Mantis poop

[Ricardo]

Hey guys. I feel sort of silly for posting this , but I just noticed over a period of about 4 days there have been small brown dry shapes hanging from the cc. I've never seen clover's feces look anything like this and I know the ootheca isn't supposed to look like this.Is this something I should be concerned about? Usually her feces is a wet splatter on the top of the lid, not a dry chunk hanging down.There has been no change in her diet. I thought she was laying individual oothecas when I saw them

is something wrong>?

EDIT : Move this to health thread

 

[davestreasurechest]

she is trying to lay, make sure she is well fed and plenty of humidity

 

[lancaster1313]

I have never had that species, but wet splattery feces doesn't sound all that good. My mantid's frass is usually like little pellets. I keep Stagmomantis carolina and Tenodera sinensis. Sometimes my mantids will squirt when they are fat, but I mostly clean up pellets. Like buginthebox said, what you have photographed looks like pieces of oothecae.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yes, I agree, though it isn't a problem if Clover is old, i.e. wild caught, and getting ready to die, but a sign that something is badly wrong if this is her first attempt at laying.

Protein, the main food source for mantids, contains nitrogen. which can easily form ammonia which can, in turn, quickly poison the insect. Animals convert the ammonia to something less toxic. We make urea, which is dissolved in the urine and excreted with it, but insects cannot afford to lose a lot of fluid, which is recycled back into the insect's blood (hemolymph) while the nitrogen is excreted as little pellets of uric acid. The fact that Clover is passing fluid may simply be another sign of increasing age. This has not been a problem for me as I grow older, but I do notice an increasing tendency to forget things, and I have started talking to the dog, though so far, we don't argue.

 

[Ricardo]

Yes, I agree, though it isn't a problem if Clover is old, i.e. wild caught, and getting ready to die, but a sign that something is badly wrong if this is her first attempt at laying.

Protein, the main food source for mantids, contains nitrogen. which can easily form ammonia which can, in turn, quickly poison the insect. Animals convert the ammonia to something less toxic. We make urea, which is dissolved in the urine and excreted with it, but insects cannot afford to lose a lot of fluid, which is recycled back into the insect's blood (hemolymph) while the nitrogen is excreted as little pellets of uric acid. The fact that Clover is passing fluid may simply be another sign of increasing age. This has not been a problem for me as I grow older, but I do notice an increasing tendency to forget things, and I have started talking to the dog, though so far, we don't argue.

she's only been adult for 3 weeks. Is she sick?

 

[Ntsees]

My mantids have those kind of ooths very late in the season when they are going to die. During that time, they've already had ~6 normal ooths. I guess its a sign that the mantid (mines at least) was very well spent.

 

[PhilinYuma]

she's only been adult for 3 weeks. Is she sick?

She doesn't seem to be in very good shape. Don't try doing anything dramatic, though, like increesing the temp or the humidity. I'm afraid that you can only proceed as usual and wait and see.

 

[Rick]

That is not feces, it is ooth material. I've seen that happen more than a few times and it often ended up with a mantis laying deformed ooth. As was mentioned, feces should be small dark colored pellets. Liquid feces means a sick mantis. Not really much you can do for a sick mantis except hope it clears up.

 

[PeterF]

I agree with Rick.

I can't see in the pictures. Is she very plump? Is she mated?

I would assume she's been making ooth material in anticipation of getting mated, and is now giving some off.

Alternatively. I had one european this fall who must have had a bad molt (wings all botched). I never tried to mate her because of it. But I thought the bad molt may have also screwed up her genitalia region as she would at times make long strands of ooth material.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

I agree with Rick.

I can't see in the pictures. Is she very plump? Is she mated?

I would assume she's been making ooth material in anticipation of getting mated, and is now giving some off.

Alternatively. I had one european this fall who must have had a bad molt (wings all botched). I never tried to mate her because of it. But I thought the bad molt may have also screwed up her genitalia region as she would at times make long strands of ooth material.

His mios have mated.

 

[Ricardo]

Is there any chance something will hatch from the individual ooths? She is fertile.

She eats fine, looks great , very plump and has shown no other signs of bad health. Her poo wasn't wet and splattery after she molted to adult. the fecal matter was all very normal. Up until now nothing has had me worried.

 

[lancaster1313]

Maybe she was just squirting out some excess fluid. I have seen a couple of my mantids do that even when they had normal frass otherwise. If she is acting normal, she might be fine. If the liquid looks like it was squirted out with some force, I think that it might be OK. But if it looks smeared around a bit then that is not so good.I haven't been keeping mantids very long, so I don't know if the incomplete oothecae will hatch. I doubt that they will hatch, but I am still holding on to some deformed and incomplete oothecae from some of my mantids, just in case.

 

[Ricardo]

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Do you have some nice size sticks at varying angles in the cage? Maybe she is having a hard time getting comfortable with her laying position. The only female I ever kept in one of those critter carriers also chose to lay all her cases on the sticks. Only time she ever used them. In my screen cages however all the girls give the sticks the claw and pick the walls/ceiling. I think they do it so I have to try and pry them off and grumble over ooth stains... <_<

 

[Rick]

Is there any chance something will hatch from the individual ooths? She is fertile.

She eats fine, looks great , very plump and has shown no other signs of bad health. Her poo wasn't wet and splattery after she molted to adult. the fecal matter was all very normal. Up until now nothing has had me worried.

Those bits are not ooths, they are merely small smudges of the ooth material. I am thinking she may be eggbound.

 

[Ricardo]

I have plenty of angles for her to lay on. She has been mated, and it's been about three weeks since, maybe even 4.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Those bits are not ooths, they are merely small smudges of the ooth material. I am thinking she may be eggbound.

Yes, that's certainly the best bet. I said earlier that I wouldn't change her conditions, but what is the relative humidity? If your house is now cooler than it was when the mantis was growing, the humidity may have dropped. If so, then definitely increase it, since that is the only thing that I know of to help with this problem.