Possible Concerns,

[TheArtisticArachnid]

Within a month of coming back from my reptile show with three adult mantises of different species, my adult female Ghost mantis passed away. There were no abnormalities in her tank, temperature and humidity were where they should be. She just passed away.
Now, in October, my female Giant Asian Green mantis is on her last legs. She is an adult as well, and has slowly been getting worse and worse as the days go by. I've been hand feeding her a mixture of honey, water, and munched up crickets. She'll perk up for a little bit, then revert right back to drowsy, nonreactive, and barely moving at all. She can't hold herself up anymore, and even as I checked on her today she is barely alive and can only move her legs a little bit.

Yesterday morning, I found my flower mantis on the bottom of the tank, affirmed dead. No breathing, no reaction, not moving at all, all of the legs are curled in. I checked on it the previous night before when I was doing my rounds of feeding all of my critters, and it seemed fine. I have no clue what could've been wrong, as I only found out it was dead on my way out the door to school. It seemed to have died sometime during the night.

The remainder of my mantises is a juvenile Thistle Mantis, which seems to be doing fine and is still lively. I'm concerned for two reasons, is this some sort of illness that is passing through all of my mantises? Or is it just a case of bad luck and short lifespan? I am very thorough in doing research and ensuring that all of my pets will be happy and comfortable in my care. I've done hours of research over each and every one of these mantids, but unfortunately they seem to be dropping like flies. This is no pleasant experience for me, and I am very heartbroken over the death of all of my pets.

I guess what I'm asking is that if this strange pattern of deaths has happened with other keepers, and if there was a reasonable explanation for it. Do praying mantises exhibit specific signs of being dehydrated, malnourished, ill, etc? Where can I look for these signs? I'm honestly at a loss for this.

 

[D_Hemptress]

sounds to me like you bought some older mantids. i never buy an adult unless its for breeding. the younger you buy them, under the right care, you have alot longer to enjoy them.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

It sounds like they may have been older mantises. Personally I would be leery of buying an adult unless it was from soneone I knew. Mantises have rather short lifespans. Often on this board you will find people willing to trade or even send extra males/females for shipping cost to those who are looking for certain ones for breeding purposes.

 

[Extrememantid]

Their just old... Mantids usually live no longer than a year from hatching.

 

[twolfe]

I agree with the others that you could have been sold older mantids. Did the seller give you any indication when they molted to adults?

You may have had your female ghost long enough for her to lay an ooth. If she did, how big was it? I've been raising ghosts for a couple of years. Typically my females lay really small ooths near the end of their life and some stop laying before they die. If she laid a "normal" sized ooth, then it's possible that she wasn't near the end of her life.

 

[Lannister]

If you're keeping any of them humid, make sure there's enough ventilation or the air tends to stagnate which isn't good (can result in them "suddenly" dropping dead in my experience). I would probably agree with everyone else here though - you could have been sold older mantids. I wonder if the vendor used them for breeding, collected most of the prime oothecae that would be laid, and then put them up for sale before they were too worn out. I think Tammy is on the right track. You might be able to glean some information by taking a look at any ooths laid.

At any rate, mantids can have a fairly high mortality rate to begin with, aside from the lifespan issue. That's probably why virtually everyone who keeps them becomes a "breeder". Even if there is something wrong the signs aren't always obvious, so it might be disappointing to lose them like that, but it's par for the course with mantis keeping. Try not to let yourself get too bummed!