Tonight Sir, my female H. Parviceps, passed away. I came in to check on humidity and she was dead in her enclosure.. She was one of my favorite mantids, and was the one that got me into wanting to keep more and breed them.
Unfortunately she never laid an ootheca, and I think she may have been eggbound which could have contributed to her death since there seemed to be nothing physically wrong with her up until two days ago when she didn't seem to want to accept food.
R.I.P. little girl.
Damn sorry about that. I named one Sir, too, one of my first two mantids. I thought she was male for a while which was why I named her Sir. Once I found she was female, I said that her name stood for 'Silvia Irwin Reynolds'. It sucks when they die.
None of my adult females ever laid oothecae, either. One, Majesty, died from being egg-bound, I think. Sir died from black death from tap water. Keek died from a diseased cricket (too much bad bacteria). And then Mostro died from an internal parasite, which comes from food, and he died when I started giving him new food, super worm guts, instead of crickets. I regret having done that.
With owning mantids, I realized that they are VERY sensitive. I'll give you some tips, based on the causes of deaths of my mantids. Hope it helps out.
1.) Avoid excessive humidity.
2.) After buying prey/food for the mantid, keep the prey in a clean container and feed them lettuce for a couple days. This works for meal worms, super worms, crickets, etc. Crickets especially carry a lot of bad bacteria which can kill the mantid.
3.) Take the remainder of the prey the mantid drops out of it's container. Bacteria will reproduce, especially with humidity (water/heat).
4.) Do not feed them outdoor insects unless the nymph came from a wild female mantid's ootheca. The oothecae of females bred in captivity aren't immune to outdoor bacteria//fungi/etc.
5.) Do not put things from outside (sticks, leaves, dirt, etc) into the mantid's cage/container. For the same reason as above, the nymph of bred females' oothecae aren't immune to outdoor bacteria/fungi/etc. It's important to bake them before letting your mantid come in contact with them.
5.)
