In the twilight of her life..

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Eyedelight

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Hi everyone. This last year has been filled with Mantis love. We lost one nymph named Manty from our first egg case, but Lady Tickles (from the second egg case) has lived and given us approximately 6 months of joy and two egg cases. She's losing her limbs though slowly, and she seems lethargic with the occasional sporadic burst of activity. She's gotten very clumsy and not even hungry. She'll catch the fly, sometimes with one arm but she won't go to eat it. Even handfeeding her a honey covered fly didn't work. She looks but doesn't seem very interested. One wing seems brittle and bent despite ample moisture and her little tummy looks soft and shriveled.

 I spent the day with her in my garden tub full of houseplants, she's so beautiful perched among the foliage,  even being a little rough around the edges in her age, my heart is breaking. 

I'm crying my eyes out as I type this because I'm far too attached to her. I wish I could keep her forever, preserve her somehow but that might be more upsetting for me. I have a little head stone for her made of wood and I will burn her name into the plaque. 

I don't want her to suffer.. I don't want to be premature either, she's our first fully grown mantis. It's quite cold up here, I imagine that's the only quick and gentle way we could go about euthanizing her. Is that the best way?  Does it seem like it's her time? 
 

20171214_tickles-1.jpg

 
For anyone curious, Tickles' last molt was September 16. Her first ootheca was October 27 (she never mated), and her second one was December second which was drastically smaller than the first one. She has seemed pretty weak ever since the second ootheca. I have been feeding her blue bottle flies, and with out weather being at 9F right now I don't have any other options. Considered getting a few crickets from Petsmart, but all the dead crickets in there made me decide against it. 

 
It might be time to end it... it’s really too bad mantis don’t live longer. I’m sorry to hear you have to go through this. The freezer might be a better option than outside because they are usually colder.

 
Sorry to hear you're going through that.  I also have a wild-caught female Chinese right now that I assume will be entering her end of life time sometime soon.  She is my second adult mantis, with my first being a male that died in September.  My male went downhill fast and within a day of showing major clumsiness and weakness, he had passed.  I put him in the freezer for 48 hours to be safe.

If the symptoms are lasting quite a while, it's ultimately up to you if you want to let nature run its course or you want to step in and put her to sleep when you can't bear to watch anymore.  Either way she has had a longer life than she would have outside thanks to you, and I'm sure it was filled with yummy bugs, honey and fun times exploring with you!

 
My female Chinese mantis is also nearing her end of life. We brought her inside a few months ago after the postman saw her on our bay window. She's given us three ooths and is really slowing down. Hard to watch, I agree. I never thought I'd get attached to a bug. 

 
Tickles passed on Tuesday, we miss her terribly, I'll update with some hopefully awesome photos when I get past my computer issues. She was a beautiful creature, I still gaze at her little habitat looking for her. Missing her on Christmas but I want to wish a Very Merry Mantis Christmas to all the other mantises out there and their owners. Thank you all so much for your support and wealth of information  <3

 
So sorry to hear about the loss of Tickles. :(  Very Mantis Christmas to you, too. 

 

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