Yes, the mantis is still alive, barely. He's not lookin' so good. But alive. Oliver: I don't know what you're talking about. Phil has always been sweet and kind to me. I suggest you take your teen girl drama somewhere else, and that's coming from a teen girl! ( :lol: )
No. Zoe, I wasn't sweet and kind to poor Oliver, who, after asking for advice on this forum and receiving a lot of good suggestions from Rick and others, explicitly dismissed them in favor of his vet (!), who said, I believe , that the mantis will live or die, and his brother's pathologist who will test his mantids' stool for, among other things, "viral infection"(!)
As you have discovered, mantids, like other insects, can malfunction in ways that confound us and that would kill the insect in nature. When you start reading books on entomology, you will find that no one is funding research on mantis maladies and that therefore, there is no scientific information on them. Initially, Oliver described an isolated case that appeared to have nothing to do with infection, but subsequent information suggested that it certainly is.
Most of us, including Rebecca and Rick, who gave suggestions in this case, usually only have isolated cases of premature mantis death. Oliver is unusual in that he is experiencing an epidemic. Whether an epidemic occurs in a town, hospital (very common!) or bug room, human error, i.e. bad husbandry, is almost always to blame. Bacterial infections, particularly, are virtually always due to conditions that allow bacterial contagion. Frederick Prete summarizes this nicely in his
The Praying Mantids: "Disease can pose a threat, and some facilities have lost entire cultures to infections (in some cases, possibly introduced by crickets from commercial suppliers). Disease is unusual, however, and reasonable cleanliness, moderate humidity, and quarantine of new arrivals will minimize risk." p.315.
Most of us can neither afford nor need the luxury of a culture, though it might point the way to avoiding a repetition of the problem, and we sometimes endanger our healthy stock by keeping a mantis alive that should probably be destroyed. In Oliver's case, destruction of his entire stock and sterilization or replacement of all equipment is probably the best way to proceed. This, obviously, does not apply to you and your isolated case, and I seriously doubt that your little guy carries an infectoion.
So there you have it. I must admit, though, that I regret suggesting to Oliver that he start collecting tie pins. He lives in a country that boasts the supremely collectible Limoges china.....
