Mismolting

[Montana_Mantids]

This is not a thread about worrying about mismolting, it is a thread to show that it happens to everyone. Unfortunately there are times when you can do nothing to help your mantis, but other times there are, and sometimes you could even save a mantis that even you thought there was no hope for. Mismolting is horrible, but it happens to the best of us. I want to share some of my mistakes in hope that others can learn from them just as I have. If you have any stories or pictures of your mantises that either made it or didn’t make it after a mismolt, feel free to share it. While this is not exactly a happy post, I think that a lot of people on the forum will benefit from it. Thanks for sharing your stories and photos if you do.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

One of the first things I want to mention is that mismolting isn’t always because of incorrect temperature and humidity conditions. While this is sometimes one of the most common ways for a mantis to mismolt, the following pictures are from mantises that were crushed in a lid by my old mantis sitter. This is the first time I’ve experienced this because I’ve always been good at not crushing the mantises in the lid.

 

[Sticky]

Thank you for this. A friend is having trouble with mismolts.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Little bit of an update on the female ghost. She molted this morning, and is looking great. I’ll send pictures later today.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Little bit of an update on the female ghost. She molted this morning, and is looking great. I’ll send pictures later today.

 

[roblack]

"Old mantis sitter" lol; either they were fired, retired, or something happened to them.

Glad your ghost is doing better, she is a beauty!

Great topic, hope to learn more and share. Keeping our mantids outside on a covered porch, in enclosures. Since outdoor humidity is higher than indoors (and temp usually), it is less work to up the humidity if needed. I do worry about temp getting too high.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Haha. Ya, I didn’t necessarily fire them, but I definitely won’t ask them to look after my mantises ever again