Diseased Shield Mantis?

[Atomic-Crumpet]

My mantis is about three months old and I recently upgraded to feeding her crickets because of her size increase. I was gone for a couple days and I noticed that she was laying at a peculiar angle at the bottom of her enclosure. When I handled her, she could only walk using her forelegs with the back legs sticking up into the air. At first I thought the temperature might have gotten too low so I put her in a steamy room to warm her. It seemed to help a little, and she was having an easier time moving her legs, but she would move her forearms very jerkily and keep grooming the same leg. I also noticed that when she walked sometimes, she would arch up with her abdomen pointing to the ground and her abdomen would pucker to one side. I suspect that the crickets might have carried some disease, but I'm not sure. Please help.

 

[LauraMG]

Her body structure sounds like she suffered a mismolt

 

[Atomic-Crumpet]

Her body structure sounds like she suffered a mismolt

It's not a mis-molt. She molted about two weeks before this happened and she was completely normal and eating well before the incident. It was only after I left two crickets in her enclosure that she became ill. I'm fairly sure it was the crickets, but I'm not sure what I can do to help her.

 

[lancaster1313]

Does the container stink? I have had some Chinese get sick like that, with the loss of use of the rear legs, and labored abdominal movements and pumping. There was also foul smelling frass and vomit. <_< It happened after I was too lazy to quarantine some pet store crickets, and I just threw some in straight from the store. I lost 3 mantids to that illness, but one actually recovered. I just kept the containers as clean as possible, cleaning every time I noticed a drop of vomit or frass. It stank so bad. I hope your mantis does better.

 

[Atomic-Crumpet]

Thanks, she's actually been doing a lot better since. What do you do to quarantine your crickets?

 

[LauraMG]

Thanks, she's actually been doing a lot better since. What do you do to quarantine your crickets?

What I do to ensure they're healthy is give them something leafy and some carrot slices and let 'em sit for a couple of days. If they're still alive, they should be okay.

 

[PhilinYuma]

You might also want to consider the possibility that your mantis was attacked by the crickets, as in Hibiscusmile's recent post. I breed enough live critters at home not to have to walk to the pet store for crix, but when I did, I tried not to leave them in a mantis enclosure overnight.

As an aside, it is not true that eating crix specifically, leads to vomiting. I suspect that it is due to overfeeding and poor self control on the part of the mantids when given a lot of food, like several crix at once. It is much harder to overfeed on HFs, but I have seen gongies and others vomit after being provided with a lot, perhaps too many, blue bottles and roaches.