orchid nymph molting quite often

[deathvalley69]

looked over to my orchid mantis and its molting again after only about 9 days since the last molt. didn’t know they will molt this often,, maybe i’m feeding a bit too much? i want it to live as long as possible! temperatures are around 70-85F.  I think it molted to L4 so hopefully it’ll be easier to sex for me.  

 

[ausar318]

There’s nothing to worry about. My orchids, both the male and female, molted really often, and usually at the same time (which was really weird, but kinda cool). There was one molt, the male to L5 and the female to L7, that was only 8 days after the previous molt. 

Dont worry about feeding it too much, as long as it looks plump and happy, it is fine. No one knows the mind of a mantis, but it knows what it’s doing. 

At L4, it should be relatively easy to sex. If you need any help, you can always take a couple photos of it and post them on here. Surely someone will be able to determine the sex

 

[bigggtuna]

I was also about to ask this same question! I have three orchids and they all molted at the same time to L4 a few days after I got them, and this morning I saw that what I believe to be the only male molted to L5 only 8 days after the previous molt. He's already more than twice the size he was when I got him <2 weeks ago! I didn't think that it would've been a bad thing, but I'm glad to see that it's normal.

 

[Graceface]

Nothing to worry about. Some individuals grow faster or slower than others. My understanding is that, in general, they tend to speed up metabolism in warmer environments with more food available. That being said, I've had some molt quickly in cool conditions with less food available, and vice versa. They molt when they are ready and you can't always predict it based on the timing mentioned on care sheets, as it is just a general idea of the time frames involved. As long as they are eating, behaving, and molting well they are doing fine ?

I had an Orchid molt yesterday, and 3 ghosts too, so it is going around, lol

 

[deathvalley69]

thanks for the help! i didn’t want to be speeding up the growth too fast but ill let it do its thing.