Carolina taking forever to lay an ooth

[Maddybelle]

My sweet Carolina girl, Wiggles, was mated August 4, and still hasn't laid an ooth. She's definitely gravid! Does anyone have any idea what's going on? She's in a screen cage, so could it be a humidity issue? She's still eating, but not as much as she used to (less room to expand, she's huge!)

Here is a picture of her (admittedly a crappy one, lol) 2 weeks ago.

And this is her tonight. She seems slower tonight.

 

[Rick]

The mating has nothing to do with when she will make the ooth.

She could be eggbound which seems poorly understood. I've had some luck with adding additional places for ooth laying such as more branches (Carolina like to lay on sticks) or some flat surfaces. Perhaps increase the temperature a bit.

 

[[email protected]]

Yes. I have iris oratoria. (They like the heat). But the ones that I have mated indoors will not lay eggs at all unless they have a heat lamp. I'm still trying to figure out if it needs to be UVB. So far my UVA lights are not working. That just might be for my species. I'm not sure.

I have 1 egg bound mantid now. I can tell because the ooth is actually stuck in her rear end. I can't get it out. Anyway, I feed and heat her only enough to survive. She has lived six months as an adult so far with never laying an ooth. In the past I have accidentally killed egg bound mantids by overfeeding or heating them too much.

Good luck. I hope she lays soon!