Agro Mantis?

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ohaple

ohaple

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Our great H. majuscula Carl had some strange behavior last night. We hadn't fed him in 3 days so we decided to take him out to feed a dubia. Immediately upon opening his enclosure, he tried to chase us down and strike. When we set him on the table, he would sprint to the side of the table we were standing on, looking like he was ready to jump at us. If we walked to the other side, he would run after us again. The crazy part was how good their vision must be. We walked about 10 feet away to see if he would calm down. We stood still. I went to itch my head, and he locked his eyes onto me, again looking like he was ready to jump. Good thing he doesn't have wings yet. We finally were able to put a dubia near him, which he happily chased down and grabbed. Once he had the roach in his arms he calmed down some, but we found the behavior very strange.

He was not starving since his abdomen was still half full prior to feeding. He has always been friendly in the past and even seemed to enjoy being handled. I have read about mantises getting grumpy and not allowing people to handle them, but this full attack mode was new to us. Its scary, not because we are worried he will hurt us, but that we might overreact to his actions and hurt him out of reflex.

Any advice? Is this normal?

 
Oh geez! I'm not very familiar with aggressive displays

I have had my Orchids get startled a few times and fling themselves around their enclosure like popcorn. Freaks me out every time, as I'm so worried they will get hurt accidentally. The specimens who have done this only did it once, but each time it was when they were hungry and I just opened their enclosure and reached inside to remove them. Not sure what prompted this behavior, as I didn't do anything different than I normally do, but your mantis could be doing something similar. Maybe he was just sleeping and didn't expect to be disturbed. Either way, I hope he is okay and doesn't keep up this aggressive behavior 

 
Graceface said:
Oh geez! I'm not very familiar with aggressive displays

I have had my Orchids get startled a few times and fling themselves around their enclosure like popcorn. Freaks me out every time, as I'm so worried they will get hurt accidentally. The specimens who have done this only did it once, but each time it was when they were hungry and I just opened their enclosure and reached inside to remove them. Not sure what prompted this behavior, as I didn't do anything different than I normally do, but your mantis could be doing something similar. Maybe he was just sleeping and didn't expect to be disturbed. Either way, I hope he is okay and doesn't keep up this aggressive behavior 
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I have seen that behavior with our ghosts and peacock before, and it is certainly startling. On occasion even a feeder roach will surprise them and cause them to leap blindly.

This was something different. He was in chase and attack mode for several minutes. Our other mantises are ambush predators, never taking more than a couple steps to strike. Carl is more like a pursuit predator. If he sees a roach on the table 12-24" away, he will chase it down. That is very fun behavior when not aimed at us, since we can focus on controlling the situation.

 
ohaple said:
I have seen that behavior with our ghosts and peacock before, and it is certainly startling. On occasion even a feeder roach will surprise them and cause them to leap blindly.

This was something different. He was in chase and attack mode for several minutes. Our other mantises are ambush predators, never taking more than a couple steps to strike. Carl is more like a pursuit predator. If he sees a roach on the table 12-24" away, he will chase it down. That is very fun behavior when not aimed at us, since we can focus on controlling the situation.
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That would certainly freak me out!

Most of my experience is with Ghosts and Orchids, who don't really do threat displays or act aggressive in that manner. My female Orchids are voracious hunters and do go after prey a few (or 6) inches away, but not like that lol. Their 'popcorning' is the closest thing I've seen to a threat display. I only relate the 2 behaviors as they were both out of character for the specimen and showed a "negative" response to human interaction

Here's hoping it was a one off freak out and not his new persona! 

 
Graceface said:
That would certainly freak me out!

Most of my experience is with Ghosts and Orchids, who don't really do threat displays or act aggressive in that manner. My female Orchids are voracious hunters and do go after prey a few (or 6) inches away, but not like that lol. Their 'popcorning' is the closest thing I've seen to a threat display. I only relate the 2 behaviors as they were both out of character for the specimen and showed a "negative" response to human interaction

Here's hoping it was a one off freak out and not his new persona! 
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Thanks, we hope so too. He may need fed more often since he seemed to calm down after being fed.

 
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Wow, what a story! I think male mantids in general are more aggressive when it comes to the pursuit in general. 

Other factors like temperature and what instar your male is at could affect this as well. And 3 days doesn't seem like a while, but your mantis might've been craving the nom noms. Lol

My male majuscula is quite an intense hunter. Both when he was sub adult and adult. He has no problems chasing after food. I've also noticed, given the opportunity, he will venture wherever he can. He has wings now, but he's a quick little bug. Good luck with your mantis!

 
minomantis said:
Wow, what a story! I think male mantids in general are more aggressive when it comes to the pursuit in general. 

Other factors like temperature and what instar your male is at could affect this as well. And 3 days doesn't seem like a while, but your mantis might've been craving the nom noms. Lol

My male majuscula is quite an intense hunter. Both when he was sub adult and adult. He has no problems chasing after food. I've also noticed, given the opportunity, he will venture wherever he can. He has wings now, but he's a quick little bug. Good luck with your mantis!
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Thanks! Glad to hear this isn't entirely out of the norm. It is a bizarre experience dealing with an aggressive pet, because it creates a different type of fear. Rather than with a traditional threat (like a venomous spider) where you can leave it alone, smash it, run away, etc, you have fear for their well-being. Hard to balance their well being and yours when they are out to get you.

 
ohaple said:
I forgot to mention in my original post that I was wearing my blue bottle fly costume. :p
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Makes much more sense. See, if I see a giant lasagna, I would be attacking it and devouring it, not even pausing to chew. :)  

Think of your favorite food, then gargantuan lol. Won't you want to go "OM NOM NOM!" right? Lol reading that made my day.

 
Cole 78 said:
Makes much more sense. See, if I see a giant lasagna, I would be attacking it and devouring it, not even pausing to chew. :)  

Think of your favorite food, then gargantuan lol. Won't you want to go "OM NOM NOM!" right? Lol reading that made my day.
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LOL :p  

That only works if you are a food oriented person! (Like most teen boys I guess.......) 

 
 @ohaple That is pretty normal for a more aggressive species like Hierodula or Sphodromantis. My S. gastrica adult female is so aggressive that I cannot even put my hand close to her without getting attacked!

- MantisGirl13

 
Are all Hierodula genus typically aggressive? 

Wonder if venosa are like this too?

My 2X L5 nymphs have made it into the country. Guess we'll find out. 👊😎 

Glad to be here, y'all. 

 
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