MY HIERODULA NYMPHS ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!

[kingmantissupply09]

My Hierodula Bipapilla nymphs that I have been culturing are dying for literally no reason humidity and temp, are fine, I feed them daily. Give them water daily and they still persist in giving me nothing in return but death. This is by far the most frustrating species i have ever hatched and cultured. The ootheca also took a million years to hatch, and when it did it hatch in an unsyncronized way. It is actually still hatching out nymphs but not fast enough to counter act the death rate of my current nymphs.

 

[Aryia]

I raised mine at 60% indoor humidity and around 80 degF indoor room temperature. Misted and fed every 3 days with D. melanogaster, losses were quite minimal. And yes.. the oothecas seem to take forever to hatch.

How exactly do they die? Are their abdomens full? I had an issue with S. quinquedens and adding in excelsior and reducing feeding frequency fixed it for me. All the flies running around were stressing out the nymphs too much.

 

[kingmantissupply09]

I raised mine at 60% indoor humidity and around 80 degF indoor room temperature. Misted and fed every 3 days with D. melanogaster, losses were quite minimal. And yes.. the oothecas seem to take forever to hatch.

How exactly do they die? Are their abdomens full? I had an issue with S. quinquedens and adding in excelsior and reducing feeding frequency fixed it for me. All the flies running around were stressing out the nymphs too much.

I have good humidity and the temp. may occasionally drop one or two degrees below 80 but usually stays at 80. They die with there abdomens normal size and they show signs of weakness the day before they die, its pretty weird.

 

[Vlodek]

I think you might be keeping your nymphs to wet. I keep my Hierodula nymphs in 32 oz cups, 5-7 nymphs in each, temp around 70-75F and spray once every 2-3 days enough for a drink. After few hours most of the moisture is gone. I increase humidity slightly only when nymphs are starting to molt.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Saying you have good humidity and temps doesn't really give users enough insight to offer specific advice since good humidity and temps means different things to different people. It would probably be helpful to mention what humidity range you are using along with temps, and type of containers you are using in your opening post so other users familiar with the species can better offer advice.

Is this an ootheca from your mantises or did you ship it in? How quickly are they passing away after hatching? You mention offering water/food so are they successfully drinking and eating before reaching the point where they die off?

 

[kingmantissupply09]

Saying you have good humidity and temps doesn't really give users enough insight to offer specific advice since good humidity and temps means different things to different people. It would probably be helpful to mention what humidity range you are using along with temps, and type of containers you are using in your opening post so other users familiar with the species can better offer advice.

Is this an ootheca from your mantises or did you ship it in? How quickly are they passing away after hatching? You mention offering water/food so are they successfully drinking and eating before reaching the point where they die off?

The ootheca was shipped to me from someone else. I keep it at 78-80 degrees and at 60% humidity and they are sinking and eating voraciously before they pass, even when it is obvious that one will pass it still will never refuse a fly or water.

 

[kingmantissupply09]

I think you might be keeping your nymphs to wet. I keep my Hierodula nymphs in 32 oz cups, 5-7 nymphs in each, temp around 70-75F and spray once every 2-3 days enough for a drink. After few hours most of the moisture is gone. I increase humidity slightly only when nymphs are starting to molt.

Thank you for the advice So they are a communal species?

 

[agent A]

Thank you for the advice So they are a communal species?

NO!! when young, if given plenty of food and room, they tolerate each other, but after L2 or L3 they become viciously cannibalistic

 

[kingmantissupply09]

NO!! when young, if given plenty of food and room, they tolerate each other, but after L2 or L3 they become viciously cannibalistic

That definitely answers my question. Thanks Agent A

 

[Krissim Klaw]

The ootheca was shipped to me from someone else. I keep it at 78-80 degrees and at 60% humidity and they are sinking and eating voraciously before they pass, even when it is obvious that one will pass it still will never refuse a fly or water.

If you had it shipped in there is a possibility at one point the ootheca was in too unfavorable of a condition and it dehydrated. Sometimes oothecae can dehydrate just enough where the nymphs can still manage to hatch but their bodies are so forgone that they have already started to shut down and are past the point of being able to spring back even if they try to drink or eat. I'm not sure about the timeline, but if they are dieing within days of hatching this is a possibility. It is one of the reasons it is risky to order ootheca because even if you care for it well, it can be hard to tell if something happened to it before you got it.

If the mantises are living more than a couple days however before crashing however I would be looking more toward the environment you are raising them in. If you are raising them in deli cups you have to be real careful about the humidity. It is so easy for things to become stagnant in deli cups because of the lack of airflow. Adding a mesh vent to the sides can help protect against this. Generally when I hear of otherwise healthy nymphs dropping without warning I tend to suspect too much humidity/lack of airflow. Not enough humidity on the other hand tends to show during the actual molting process. That has been my experience at least.

I wish you the best of luck.