Dying Chinese

[dbcgeno]

I've seen Rick's posting of Sep 18, and others, so am not necessarily looking for advice. You've already given me information to work with, but I thought it worth posting anyway.

Got a dozen Chinese, most in fourth or fifth instar. Yesterday I found one of them all but dead, laying in the bottom of the jar, seemingly unable to use it's right legs.

Today there was one hanging by a single foot. Same condition, though this one I am trying to revive. It's wholly limp, cannot raise itself, shows no interest in food, and I don't think it would have the strength to do anything with a fly or moth if it was interested. Not much hope here. It did take some sugar water.

These mantids were active and eating just two days ago.

First off I'll clean all the containers with soap and water.

I also just introduced fruit flies from a new source, the larger variety, though I'd swear that one of these mantids did not get any of the new flies. Still...something to keep in mind. Mostly I rely on crickets for their nutrition.

I'll let you know if the dieoffs continue. Nice to have this community to talk to. It really bothered me to lose one of these after so much effort in getting them to this stage. It has the most beautiful green eyes.

 

[dbcgeno]

Oh. The temperature. I know they prefer it warm, but it is November. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it is getting down into the mid-fifties at night where the mantids are. But all the others are, thus far, healthy, so I doubt this has anything to do with it. I've no heat source for them (or for myself for that matter).

 

[bassist]

I doubt it was the temperatures it's gotten down to 50s in my room before and none of my exotics have been negatively affected nor have any of the mantids wc around here. From what I can tell in the Bay Area most of mantids die from old age around now not from the cold they're usually born around February and die October/November.

 

[dbcgeno]

Yes, that would be the natural timing, but my ooth didn't hatch until July 1 and these are not adults. Though maybe there is some seasonal trigger to die regardless. Seems unlikely.

Thank you for the response.

 

[NoKanDo]

i live in san francisco as well man, pretty cold at night however ive never lost any of my mantids due to that... make sure you dont introduce the crickets from the pet store right away, try feeding them fruit and lettuce 48 hours before feeding them to he mantids....

 

[Rick]

You are probably always going to have some unexplained deaths. I just see it as part of the hobby. If it continues and most of them die I would say then you have a problem.

 

[dbcgeno]

Yes, I expect an occassional death, but was disturbed by identical style deaths on two consecutive days.

I've been a bit rash with my crickets, feeding them romaine lettuce for only 24 hours prior to feeding them to the mantids. I'll slow down and expand the menu for the crickets.

Gave all the enclosures a thorough cleaning out today.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[gynnyr]

It's funny, but I just went through this with mine. Within a week I lost about half of the L4 Chinese that I had unexpectedly. They were misted, well fed and in general looking healthy and fine, and then over the span of a few days all just began dying off. If you find out what the problem is, I would like to know as well, for the future. I'm as stumped as you are.

Edit: For the record, I wasn't feeding them crickets at this stage, just hydei flies and the occasional handful of melanogaster.

 

[mantispark]

we also lost a large amount of ours during this time frame, never did figure out why, but we were very upset by it. nothing really different then any other day. feeding them crickets, misting like normal. it was strange to us that we had so many die.

 

[massaman]

well could of been just a weak batch of nymphs or just something that happens for no reason but as long as some survive!