New and need help.

[Bitsy]

I am new to this forum. I am an old lady of 56. Love Praying Mantis. I have over a hundred right now. Babies. The help I need is on the shedding. At least a third can't shed their skins. I lose so many. I put all I can in there to give them good shedding holds, but it doesn't help. Is this normal or a sign that something is not right?I need advice on this. How do I get them to shed without dying?

 

[Zeppy44]

Heyas and welcome, young lady. LOL 71 here.

Might help if we know what kind of mantis you are caring for. Different mantis have very different requirements.  Also there are care sheets on many of the most kept. That may give you some guidance.

The shedding is called molting. Beside places to molt, some of the other causes of bad molts are inadequate humidity, stress, crowding, and temperature.

Hope this helps a bit, It may give you a place to start.

 

[Bitsy]

Just some I ordered over the web. I think they called them Chinese.

 

[azblue]

Can you tell us some more about their setup? Are they all together? What do you keep them in? How often do you mist the enclosure and what temperature is the room they're in? 

 

[Bitsy]

Here is the container, an empty one. I use a soaked cotton ball for their water. The temp is the house temp. 70 at night and 72 during the day. Not together. each one has it own container.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Welcome, how big are they when molting, the cup ladder looks like it would be in the way. 

 

[Teamonger]

Without knowing more I would guess its likely humidity. I know from my own hatching that the mantises in my humidity controlled aquarium which has its own humidifer molt much faster/better then those that have been moved into individual cups and sprayed once/twice a day depending on how dry the room is.

 

[Bitsy]

Colorado...so it is very dry. But the have wet cotton balls in the containers. Also they are very small. This like their first molt.

 

[Sarah K]

Colorado...so it is very dry. But the have wet cotton balls in the containers. Also they are very small. This like their first molt.

If it is their first molt (especially chinese), it is normal to lose a lot of nymphs on the first shed. It is survival of the fittest, nature's way of getting rid of the weaker nymphs. once you get your mantises past the first 2 molts, they should be more stable. Good Luck!

 

[Bitsy]

I was wondering if it wasn't just because the kind of Mantis I have. The second egg case I would say I lost 3/4 of them. But I also noticed when they hatched a few came out not looking right and I lost a few. From that egg case I didn't think they looked good. But Thanks to all for the advice.

 

[Rick]

Welcome.

If these are Chinese mantids it is not uncommon to lose most of them.