Nymph first molt, back legs stuck. :(

[kyleenstar]

I am sure you guys get questions like this frequently, I remember browsing through similar things, but I could not find exactly what I am looking for.. I hope someone can give me some help!

I noticed one of our nymphs has been dangling a little longer than the rest.. Everyone else as finished their molts.

His back legs are still stuck to his skin. He is moving and looks like he is TRYING to get out, but he can't. I got the old skin a little wet for him, and brought up a flower for him to crawl on to, but he just dragged the old skin with him.. So now he is kind of just trudging along with his old skin stuck to his back legs.. I don't know if the back legs are going to be usable or not, I guess it might depend on my next move?

Please help me out! He's so sad- looking.

 

[Ghost_Keeper]

Now, this is really all I'd do, and it may sound harsh.

I'd tear off the moult slowly, trying to preserve the legs. If they came off, or were mangled, just kill him via freezer. That's about it.

 

[hibiscusmile]

He wont make it with bad back legs, u could try on his next molt to tape the ends of his legs to help him thru it, but it is hard to tell just when to do it.

 

[Chungy]

I recently have a hierodula sp. blue nymph that had the same problem. I lightly misted it and waited a few minutes, then I use a tweezers to grab the skin it was dragging behind while the nymph attempt to dash forward to get away. After a few seconds, it eventually pulled its leg out of the skin, although that leg seems to be pointing at the wrong direction and it doesn't seems to be able to control it, but it is not affecting much as of now. It is feeding and moving around fine, I am hoping the next molt will repair the damages.

 

[PlayingMantis]

If the mantis is a young nymph, I think it has a decent chance of surviving two bad back legs. I've had L3s/L4s with bad back legs molt fine, and they fixed their legs in the next molt. However, old nymphs, especially subadults, have a lot more trouble, as they're heavier and seem unable to grip properly with only two working legs.

 

[Goodkoalie]

Your mantis should be fine as long as it is able to eat. My orchid mantis had a bent and mangled leg when it arrived after shipping, and each molt has led to it becoming more and more normal. After it's latest molt to l4, the leg is almost completely normal.

 

[[email protected]]

It depends on how bad the legs are injured. I've seen some miraculous things with back legs healing (on younger mantids) as long as they are strong and fed right away.

 

[PlayingMantis]

Not the first time I've seen this - recently one of my gongy's repaired itself after molting from L2 to L3. Earlier, its back legs were stuck in a molt, so I pulled them out and they were twisted the wrong way. The feet (tarsi) were sticking straight up in the air, so essentially the mantis could only molt using two legs.