Possible disease identification

[JoeCapricorn]

An adult female T. sinensis has fallen ill under my care and has since slipped into a near-catatonic state. The medical history of this individual is as follows:

About one week ago I noticed a strong, foul odor not unlike the aroma of poo coming from her container. This can occur in smaller habitats and if mantises just happened to eat chili the other night. In all seriousness, this was an unusually smelly cage. Also at the time there were brown stains all over the place - down the walls, on the top, on the bottom, etc. I cleaned the cage out entirely and thoroughly, gave her a snack and placed her away from the other mantises.

Next feeding time, nothing out of the ordinary, however the next symptom is pink feces. Powdery poo that is made of a pinkish/white powder.

Next feeding time, mantis' strength was noticably diminished. She still ate.

This time, she was near-catatonic.

Now, has anyone come across this before? I wonder if there are studies done on diseases in insects because this is something that would be important. For one, it may have been possible to save this mantis. If a treatment was known, I could've saved her.

Well, she's not dead yet. I put her outside to be with her mother Emerald (who died in 2009). If the cold doesn't kill her, she may still be alive in the morning and if there is a treatment, someone please let me know.

 

[PhilinYuma]

People have reported similar foul smells and vomit in the recent past. Such a foul smell suggests the presence of anaerobic bacteria: your mantis is/was probably rotting inside due to some blockage (being egg bound will do it) and the bacteria are a consequence, not a cause of the problem.

If you were sure that you were dealing with a bacterial infection, it would be necessary to do a culture and sensitivity study on the material in order to find an appropriate antibiotic which would probably kill the mantis if it had not died during the five days or so required for the study to be performed. Such a test would probably cost you several hundred bucks if you could find a lab that would do it. (don't forget to use sterile technique).

There are books on insect bacteriology/pathology. They are massive university press tomes that cost over $300 each and are not available in your public or university library, though if they were you (and I) wouldn't know how to use them to "cure" a mantis.

A good friend of mine who is an expert insect breeder who names many of her favorite critters, including mantids, tarantulas and rhino roaches recently asked me if I thought that this was a sign of weak ego boundaries. I told her that when when she walks, her feet never touch the ground, and that she is beloved of the Great Mantis Goddess (BbHN), so that whatever she does is Exactly Right. For everyone else, myself included: Get a life, or better yet, a brick!

 

[angelofdeathzz]

People have reported similar foul smells and vomit in the recent past. Such a foul smell suggests the presence of anaerobic bacteria: your mantis is/was probably rotting inside due to some blockage (being egg bound will do it) and the bacteria are a consequence, not a cause of the problem.

If you were sure that you were dealing with a bacterial infection, it would be necessary to do a culture and sensitivity study on the material in order to find an appropriate antibiotic which would probably kill the mantis if it had not died during the five days or so required for the study to be performed. Such a test would probably cost you several hundred bucks if you could find a lab that would do it. (don't forget to use sterile technique).

There are books on insect bacteriology/pathology. They are massive university press tomes that cost over $300 each and are not available in your public or university library, though if they were you (and I) wouldn't know how to use them to "cure" a mantis.

A good friend of mine who is an expert insect breeder who names many of her favorite critters, including mantids, tarantulas and rhino roaches recently asked me if I thought that this was a sign of weak ego boundaries. I told her that when when she walks, her feet never touch the ground, and that she is beloved of the Great Mantis Goddess (BbHN), so that whatever she does is Exactly Right. For everyone else, myself included: Get a life, or better yet, a brick!

philin you have a mantis IQ of 150 or more and we all are glad for all your input and witty responce's TY, Im officialy applying to be your padiwon.understudy...LOL

P.S

 

[sporeworld]

Brilliant!

"Get a Brick" should be a bumper sticker! Just put a big red cross on it!

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Okay, so I have a brick. I wasn't sure if it should be one of those red bricks or a large cinder block, so I just picked up the first brick I could find. It's a red one. Maybe if I get enough I can build a house.

 

[Rick]

Seen it many times. Take a close look at your food and water source. I'd recomend distilled water and food from an entirely new source. NObody here is going to be able to tell you exactly what the problem is though.

 

[Entomo-logic]

I saw these symptoms a lot when I used to feed crickets to my mantids. They always lead to the death of the individual however when a saline solution was used to wash around the mouth of a Gongy who had these symptoms she did live 2 weeks longer than most mantids that I have had with these symptoms. But i have not seen these symptoms since I have cut crickets from the diets of my mantids. I don't think it is a bad Idea to feed crickets to mantids but I think my cricket supplier may not be high enough quality for mantid consumption.

 

[lancaster1313]

The stinking vomit and frass happened to my Chinese mantids when they were subadult. The illness happened after the mantids were fed pet store crickets that were not quarantined by me. <_< 2 of the ill mantids actually survived and molted to adults after they recovered. I cleaned out their containers within an hour, EVERY time they vomited or frassed. I think that the sanitation was what allowed them to survive the illness, they were lucky that I didn't have to leave home for very long. The illness and stink lasted around 5 days before I noticed that things were improved.