids and even less about how to cure them. But humans like to know a cause for things, even if they have to make it up!


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## Domanating (Nov 10, 2011)

Very true m8. Its good to question yourself about this and try to find an answer. this silent death could be cause by one type of illness. i dont know, its a longshot but its an idea


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