Stepped on my baby, can I save her?

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My 7th instar iris oratoria ran up my arm and down my back. I looked everywhere for her, and finally found hrer stepped on. I thought I only broke her leg, but today I see black coming out of her rear, and black on her thorax under her leg. I don't think see is eating. She won't even take water anymore. I feel so awful. My carelessness hurt this beautiful creature. I am think of just letting the rest go because they might be better off.

Is there anyway to save her? Should I let her see the sun before she goes?

Do they feel pain? How would we know that anyway?

I tried to get her to eat honey and cat food. I put honey and aloe on her wounds. She actually licked the aloe a couple days ago. Aloe seemed to save my mantids when they were infected. I know this is not the same, but my thinking was that it would form a protective layer and keep her insides in.

Any advice for a bad mom?

 

[Sticky]

I am so sorry this happened to her! It may be too late but you can keep trying with the honey. I wouldn't use cat food. Can you squish a bug and put it to her mouth? Try holding it there for awhile and see if she eats any of it.

If worse comes to worst, you can put her in the freezer.

Dont give up on keeping mantids, we all do things like this. I had a small mantis on my shirt when I went into the bathroom. Next thing I knew she was in the toilet bowl! No more visits near water anywhere in my place! Luckily I grabbed her up in time.

 

[HungryGhost]

Accidents happen, but you don't have to give up on the rest of them.

 

[Aryia]

Accidents happen all the time and we learn from them and become better keepers : ) Don't give up on your other young ones, I learned to keep my eyes on the ground because of my cats and it sure is helpful with these little guys!

Since mantises are so small a couple drops of their blood can be way too much liquid lost, so it may be too late for this little one. Putting honey on the wounds and keeping her in good conditions is all I could suggest. One of my adult mantises had a serious prolapse and during the last couple days I left her near the window inside an indoor garden to see the outsides. Hopefully it eased her passing a little. If you are worried about her feeling pain, you can either freeze or squish her entire body. I usually go with squishing for younger nymphs because I believe it ultimately is a faster way to go than freezing to death, but can't get myself to do the same to older individuals so I wait till they're pretty much gone and then freeze them.

 

[MantidBro]

ive accidentally killed my mantids, it happens, they are small, and we are huge. i heard someone used glue to keep the insides in. but of course it depends on what has been damaged. when did it happen? shes still alive at least. maybe she will pull through. if not, dont blame yourself. like hungryghost said, accidents happen. every mantid owner has been through something like this as far as i know! i find it admirable that you feel so bad for doing it and arent just like, whatever, who cares, its a bug. some people are like that. but dont feel TOO bad. it was an accident. and its unlikely to happen multiple times.

 

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Wow! Thank you everyone for your kind words! I lost her (sad face). I must have injured her abdomen. It was so weird, after the incident, she seemed much better after I nursed her. But then slowly got worse.

I am keeping the rest! I just have a new rule: No more babies running up my arms!

These are really beautiful bugs and I am honored to share stories with everyone here.

Thank you!

 

[MantidBro]

Wow! Thank you everyone for your kind words! I lost her (sad face). I must have injured her abdomen. It was so weird, after the incident, she seemed much better after I nursed her. But then slowly got worse.

I am keeping the rest! I just have a new rule: No more babies running up my arms!

These are really beautiful bugs and I am honored to share stories with everyone here.

Thank you!

im sorry you lost her thats happened to me too, they seem to be getting better then suddenly get worse than ever and die.

im glad youre keeping the rest. you cant give up! there will always be one or more out of a bunch thatll die. but its the same in the wild. and the ones that do survive will live longer than if they were in the wild. so its actually better to keep them than release them, at least if you ask me!

they definitely are beautiful, they become such an addiction

 

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Yeah, an addiction is definitely the right word. I could watch them for hours!

 

[MantidBro]

Yeah, an addiction is definitely the right word. I could watch them for hours!

me too! i literally just stare at them, theyre so interesting