My Mantis Didn't molt

[Mantis Man13]

My chinese mantis that was one molt from adult had huge swollen wing buds and became immobile and about to molt. Hours later he is still not molting and I think it is ok. Then, the mantis is so weak it is barely hanging on and falls. I see that he is very weak when I pick it up. The fall was not what caused this though. Did the mantis not able to molt its skin off? I made the ten gallon cage have humidity by having a paper towel on bottom and soaking it. Is that not enough?

 

[Connor]

Not sure what is going on... just maybe give it time. Update us on what happens

 

[Mantis Man13]

Barely moving. It tried to molt but couldnt get out at all thats what happened.

 

[Connor]

So you can see the old skin? Like he came out of a shell, but not all the way?

 

[Mantis Man13]

Yes except he didnt get out of it at all

 

[Connor]

Oh... that's gonna be tough. You can try to take the old skin off of him, but this sounds like a bad mismolt. You might not have had enough humidity if this happened.

 

[Mantis Man13]

But how do I get enough humidity? I soaked a paper towel on the bottom of the cage

 

[Connor]

I'm not sure, if you have a mesh top, humidity escapes pretty easily, but Chinese mantis don't need much humidity. Chinese mantis are very bad at molting so it probably wasn't your fault...

 

[Mystymantis]

I had something similar happen to one of my female Chinese mantises at her final adult molt. She was perfectly fine, then started to molt and wasn't able to get out of it all the way. It was very sad.

Sorry your mantis wasn't able to molt, its very sad when this happens. It does seem Chinese mantises are bad at molting sometimes.

 

[mantisfan101]

Yeah this same scenario happened to me...and the main cause was bad humidity...