Eye problem

[Norlin]

My mantis has some eye damage, not sure if anyone knows what might have caused it. Fly only diet so it's not damage from some other critter and there aren't other mantises in its enclosure. I know sometimes the eyes go black from what appears to be rubbing on the side of the enclosure, but in this case the eye has a hole in it. (Sorry about the noise in the picture, shot at high ISO as I don't have a flash yet).



Link to larger picture here

 

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That happened to my male who only ate flies as well. It happened right after he molted. He did not touch any flies while molting but my theory is that the flies got on some mold and then tracked it to the stick he was molting on. He was more susceptible when he just molted. He rubbed his eye and the black eye is what manifested. He was sub-adult and did ok after treating his eye with aloe and putting him in a hot dry place. It didn't totally go away; after he molted into adult it became inside his eye instead of outside. Maybe I messed up with the aloe. He is from the desert so the hot dry helped I think. Anyway he was an adult for 3 months before he passed. he became totally blind at the end. I hope that helps at least prevent it from happening again. Good luck!

 

[Norlin]

Ah, thanks so much for the information. He seems to be doing just fine with it so far!