Mantis won't molt

[Eliekhananya]

Hey all, I recently bought a ghost mantis,  I think she's either l3 or l4 she molted once with me,I can see the segments and can tell she's a female if that helps, but today is April 13 2018 she molted March third, the reason I think she's not molting is because I accidentally smashed her lol, sounds bad but she's totally fine, so I put nail polish to stop the bleading, she walks perfectly fine too nothing wrong with her, only problem is that she won't eat.. and ik mantids don't eat when they're about to molt but she hasn't really eaten anything in almost 2 weeks.. drinks water but doesn't eat, I've also owned 3 mantids before  first one lasted a long time a year and 2 months second one only lived after she got her wings lol, all molted fine except this one. Thanks.

 

[River Dane]

You don’t mean nail polish, right?  

If you believe she will molt, you should try to avoid disturbing her. Check on her every so often to make sure she’s not starving to death. If she seems extremely thin, you can cut her prey in half and hold the gooey end up to her face, and that should get her to start eating.

 

[Eliekhananya]

that's exactly what i mean lol, nail polish you read it right. yeah mate been watching her for over 2 weeks, wont eat wont molt, weird. also i might be the dumbest guy but isnt nail polish the same as nail hardener?? saw this on a forum, putting nail hardener on a injured area to stop the bleeding apparently did the job. i also put nail polish on the first one and she seemed fine, all her legs and arms broke at the end tho anyways, cant blame her she lived too long lol a year and 2 months i finally killed her cause she just won't die but this one seems to be dying like the last one but she's running, hyper and seems healthy, oh well lol. 

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Nail polish is not the same as nail hardener and I wouldn't recommend using either one on a mantis, both sound like terrible ideas.

 

[TheShadyMantid]

You finally killed her because she just won’t die? At first I thought maybe u were trolling, but as it looks like your mantis is blue, I’m assuming u really did put nail polish on her.  

Hopefully she is just not eating because she is getting ready to molt, but it could also be because you are not caring for her properly.  My suggestion to you would be to stop keeping mantids until you do some extensive research on their care and happiness.  

 

[Serle]

I thought this thread was a joke , some thing about nail polish . It possibly armorized her therefore she can not moult........ S

 

[Eliekhananya]

Haha I love idiots like you "you should stop Carring for mantids", sh¡te happens poor ladie lost a leg and I tried to put nail polish on her LIKE AN IDIOT but oh well, and yeah you're right i think I did armourize her sadly, and to the other idiot yes I killed Her, poor ladie lived too long and she even started breaking off, first off her legs started breaking, then arms she lived too long, so yes I KILLED HER lol. Thanks for the replys tho, $20 spent well.

 

[Eliekhananya]

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[Predatorhousepet]

Many of us have had to euthanize a mantis that is in poor health with no hope of recovery. We don't like doing it but sometimes it's better than letting them suffer needlessly. You said her arms and legs were breaking and that was why you chose to put her down, this is not the same thing as "killing her because she lived too long." Seems like a poor choice of words that led to a misunderstanding. 

Unfortunately there is a lot of bad information out there so it helps to get second and third opinions from experienced keepers before trying any sort of remedy, especially if you are unsure about it. A lot of the time it's better just to leave them be, we can end up causing a lot more harm trying to help them than leaving them alone. The nail polish seems particularly dangerous not only because of the volatile chemicals but because it won't allow the exoskeleton to move when they try to molt. The exoskeleton needs to be able to split open in the back and it looks like you've got nail polish covering that entire area making it impossible for her to molt normally. She might comfortably live a while longer like that but eventually it's going to be a big problem....not sure how that will manifest, but you may need to euthanize her eventually if it looks like she is doing very poorly. I suppose its remotely possible she could split open her exoskeleton elsewhere and try to molt but this is unlikely to go well. It's basically a wait and see game, let us know what happens. And please in the future ASK someone experienced before trying to put anything on a mantis in order to "fix" her.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

poor ladie lost a leg and I tried to put nail polish on her LIKE AN IDIOT but oh well, and yeah you're right i think I did armourize her sadly

You say she lost a leg so you tried to fix it with nail polish and from the pic it looks like you mean her right raptoral arm...but if this is the case why did you put nail polish on her back and rear? If a mantis loses an arm or leg they can function just fine without it, there is no need to try to "fix" it. You said you also put nail polish on your previous mantis and claimed she was "fine" but then you also said her arms and legs started breaking off...perhaps there is a correlation there. If you needed to "fix" both of your mantises with nail polish maybe there is something you need to be doing differently in how you care for them. 

 

[Eliekhananya]

no, the first one that i put nail polish on her was fine, but her legs started literally falling off bc she lived too long, i didn't mess with whatsoever so i put her down in the end, previous one died after a week after she got her wings, never used polish on her lol, but this one i did,  lots of blood was coming out of her and i instantly remembered the nail polish so I put it on her not knowing it would cause this much damage but oh well, i also think she's not eating because she doesn't wanna get big so she wont have to molt and break her exoskeleton like u said, anyways yeah i will be more careful thanks for the reply. and for sure i'll keep u updated lol

 

[Jessie]

@Eliekhananya So you found it funny to kill your manits....and 20 bucks well spent? >.> wow..just wow.

 

[Jessie]

@Eliekhananya By the way to the people you called idiots their not the ones who put nail polish on a mantis, so if you could please refrain from being rude to others and calling names. That would be great,

thanks.

 

[Eliekhananya]

Did I kill her? Did I skin her? Or did she just molt?? 

 

[Eliekhananya]

@Predatorhousepet since you wanted to know she's alive and well, it only took her 2 months to molt lol but she hasn't eaten in 3 weeks, she better not die out on me tomorrow, gonna go buy some flies and hope she eats.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Amazing.  I am surprised she was able to split elsewhere and molt successfully but I guess she didn't have much of a choice, she probably literally exploded out of her old exoskeleton when the new one finally put enough pressure on it to tear it. 

Even though this ended up turning out ok doesn't mean the nail polish was a good idea. Molting in this way likely highly stressed out the mantis. You said she still wasn't eating even after molting. Were you finally able to get her to eat?

 

[Eliekhananya]

@Predatorhousepet she ate after molting, I just didn't have the proper food but i did have some large worms that I chopped up and gave to her, so far so good.

 

[Eliekhananya]

@Jessie I found it hilarious to kill her. Fight me.