First Ghost Mantis (problems)

[newravenstar]

So, I ordered my very first mantis online. Everything was going great for the first couple of days. I misted regularly and watched my new L2-L3 Ghost munch the heads off of some flies. Until one day I found my creature on the bottom of it's cage barely able to move. I thought it was going to die that night. I moved it to a smaller cage and hand fed it water from a cotton ball and over the course of a couple of days it regained movement in it's legs again and was out and about like normal. But since then I have not seen it eat and it's abdomen is getting rather thin. I've been able to feed it little bits of honey, but it still has not eaten any flies. It's been over a week. What should I do?

 

[sally]

Try cutting the head off the fly and offer it with tweezers right up to the mouth. If it bats it away maybe it is molt time. Keep offering water, make sure there is a good footing for molting. Check the housing ideas forum for a mantis friendly enclosure. Make sure there is good ventilation.

 

[Brian Liang]

This happened to me as well. I also bought a couple mantids (ghosts too) for the first time a couple months ago. 6 out of 7 of them died. Just found them on the bottom of the cage and they were dead. They also didn't eat several days after getting them. I know that some had fallen when they were trying to molt and that may be the case for you too.Whatever you do don't over mist and give tons of ventilation as this is what I did for a change and it kept my last ghost alive.