How to erm... end it if something goes wrong...

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infinity

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I gather from the way a lot of you are speaking that you're as passionate about mantids as I am... I don't mean as a scientific/ career based thing, I mean emotionally. So I was wondering, we've all have bad moults or diseases, obvious problems with mantids so how would you/ should you make it as quick/ kind as possible?

I guess I'm just asking because two of my chinese have just undergone their first moult unsuccessfully and I know will be incapable of achieving a second and it's really got me all worked up! :( Obviously you get the "cot death" for the youngsters and you wake up to find one dead at the bottom, but when you know they'll die eventually and there's nothing you can do to help... then what?!

I guess there are 3 obvious options...

quick/ painful/ painless?! (I really wouldn't know) - like treading on them which i REALLY CAN'T DO

or

slow but probably painless - freezing

or

*nature's way* - feed it to a pet lizard, scorpion, tarantula etc...

Any advice? :(

 
Freezer. They die within minutes. I don't get emotionally attached to them because I know from the start that they won't be around long.

 
I definitely agree with the freezer but I would leave them in over night. During my enotmology field course we had to catch and pin a range of insects. We killed them either by freezing or by putting them in a jar with ethyl acetate fumes. Some people had insects that came back to life after being frozen for an hour or 2......particularly with the larger specimens like the bumblebee flying round the lab with a mounting pin sticking out of its torso and a large ground beetle which had also been impaled. They appeared dead and did not even move when pinned but eventually came round and managed to wrench themselves free of the polystyrene (styrofoam) board and go about their business!!

Last week I put a housefly in the freezer for 5 minutes to slow it down for feeding, when I took it out it appeared stone cold dead....I put it in the mantis enclosure anyway and with in 5 mins it was buzzing away in the jaws of my hungry mantis.

I would personally find it quite distressing to find an impaled zombie mantis crawling around after I'd laid him to rest!

Thats my ewxperiences anyway,

Alan

 
Bees in particular have a natural defense against freezing and have been known to 'come back to life' even after days of freezing.

I'm not sure I agree with the whole 'it's painless' thing, but it is certainly the best method of disposal that i know of, especially since it's not like we can be-head the poor buggas, they just walk around wondering what's happened.

Dave

 
Mantids don't come back to life after freezing. It does them in quickly.

 
Rick, I have no question that it kills them, my dispute is that it is not painless. It depends how fast you're freezing them. In actual fact, a rapid freeze would be the most PAINFUL method over a slow freeze, reason you ask? If the temperature is reduced slowly over a period of time, then yes, it would slow their metabolism (in the same way orchid mantis breeders often keep their males cooler) and eventually once it gets low enough, the animal will die, painlessly due to their metabolism slowing to the point of no return. A rapid freeze in any home freezer is achieved and does indeed seem to quickly work on mantids, but ice crystals 'can' form (im not saying they always would, im only offering an opinion here so i dont need anyone crying at me) in the animals blood and cells before the final moment actually happens, i cannot see this as being painless, ever had frostbite? And no, it's not different...

There is no question that it kills them quickly, which is a good thing, but to say it's definately painless is wrong seeing as the only ones who know this for sure are the little guys in the freezer.

Dave

 
Let me clarify then. What I mean't to say was that there is no possibility of a mantis coming back to life after being frozen as in some insects. I'd rather freeze them because you know they die slowly over a few weeks.

 
I keep a decent culture of orange head roaches in a 10-gallon and keep them a little bit hungry. When a molt occurs that means death (or endless agony otherwise) I toss it in and look the other way as a tear drops from the corner of my eye. I turn around in 5 seconds and all I see is a pile of frenzied, happy orange heads and I don't feel so bad anymore. The circle of life seems a little more natural than a toilet.

 
I feed them to something else, size permitting. Is it painless? Probably not, but dying isnt supposed to be fun.... I honestly dont think dying in any form is painless (excluding being so morphined up you dont know who you are), ever see what happens when the vet euthanizes something? It isnt pretty.

 
Follow up sort of question... if the ooth is capable of overwintering, does that mean the mantid itself is capable of surviving sub-zero temperatures?

so what about an economical feeding of those individuals to other mantids in your stock? - i guess the bigger the better as similarly sized mantids will take longer to *bite off* bits... a larger one could eat in a few bites (hence less painful?!)

similar question... we all know that spiders paralyse and then *suck out the juices* so to speak, but when they paralyse, is it a neurotoxin that would render the prey pain-free?!

I don't know, i think i'd prefer something quicker than freezing... boiling water? fire? I've never does these things, but I'm just trying to think of quick, 'sure-fire' ways of ending it that I wouldn't be directly a part of (like treading on them)

 
Freezing IMO is the best way. They are dead within a couple minutes.

 
Most of the time I feed my dead/dying/mismolts to my bearded dragon. He loves them..lol. :p

Thanks,

Andrew

 
C'mon guys, we're interested in painless death. Feeding them to something.......

Using the "gas chamber" (chemicals in a sealed container) causes extreme discomfort as they frantically try to escape (regardless of their condition). Try placing them in the fridge, and after a while, move to the freezer. It's a bit like re-creating fall and winter, which eventually slows down and kills the ones outside.

Feeding to another? Haven't you guys watched the male idlely preen himself while the females start at one end and work to the head? Hours of fun!! (Kinda like watching ten bucks eat twenty bucks)

To conclude: Buh.

 
That's it!! We cook them on the stove!!!!

A little cheese, a little tomato, make a sauce, and voila!

:p Ohhh, just kidding.

 

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