One a day

[nasty bugger]

Since about a week after my mantis' molted and got their wings, adult stage I assume, I have found one mantis a day in the bottom of their enclosure just laying there, weak and barely able to move their legs.

They don't seem ill, but dehydrated, yet it's cooled down the last couple days, and it still happens. By dehydrated the front legs seem like they arent' as full, kinda sunk in , and the mantis sometimes is bent in an L shape, about where the wings start, usually when they are dead.

I see them at night before I go to bed, and when I get up in the morning, or look in the afternoon, they're just about done. They'll lay there, barely moving the legs when I prod them, for a day, sometimes two.

At first I figured that maybe the heat was the cause, but it's cooled lately and they still are dying.

I wonder if they've just reached maturity and they end of their lives, or it something else may be the cause. Only thing different is that they've matured, and that it heated up for a couple days last week.

 

[ismart]

Are any of them eating or drinking after they turn adult? One week after adulthood is way to premature for them to be at the end of there lives. What species is it? This actully reminds me of an idolo female i had last summer. She was the only female i had. She moulted to adulthood and was picture perfect. She died three days later. She refused to eat or drink anything. She became weak and just died :angry: . I still wish i new what i did wrong.

 

[nasty bugger]

They are chinese mantis'.

Some eat, I've only noticed them drink last week, before that I never saw them drink. I figure before last week they got enough moisture from their prey, but maybe they drank the mist on the jar after I'd left or later, but last week when it heated up I noticed them drink from the side of the jar.

I don't keep track of which one's do what, since they are almost all in the same type enclosures, and there were so many, but I'm down to 9 now, maybe 8 since I let one loose to carouse the house last night. Saw him this morning in the other room, under the growlight hanging under a tomato plant. When I picked him up it flew into the tomato plant and I just left it there, but it wasn't there a while ago, and I don't see it, so who knows where it went and what will happen.

I'm ready to kick em all outside, so they can live the rest of their lives in the natural, as natural as the city gets, but it's getting cool at nights again.

 

[hibiscusmile]

hey Nastybugger, it is the moisture probably, they need to drink each day, they will drink whenever the opportunity offers itself, mist them in the morning and at night with really warm, almost hot water, try it on the inside of your arm at the soft part opposite elbow, u will see water that is sprayed is almost cold. Cold water shocks them, even outside rain usually does not catch an insect unaware, so use warm water and step back and watch them drink it, especially the chinese, they are used to regions that have a lot of moisture,. other than that, I don't know. A lot of people say they don't need a drink, I say HAH! I have never and I say NEVER sprayed a mantis or cage and they did not drink, they always want water. Even the desert species I was told never to spray, ok, but no one said I could not give them a drink on a q tip!

 

[Rick]

Are you saying they fell while molting or this happened later? When you say it warmed up how much are we talking? Mantids should never be laying on the bottom.

 

[nasty bugger]

No, they were done molting, by at least a day, and sometimes more than a week.

I just mentioned it cause I never saw this happen before they were adults, but then again it's just recently got up to the 80's outside during the day, which means it's higher inside since it retains the heat, and the only a/c I have is in the bedroom.

They seem to be wrinkled, like they are dehydrated, but I do give them moisture.

The way the corpses are bent into an L shape alot of the time is what makes me wonder what's up.

Not all of them kink over, but they usually live a day or more but they just lay there and move an arm when I touch them, or twitch an antenna or something.

Many of them don't seem very hungry either, but some devour the prey when I put it in the jar.

Their raptorial arms seem kinda transluscent, or not as opaque as usual may be a better description. It may just look that way since they are kinda shrunken, not as thick, looking.

 

[Rick]

You say 80 outside but what temp was it inside? Unless it got REALLY hot I don't see them dying for that reason. Of course when it warms up you need to mist more often.

 

[PhilinYuma]

You say 80 outside but what temp was it inside? Unless it got REALLY hot I don't see them dying for that reason. Of course when it warms up you need to mist more often.

I don't live far from NB, Rick, and the temp indoors can go up to 85+F in the afternoon. The humidity indoors is always below 20% in my apartment, and I, too, think that that is the problem. Chinese are the only species I have that ever have trouble when they molt.

Your night time low is about the same as mine, NB, around 54-56F. Locally, adult grasshoppers are thriving, so it might be worthwhile to leave one outside in an enclosure for a day or two and see how it makes out.