PowerHobo
Well-known member
Sorry in advance if I talk in circles. Maple is my favorite mantis, so this was not something I wanted to wake up to.
My L8 female Deroplatys lobata is acting like she's really sick this morning. She's about due for a molt (it's been 5 weeks), and has been refusing food since her last feeding last Sunday (1/13), at which point she had basically an entire superworm. She's nice and plump like she usually is pre-molt, and her abdomen hasn't deflated at all since the last feeding.
She was just rehomed a couple nights ago (1/20) to a 3 gallon plastic container because her head literally touched the sub in her 32oz container during her last molt, and I want her to have the room to do what she needs to do. There's probably 40 1/16th holes in the lid (containers dry out too fast here if I do bigger holes), as well as about a dozen 1/16th holes scattered along the sides of the container. I will admit I made it too humid in there at first, and there is still some light condensation on the sides, but nowhere near as much as their was when I first put her in.
While I was preparing her new home she got to hang out on the lucky bamboo (Dracaena) that she normally enjoys during time out of her container, for about an hour or so. She also took a tiny amount (one or two little nibbles) of organic raw/unfiltered honey from a toothpick, just as a treat, as there were no concerns at that time.
This morning, I noticed she was hanging sort of odd. Kind of in the molting position but without the wide, secure grip on the lid, and with one tarsi just detached from the mesh and drooping a bit. I've had nymphs die hanging before, so I was immediately worried, especially since she didn't react at all when I passed my hand along the container (she usually goes into a stick mimic posture my wife calls "twigging"). I opened the lid expecting to retrieve a corpse, but as soon as the lid was turned over she crawled off of it and onto my hand, and I do mean crawled. She basically dragged herself onto my hand like she couldn't pick up her own weight.
I tried to offer her a bit of honey on a toothpick, but she had zero interest, and was instead just dragging herself around my hand, so I got her back onto her lid, and very carefully turned it over to make sure she could hold herself on the mesh, then put her back in her container because I had to leave for work. She's hanging there but very... limp... I guess is the word. Her legs aren't as spread as she normally has them for a molt, and her abdomen is drooping almost straight down like her thorax is. She's holding her raptorial arms up, at least, but not tucked against her thorax like she typically does before a molt.
There's nothing I can do but wait and hope, is there? Sorry for the novel.
My L8 female Deroplatys lobata is acting like she's really sick this morning. She's about due for a molt (it's been 5 weeks), and has been refusing food since her last feeding last Sunday (1/13), at which point she had basically an entire superworm. She's nice and plump like she usually is pre-molt, and her abdomen hasn't deflated at all since the last feeding.
She was just rehomed a couple nights ago (1/20) to a 3 gallon plastic container because her head literally touched the sub in her 32oz container during her last molt, and I want her to have the room to do what she needs to do. There's probably 40 1/16th holes in the lid (containers dry out too fast here if I do bigger holes), as well as about a dozen 1/16th holes scattered along the sides of the container. I will admit I made it too humid in there at first, and there is still some light condensation on the sides, but nowhere near as much as their was when I first put her in.
While I was preparing her new home she got to hang out on the lucky bamboo (Dracaena) that she normally enjoys during time out of her container, for about an hour or so. She also took a tiny amount (one or two little nibbles) of organic raw/unfiltered honey from a toothpick, just as a treat, as there were no concerns at that time.
This morning, I noticed she was hanging sort of odd. Kind of in the molting position but without the wide, secure grip on the lid, and with one tarsi just detached from the mesh and drooping a bit. I've had nymphs die hanging before, so I was immediately worried, especially since she didn't react at all when I passed my hand along the container (she usually goes into a stick mimic posture my wife calls "twigging"). I opened the lid expecting to retrieve a corpse, but as soon as the lid was turned over she crawled off of it and onto my hand, and I do mean crawled. She basically dragged herself onto my hand like she couldn't pick up her own weight.
I tried to offer her a bit of honey on a toothpick, but she had zero interest, and was instead just dragging herself around my hand, so I got her back onto her lid, and very carefully turned it over to make sure she could hold herself on the mesh, then put her back in her container because I had to leave for work. She's hanging there but very... limp... I guess is the word. Her legs aren't as spread as she normally has them for a molt, and her abdomen is drooping almost straight down like her thorax is. She's holding her raptorial arms up, at least, but not tucked against her thorax like she typically does before a molt.
There's nothing I can do but wait and hope, is there? Sorry for the novel.
What temperature have you been maintaining in her container?
