Mantid-Tim
Well-known member
So I have a crazy mantis story for you guys. I saved a drowned mantis. Not saved it from drowning, but actually brought it back from drowning! Let me explain.
My thin-winged (T. angustipennis) subadult Toby was out on my curtain, and after a while I couldn't find him, so I started looking. He was nowhere to be found for 5 mins and I started getting worried. Well eventually I found him floating in a glass of water on the windowsill. I was kicking my self for leaving it there; I just killed my mantis. He was completely limp and not moving. He was dead by all signs....
Suddenly I thought, just because an animal is not moving doesn't mean its dead. People always assume that but if a person can be brought back, maybe so can a bug? I remembered a story of my mother saving a goldfish by giving it compressions (she's a nurse and it was her instinct; I've also heard of this with fish).
So I know that mantids breathe by air passing over them, so I started blowing on him and pumped his abdomen a few times. All of a sudden, a leg twitch! (This was after a full 2 minutes after taking him out the water, for which he had been in for at least 5-10). Then his abdomen pumped by itself while his legs re-gained rigidity and started grabbing on to my arm. After 10-20 mins under a light to dry him out, he was almost back to normal; it seemed like he was blind though. Within an hour he was all back to normal but wouldn't eat for a day or two. I saved a mantis but thought he might be brain damaged or the mantis equivalent.
The next two days went by with him not eating or going for food. If it got close he wouldn't bat it away he just wouldn't go for it. Anyway, yesterday he surprised me with this:
Happy ending to an almost tragic story!
My thin-winged (T. angustipennis) subadult Toby was out on my curtain, and after a while I couldn't find him, so I started looking. He was nowhere to be found for 5 mins and I started getting worried. Well eventually I found him floating in a glass of water on the windowsill. I was kicking my self for leaving it there; I just killed my mantis. He was completely limp and not moving. He was dead by all signs....
Suddenly I thought, just because an animal is not moving doesn't mean its dead. People always assume that but if a person can be brought back, maybe so can a bug? I remembered a story of my mother saving a goldfish by giving it compressions (she's a nurse and it was her instinct; I've also heard of this with fish).
So I know that mantids breathe by air passing over them, so I started blowing on him and pumped his abdomen a few times. All of a sudden, a leg twitch! (This was after a full 2 minutes after taking him out the water, for which he had been in for at least 5-10). Then his abdomen pumped by itself while his legs re-gained rigidity and started grabbing on to my arm. After 10-20 mins under a light to dry him out, he was almost back to normal; it seemed like he was blind though. Within an hour he was all back to normal but wouldn't eat for a day or two. I saved a mantis but thought he might be brain damaged or the mantis equivalent.
The next two days went by with him not eating or going for food. If it got close he wouldn't bat it away he just wouldn't go for it. Anyway, yesterday he surprised me with this:
Happy ending to an almost tragic story!
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with a good ending.
