Molting too low?

[PrayingMantisPets]

My Giant african stick mantis is molting very low. about an inch and a half off the ground. what happens if it does not have enough space to molt?

(L1-L2 molt)

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

Update: My mantis is about 3 mm away for the floor.

What happens if a mantis molts very low to the ground in general? What happen?

 

[CosbyArt]

It is too low, they need to have room to pull themselves out of the old exoskeleton. At the point where the mantis is nearly free from the old exoskeleton when molting, it will be twice the normal height of the nymph.

What happens is the nymph will become stuck, and unable to finish molting. At that point there is nothing you can do to help, I've tried many times - if it does get stuck it sadly will die.

If it is molting you may try to very carefully move the twig up higher; however be extremely careful because if it falls during a molt it will become stuck in the old exoskeleton or other damage.

 

[LAME]

If it is molting you may try to very carefully move the twig up higher; however be extremely careful because if it falls during a molt it will become stuck in the old exoskeleton or other damage.

Indeed, I've actually had to do this with 3 of the species I've owned so far. Echo being among that list... Be extremely EXTREMELY careful if you move it.

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

Yup my mantis got stuck! Both of it's back legs are bent. Once again I spend spend spend but I get nothing out of it! This will be the 5th death this year if she dosent make it.

It was my only female. Out of two males.

What's next?

 

[Rick]

Was it not possible to move whatever it was molting from? Generally you don't want to disturb a molting mantis but in these situations you need to. This is the primary reason I don't include perches (e.g., sticks, plants) that give the mantis the option of molting too low.

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

It was very risky to move her. I put some extra cloth fabric on the lid. The lid is hard to remove. It would have shaken her up like crazy!

I took the chance to just watch and wait to see what happens. I did spray her right before she molted. She managed to get everything out except her back right leg. I flicked her container softly and she pulled her leg out. I turned off the lights and fell asleep. I peeked at her this morning and her back legs looked a little bent. I'll let you guys know what happens. I should post again around 3:30 pm

 

[LAME]

If she has more molts coming I'd recommend removing any low hanging sticks or plants to prevent that from happening again.

 

[Jay]

That is some sound advice, Rick and Lame. As my little Ghost mantids got bigger I removed all the other bushy-type material and hot-glued sticks to the top screened area. I had better do the same for one of my other containers soon!

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

ive always had sticks in my mantises enclosures. This is the first time this has happened to me.

 

[CosbyArt]

ive always had sticks in my mantises enclosures. This is the first time this has happened to me.

Sorry to hear you had problems, but at least it survived.

Same here with the sticks, the mantises really seem to like them. One trick I have started doing anymore though, to prevent the molting problems, is to make the twig/stick nearly vertical so it will not molt from it. So far I haven't ran into any problems with it since.

 

[LAME]

Yeah, i also add one or two myself, but keep "high points" for other molting objects besides the lid. Depending on the size of the enclosure I'm working with of course...but you don't want to jam pack the enclosure.

Edit: Sorry... I too use sticks and twigs. But also another good idea is to look around trees and find decent sized ( or w/e sized...) sheet of tree bark. Looks mighty fine an a mantis home =)