nymphs dying. Dry red substance left on lid of enclosure.

[Bathory]

Mantids can throw up if they overeat but it shouldn't be bad enough to kill them. Keep in mind that many nymphs in the wild die, it's the reason why some species hatch so many nymphs from one ooth. Some of them just aren't healthy from the start and they tend to die during the earlier instars. Sorry for your loss, it always sucks when they die too early.

 

[MantisGirl13]

@Bathory It is true that most chinese nymphs don't survive their first few instars, but they don't usually die from an infection or sickness, just weakness. In this case,  I think something is wrong with his mantids.

- MantisGirl13

 

[Darth Mantis]

Two more had the same problem as the others and I gave them both honey and water one of two died the next day and was acting very odd so I wasn't suprised by that. The other one ate the honey/water and the fly just fine and acted totally normal he threw up a little the next but after that he stopped and eating fine and I took him out of quarantine recently and he molted pretty soon after and now hes seems to be the most active of all the ones I have. So of all the 4 mantises that came down with this condition only one has survived but now he seems to be thriving and hes doing great. I decided to dissect the one who died (would not recommend doing that on a pet it was not fun but I thought for the other ones sake I should to see if i could learn anything useful to save the other sick one) and when I did his intestine where full of nothing but air which to me seems very not normal but idk insect anatomy that well. So from the autopsy it seems that when this happened it very important to make sure they get something in them to eat so they arent empty from throwing up. The one who died was not very willing to eat the honey water or fly's and the one who lived was very willing to eat which seems to have saved his life.

 

[Mantis Lady]

The will to live tells a lot. Maybe the one that died had already given up.

Good one got better and is very active?

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Mantids have a digestive system that basically consists of a single tube going down the length of their body. If that was full of air then I'd say to watch your mantids when feeding to make sure they are actually eating. As stated before mantids can throw up from overeating but this isn't usually fatal, they will usually stop eating before they seriously damage themselves (...although I have heard of one case of an S. aureus mantis eating itself to death by having way too much in one sitting.)

They also have a system of tubes throughout their abdomen called trachae that serves as it's respiratory system, these are supposed to be full of air, it's how they breathe.