Adult mantids dying???

[Bogsy OG]

I have 12 chinese mantids that are about 6 months old. In the last week I have lost 3 and at least two others seem sick. Nothing in their life has changed as far as food, water, habitat, etc. They seem to go blind and stay on bottom of their homes clawing madly at the glass and air. Their eyes turned black and they quit eating. I have raised others with no problems. Crickets are their main food. I also feed them mealworms and dubias but they mostly only want the crickets. They don't go to bottom of house much to get non-climbing food. I've read that crickets aren't the best food choice but that's what they seem to like best. I buy crickets from major supplier (Bassets) and feed them lettuce, oranges, fish flakes and keep flukers quencher for them. Everything  pretty much the same as done for previous batches of mantids that lived longer than a year. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[hibiscusmile]

These die for no reason as I can see. I raise them a lot and if they don't die off, they usually have their abs fall over before their final molt and they do not

do well. I don't have a fix for this. sorry

 

[Bogsy OG]

Thanks for the response. I'm new to this forum and not sure quite how it works. Can't you just reply to a response to a post; or do you just reply in the topic thread only? I hope you understand that... LOL.

Thanks

 

[MantisMart]

adults dont die for no reason. Thats more of something that happens to young nymphs of this species. Were they adult for 6 months, or 6 months old in total?

 

[Bogsy OG]

They were close to 7 months old, total. The ones that died started to act crazy clawing into the air and falling from their perch. Then they just lay on the ground clawing at glass. It was sad to watch.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

They were close to 7 months old, total. The ones that died started to act crazy clawing into the air and falling from their perch. Then they just lay on the ground clawing at glass. It was sad to watch.

Pictures of the “sick” ones would help. It could also be mature males dying off.

 

[Mantid-Tim]

Can you rule out them going blind from eye rub and starving? How long did it take to die after they started showing symptoms? Otherwise that almost sounds like some kind of disease....

 

[Bogsy OG]

Can you rule out them going blind from eye rub and starving? How long did it take to die after they started showing symptoms? Otherwise that almost sounds like some kind of disease....

I don't think it was eye rub or starving. I am leaning towards 'old age', although they were only about 8 months old. I read somewhere that life expectancy for this breed was 7 - 10 months in captivity. I had always thought 12 - 14 months. Thanks for your reply...