Found Female Mantis - Need help on its Condition

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Cytronix

Cytronix

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Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
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Location
New Zealand
Hello everyone!

I have a green female African mantis with me right now. The story was I had found her in my home 2 weeks ago, I would've left it alone but it would die due to the lack of water and bugs (except spiders) lurking around the house. I gave her a moth but she refused it and decided to feed her honey and water before placing her into my garden in my backyard and went on with life as normal. Today I found her on my bedroom door and she looked more dull than last time. She could barely grip on the wall, her antenna was cut off and she looked parched. There weren't any critters around to give so I fed her honey and water. I didn't put her out this time because her condition might become worse, due to windy weather and winter approaching. So I decided to look after her from this point on and see if her condition becomes better. 

I just want to ask if there is anything wrong with her and such since I am a newbie at keeping Mantids (but familiar with looking after them by providing food and water) and I wouldn't be great at diagnosing her and is there anything I can do to make her feel better? Here are the photos of her

(I also noticed the 2 black spots on the top of her abdomen as shown as the green bump on the picture)

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Looks like she got a couple of nicks and her blood clotted sealing the spots. I wouldn't be worried about her in the sense she is clearly not starving. I don't see anything that would be life threatening. If it is getting colder out it is possible some of her lethargy is tied to the cold slowing her down. She could also be simply getting old as most mantises are seasonal.

 
She has a great color and she is an adult. They only live about 6 months in the wild because of frost and other animals. So the lumps could be scabs or scars. Shes mostlikly just getting old. Its sad to say but she looks great, but theres nothing you can do for her if she is getting old.

 
Yeah. Apparently she already has laid an Ooth as of now. She seems okay but tired. Feeding her regularly and she is getting a lot of rest.

 
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Cytronix said:
Yeah. Apparently she already has laid an Ooth as of now. So she has a few weeks to live. Other than that she seems okay. Feeding her regularly and that.
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A ooth isn't a good indicator of life left, as female mantids will lay from 5 to over 12 depending on the species (I don't know the average for your African mantis). As it was collected from the wild and there is no way to know how many she already laid anyway.

My first wild caught mantid, a Stagmomantis carolina, I rescued from a freezing death. She lived a additional 4 months with me before she died, and if left in the wild would have died that week with the temperatures all below freezing at night. Since then I've collected many others, and some only lived a month more while others lived many additional months. So it is really hard to say if saved from the wild and the freezing conditions how much time she has left in a warm environment. Hopefully she lives on for quite awhile for you though. :)

 
CosbyArt said:
A ooth isn't a good indicator of life left, as female mantids will lay from 5 to over 12 depending on the species (I don't know the average for your African mantis). As it was collected from the wild and there is no way to know how many she already laid anyway.

My first wild caught mantid, a Stagmomantis carolina, I rescued from a freezing death. She lived a additional 4 months with me before she died, and if left in the wild would have died that week with the temperatures all below freezing at night. Since then I've collected many others, and some only lived a month more while others lived many additional months. So it is really hard to say if saved from the wild and the freezing conditions how much time she has left in a warm environment. Hopefully she lives on for quite awhile for you though. :)
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Ah alright then. I guess I just misunderstood. Its pretty hard to determine but she has lost a lot of energy and weight from laying that Ooth. Thanks for the info  :)

 
Cytronix said:
Ah alright then. I guess I just misunderstood. Its pretty hard to determine but she has lost a lot of energy and weight from laying that Ooth. Thanks for the info  :)
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Your welcome, and no problem I thought that might have been the case. Laying ooths does wear them out, and she is likely very hungry - most of my females are ready to eat within a hour or two of laying a ooth. It is good to feed a female plenty over the next few days after laying to help her get her strength back and prepare for the next ooth. :)

 

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