Mantis shoots white "liquid".

[Diaeghart]

Hello, some days after my female Mantis Religiosa mated, it started shooting a strange liquid from its rear end. Every day or so, I found a couple of drops on the wall of her container. I even watched her shooting this stuff once or twice. The description of the liquid is as follows: Transparent drops that, when seen closely, contain small white balls in them. I left the drops on the wall some days but nothing happened. The white liquid didn't even evaporate. I'm kind of clueless about what this can be, but the mantis appears to be healthy (eats very well and has a normal behaviour)

What can be happening?

PS: last time she shot this liquid, the small balls were brownish.

Thank you.

 

[Rick]

Uric acid/urea?

http://cronodon.com/BioTech/insects_excretion.html

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I'm with Rick on this. I've noticed this tends to crop up in female mantises more than males. Generally it isn't an issue and resolves itself. If it keeps happening though I might look into switching up the diet some.

 

[Gizmo]

I don't know what happened tonight. I was holding her in my hand, nothing exciting... then her wings lifted slightly and I saw her butt do something...I saw white liquid for half a second before it shot my direction and got my arm and my cheek.

She was somewhat facing me -- I'd say I was at her 11:00 position, and somehow it shot my way. She was in my left hand and some of it got on my right shoulder.

I have been searching for hours both on this forum and on the net and while I see it does happen, I can't figure out what happened.

edit: http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=23501&hl=uric#entry177154'>this sounds more like it she "flicked" it, probably not at me.

 

[Sticky]

Sounds like she pissed on you!

 

[Gizmo]

 

[mantisman 230]

Pretty much liquid waste that would explain any spots on the enclosure walls xD

 

[Gizmo]

Honestly, as long as it's not something indicating she's sick or a defense mechanism, I'm okay with that.

Not that I like having waste sprayed on me or anything.

 

[CosbyArt]

Honestly, as long as it's not something indicating she's sick or a defense mechanism, I'm okay with that.

Not that I like having waste sprayed on me or anything.

Understandable. Does sound strange though, like she is working out some excess build up as Rick said. If she is acting fine other than the white substance, I wouldn't worry. As you mentioned it looks the same as another time it was brown, it sounds like diarrhea. What do you feed her?

 

[rbird]

Hmm, your first post about this was almost a month ago, did you change the diet and it's still happening or not change the diet?

 

[Gizmo]

Understandable. Does sound strange though, like she is working out some excess build up as Rick said. If she is acting fine other than the white substance, I wouldn't worry. As you mentioned it looks the same as another time it was brown, it sounds like diarrhea. What do you feed her?

Crickets, specifically the Petco VitaBugs. Tried mealworms but she doesn't like them. Twice she'd catch one, look at it, then drop it.

She did it again the other night (something white briefly appears from her tail before she flicks it) and this time I dodged my head. I want to say that right before that I saw something white coming from her mouth that she quickly pulled back in before that happened.

 

[CosbyArt]

Crickets, specifically the Petco VitaBugs. Tried mealworms but she doesn't like them. Twice she'd catch one, look at it, then drop it.

She did it again the other night (something white briefly appears from her tail before she flicks it) and this time I dodged my head. I want to say that right before that I saw something white coming from her mouth that she quickly pulled back in before that happened.

My mantids were the same way with mealworms, they wouldn't eat them and would rather starve. With the crickets are you feeding them for a few days before feeding to your mantid? I ask as often crickets are kept with little/no food at stores and then they often eat the dead crickets, so they can be gutloaded with nasty dead crickets.

Strange behavior I have to admit I haven't seen in any of my mantids.

 

[Gizmo]

No I don't feed them. I only get about 10 at a time.

 

[CosbyArt]

No I don't feed them. I only get about 10 at a time.

Very well could be the crickets, as it is recommended to feed them for at least 2 days before feeding your mantis. You might want to try feeding the crickets before she gets them to see if that helps your girl.

If I buy crickets for feeding I empty the bag (crickets and egg crate piece) in a new plastic food container (about 6" wide and 12"+ tall) with holes poked in the lid - nothing fancy. That allows me to feed them to my mantis easy when it comes time using my tweezers/thongs. In the meantime I feed them potatoes for food and water, and one of my cricket fed mixes.

 

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My females have flicked a clear substance. I didn't look at in under a microscope, but it seemed to correlate to their calling for a male. I actually thought it may be pheromones. But this has happened several times and I am curious as to what this is. My healthiest female mantid did it about a month ago. I ran out of males and she keeps calling for them. Maybe mine is not the same as yours. This was a clear substance.

Hmmm...

 

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Now looking at my cages, I do see a white substance on the wall. That they must be shooting from their rears! What is it? They have normal stools! So weird!