Help! Newbie here.

[sprouty]

I caught a female mantis few months ago in SE MI. Mine is still going but her wings are "falling apart". Is this due to old age or am I doing something wrong? She used to have a ferocious appetite but she has seemed to slowed/stopped eating. She has laid two "egg sacks", not sure what they are called. (ooth?) The second one I noticed about a week ago. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be in the 50s and I wouldn't be surprised if it freezes tonight. It is probably too late to let her go in the wild, or is it? Not sure what the right thing is to do. I have an arachnid and am new to mantids. I should have studied up and am now feeling a little guilty.

 

[sprouty]

Dehydration maybe? She gets around okay. I Was just handling her and she went for my finger. I think it was a mistake so I put a cricket up to her and wham! She ate from my hand. That was pretty cool. Something I would never want to attempt with my tarantula. I am gonna try more food and put some water up to her to see how it goes. Any info would be greatly appreciated. These are truly great/interesting creatures. More fun than the spider I must say. I am typing one handed with her on the other, shes done so off to another cricket/water.

Edit: Round 2 feeding: She got my finger and tried to nibble away at it. Not easy to get a munching mantid off your finger gently.

Round 3: She drank some water got the cricket this time. Maybe she just wasn't able to hunt like she used to. I hope her wings improve but I know they don't live long. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[mrblue]

deffinitely sounds like old age.

 

[ismart]

Sounds like your mantid is nearing the end of her life. Her wings are falling apart due to old age. Her wings will not get any better no matter how much she eats or drinks. You should keep her till the end. From what you are saying she is becoming weak. Not to mention if the temp out side hits the freezing point she will surely die. If you let her free now her chances of survival will be quite slim at best.

You should all so decied on what you are going to do with those ooths. If you keep them in doors your running the risk of them hatching early. Unless you want to hatch them? If not put them outside and let nature take its course. Do you have any idear on what species you might have?

 

[sprouty]

Sounds like your mantid is nearing the end of her life. Her wings are falling apart due to old age. Her wings will not get any better no matter how much she eats or drinks. You should keep her till the end. From what you are saying she is becoming weak. Not to mention if the temp out side hits the freezing point she will surely die. If you let her free now her chances of survival will be quite slim at best.You should all so decied on what you are going to do with those ooths. If you keep them in doors your running the risk of them hatching early. Unless you want to hatch them? If not put them outside and let nature take its course. Do you have any idear on what species you might have?

I didn't think that the ooths would hatch. Since she has laid two ooths does that mean she was with a male before I caught her? About how many mantids would I expect per ooth? No idea on the species. Here's a pic.

Like I said I am a newb.

 

[kamakiri]

Looks like Chinese to me. I'd say you should keep her. She would have likely died already if you did not find her.

Odds are that she did mate and that the ooths are fertile if you caught her as an adult. What you do with the ooths is up to you...

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Rick]

That is a chinese mantis. If you found her as an adult chances are very good she was mated. The ooths should hatch. Her issues sound like old age. They tend to slowly fall apart.

 

[sprouty]

About how many mantids per ooth? I am not sure I want to keep them. Maybe one, but it depends on how many I will have crawling around.

 

[kamakiri]

100 to 300 or so...

 

[The_Asa]

Average is around 150, if wild the offspring will probably be less.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Out of the hatching, only about 12 will live, they tend to die easily so don't fret about having a few hundred around, they won't last 2 weeks!