Mantis Attack!!!

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kmsgameboy

kmsgameboy

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How long had you been keeping mantids before you had one "attack" one of your fingers, hands, etc? How did it happen?

 
AmandaLynn said:
It's never actually happened to me. I've had big adult females cling tightly but have never actually been attacked. I'm always careful.
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Im always careful too but that didnt stop a hungry chinese female from grabbing my finger last year and actually drawing blood. I had kept mantids for two years and had never even had one try to grab me, nor had I ever given one a reason to, however one day I was trying to get one of my chinese mantids to climb onto my hand when she grabbed me. It hurt but I know it happens so have just shrugged it off.
 
It is very easy for the tips of the front legs to pierce skin.

 
I had it happened to me twice last year!! One with a giant chineese mantis and one with a hungry nymph <_<

 
I had an adult male popa spurca fly on me and he landed in the cat litter box. The cats were eyeing him so I had to grab him and it startled him and he pinched me, it freaked me out a little! haha

 
I have had Chinese females grab me and eat a hole into my flesh before I was able to pry them off without harming them.

It has happened more often to my daughter, she has a sweet tooth, and doesn't always wash her hands thouroughly after eating.

Sweet foody fingers can sometimes get them nibbling, usually they don't bite into the flesh, but sometimes they will grasp and eat at a sweet finger. :lol:

If it was aggression or defensiveness, my mantids would just smack or grab and quickly release the offending finger, not causing as much damage as a hungry mantis.

 
likebugs said:
I have had Chinese females grab me and eat a hole into my flesh before I was able to pry them off without harming them. It has happened more often to my daughter, she has a sweet tooth, and doesn't always wash her hands thouroughly after eating. Sweet foody fingers can sometimes get them nibbling, usually they don't bite into the flesh, but sometimes they will grasp and eat at a sweet finger. :lol: If it was aggression or defensiveness, my mantids would just smack or grab and quickly release the offending finger, not causing as much damage as a hungry mantis.
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:eek: It ate a hole into your finger!?!
 
i play with alot of my mantises all the time and i think i get defensive striked at me at a rate of once every 3 months lol. Mostly when i first try to handle them, and secondly when i try to show a friend the defense poss =P

 
I was actually a noob. I just started the hobby like 2 months before that. I got my chinese mantis female out to "Explore" and when I set her on my finger she started biting me. Soon she drew blood and started lapping up the blood. Usually my first reaction when getting bit by a bug is to smack it off, but I couldn't because she was my baby. I had to peel her off. Guess mantises love the taste of Human!

 
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The_American said:
I was actually a noob. I just started the hobby like 2 months before that. I got my chinese mantis female out to "Explore" and when I set her on my finger she started biting me. Soon she drew blood and started lapping up the blood. Usually my first reaction when getting bit by a bug is to smack it off, but I could because she was my baby. I had to peel her off. Guess mantises love the taste of Human!
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Eeew, that is freaky!

 
I guess to some of them, meat is meat. :lol: I do have some that will release me once they realize that I am not their food, but once in a while they will chow down. I always keep a feeder handy, so if I am grasped, I can quickly put the feeder in front of their mouth if they try to bite.

Any object that will fit between the mouth and the forelegs can be used to block the bite when it happens.

I remove a biting mantis carefully, cause it doesn't hurt that bad and I would rather not hurt my pets. I don't think that some of them know any better or care if they are chowing down on human flesh. :rolleyes:

Also, randy males in the mood for mating can be a pain to remove from fingers. :mellow: They don't bite, but if they take a liking to a finger they have quite a grip, then they usually end up gripping the fingers that are trying to remove them. :lol: I am careful not to handle adult males when I am trying to breed a pair. I will transfer them directly from the container to a place behind the female, sometimes with a stick or piece of fake plant from their container. Those males can be easily confused. ;)

 
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Last year I had an adult female Chinese mantis bite me like three times between August and November. The first time, she was climbing around on my gecko's cage, and she slipped and fell. I guess she blamed me because when I picked her up, she bit the heck out of my finger. The second and third times, she was just flying around the house and I was trying to catch her. She did NOT like it. My ghost nymphs bit me a couple times each when I first got them in the mail, but they're very well fed now and they don't bite anymore. Even though they're only L4 and it would hardly hurt right now anyway. But Chinese bites REALLY hurt.

 
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Wow I had no idea that chinese and ghost mantids could be such biters! I have kept both and they are normaly so calm! I totaly am with you guys though. Even if one of my mantids bit me I would never swat at it. These are my babies...my little blood thirsty, vampire insect babies. :p

 
I've never had what I would call an outright attack. I did have one Chinese female snag my thumb when I was trying to hand feed her. This was back in the day when my methods of feeding involved dangling a cricket by its back leg so I could watch her eat while perched on my hand. To her credit, she released immediately when I started to pull back.

The greatest pinches however I have gotten have all been by fat Chinese females toward the end of their lives when they start using their claws like ice picks and will clamp right down on things to pull themselves up. I wouldn't call that attack though since they aren't doing it to attack just clumsily trying to get around.

Make no mistake though, Chinese females are not to be messed with. I've always handled mine without fear, but with respect. They are going to move about at their own pace and woe be the human that tries to rush them or not treat them like the little queens they are.

My long neck girls are complete sweet hearts by comparison. I've never had one so much as mock strike at me and they are also far more delicate when it comes to climbing around, even in their old age.

 

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