Final molt! AHH! :O

[GingerC]

George is definitely going to molt today or tomorrow, and it's her last one! I'm really excited about this, but I'm also stressing myself out a lot... if it goes well and she comes out healthy, I will have succeeded in raising her, but if anything goes wrong the effects will be permanent. I've done everything in my power to help: I put her enclosure in a safe, secluded area, misted it to ensure it's more humid than usual, and secured all of the potential molting perches. I'm hoping beyond anything that this goes well!

Sorry for this random outburst, but this has been affecting my entire day so far and I really needed it off my chest.

 

[crabbypatty]

 Good luck! ?❤

 

[Jessie]

I know you can do it.

 

[Mantis Man13]

Hope it is a good molt and tell us if the mantis molts!

 

[GingerC]

She's been showing signs (butt dragging, being very adamant about staying upside down, very skittish) for about 48 hours now, but still hasn't molted yet. The suspense is killing me!! Every other time she's molted, she was showing symptoms a day or two in advance; is it normal for the final molt to take so long? Is there any extra care/information specifically regarding the final molt?

 

[crabbypatty]

Yeah I've noticed mine take a bit longer for the final molt. It should be ok ?

 

[Kermit]

A few things to know:

1: Plenty of vertical height 2-3x the mantis length. Avoid decoration obstructions that might make PM start their molt on the sides of its enclosure.

2: no feeders in the enclosure... Can provoke a fall; crickets will eat a freshly molted PM as well

3: Do NOT spray the PM with h2o!!!! Especially directly, but no water.

4. Effective hanging surface so that the PM can successfully "flip" and re-grab the ceiling surface (eliminate risk of falling) use Horizontal sticks, pencil sized or smaller, or the rubbery shelf liner, or cheap hamper fabric (Walmart or Target, etc)

Keep us posted!

?

 

[Zeppy44]

All you can do is wait and see. My last female still has not molted to adult while the first to adult has laid two ooths.   After a week I started giving one house fly a day. If not eaten in about 2 hours it is removed. Every six days or so a bit of honey-water. Almost feel like a "father to be" again. Not real comfortable.

 

[MantisRCool]

Before adult molt they can take a couple of days, some species even about a week (like with heterochaeta it took so long I thought they were never going to molt lol)

 

[Zeppy44]

Yesterday and last night my last female ghost molted to adult. No problems. Looks great, moving fine. Will feed tomorrow. Glad that is over for now. Almost 2 months between first adult female and last. That did surprise me. 

 

[Jgod]

Yesterday and last night my last female ghost molted to adult. No problems. Looks great, moving fine. Will feed tomorrow. Glad that is over for now. Almost 2 months between first adult female and last. That did surprise me. 

Congratulations!  

 

[Zeppy44]

Never having Really watched for a molt before, I paid much more attention to what I thought was going on this time. Seeing the various parts become "glistening" with what looked like moisture from inside I figured another day of so. 4 weeks later the molt to adult was done and fine. Adjusted misting and feeding as best a beginner could guess. Worry, concern; the biggest surprise is the emotional cost. Had not considered that part of it well enough.

.....if the cute little bugs didn't turn to look at me would be a lot easier......

 

[Zeppy44]

@Jgod thanks.

 

[GingerC]

@crabbypatty @Jessie @Mantis Man13 @Kermit @Zeppy44 @Jgod

It's happened! I checked on her first thing when I woke up, and the sudden change n shape and size made it look kind of like she was molting, but closer inspection revealed she was already done.

Only her back half is visible, so I'll have to wait for her to dry before I can tell that all is well. Her normal cage is only nine inches tall, which should be fine for a three inch species, but since they can be up to four, I put her in a highly modified, 1' shoebox just to be safe. So, of course, she molted on the side, eight inches from the ground!

 

[crabbypatty]

@GingerC yay! 

 

[Zeppy44]

Woot!    Yeah that molting on the side thing. Two of mine did that and had me freaking out for hours.

 

[Jessie]

Yay congrats!

 

[izbiggs]

@GingerC Congratulations!!  always so thrilling to have the first adult molt. Any adult, for that matter. My first adult mantis was an Indian Flower mantis male. He loved to fly. No more molts to worry about!

 

[GingerC]

I let her out today, gave her a nice big serving of honey, and took the opportunity to examine her properly.

She's looking great, but her hind legs are bent a bit oddly and she's not hanging on with one of them. The very tip of her left raptor (the part for walking) is also slightly deformed. Fortunately, my experience so far has taught me that she should be perfectly fine, and I might not even notice two weeks from now.

Another thing though, I've always thought George was a female because she has only six segments on the abdomen, and she's molted four times in my care. I doubt I purchased her as an L2- she just didn't seem shrimpy enough- but she has the exact body shape and wing size of a male.Either I was mistaken, or she needs some food in her. XD