Hi! Newbie here. Love my mantis and now she may be doomed.,,

[geishagirrrl]

I so wish I would have thought to look for you all sooner.

My name is Julie. We live in FL. In April, towards the end, my 1st grade daughter got a teeny tiny mantis as a gift from her teacher, the whole class did too. At first it was a novelty, just feeding it fruit flies and watching it grow. She became my responsibility to feed and change her jar and I am sooo attached.

We had no clue what we were doing, just feeding and keeping her in a jars with holes. Then she got too big and we bought a small habitat, similar to what you'd put a hermit crab in. I also bought crickets at the store for her which proved to be really gross little buggers.

I have NO clue about humidity, we keep it pretty cool inside, and now she's had a bad molt and has really crumpled legs. She is a Chinese Mantis I believe, T. sinensis. This molt is the one that her large wings emerged. Only on one side her wings are really messed up.

I don't know what to do or if I can save her. I really am so intrigued by her and everyone who visits loves her. We sit and watch her all the time.

If she doesn't make it then we'll definitely be getting more mantids. I love them and we would love to have more. Next time will be more prepared and hopefully do it the right way.

 

[ismart]

Welcome to the forum! There is plenty of very useful information here.

 

[LauraMG]

Welcome! My Chinese met the same fate on her molt to adulthood. I ended up amputating her wings with sterilized scissors (as recommended by people on here) and she has some deformities in her legs. She gets along just fine though, just doesn't move very well anymore which is kind of a good thing because the running really made me nervous! How long has it been since the bad molt? It took a couple of weeks before mine was really confident again and I had to hand feed her crickets on a stick until she could eat by herself again. I hope yours turns out to be survivable too! I'm very attached to my mantids as well, so I get it!

 

[Rick]

Welcome. Don't get discouraged. A mismolt is a common thing and it will happen from time to time. All of us have this happen sometimes regardless of how long we have been in the hobby. The last molt is the hardest for them.

 

[geishagirrrl]

can you all recommend where to buy another one? we'd like to have a couple more.

 

[LauraMG]

Check out the classified section of the forum or post a wanted ad in there

 

[geishagirrrl]

thanks! i didn't even notice that section!

 

[LauraMG]

thanks! i didn't even notice that section!

You're very welcome!

 

[Vore]

Welcome! Your mantis is an adult now!

Okay, so, I'm going to ask a very important question, perhaps the most important of all.

Since when did teachers start giving out praying mantids as gifts? :blink:

 

[hibiscusmile]

Welcome and teachers give mantis away, cause they hatch them to show the kids life and then needs their help in taking care of them and that gives them all a big *A*. Thats when!

 

[geishagirrrl]

yes they did a whole month or so in class on bugs and raised butterflies, mantids, etc. i thought it was a cool idea. i wonder how many of the other kids in the class still have theirs.

 

[ismart]

I wish i had a teacher when i was growing up, giving away mantids.

 

[LauraMG]

I wish i had a teacher when i was growing up, giving away mantids.

Me too!