Tenodera sinensis nymph, arms didn't molt with the rest of the body

MantidBro · Oct 23, 2012

One of the Tenodera sinensis nymphs molted into L3, but the claws separated from the rest of the dead skin and now she has dead skin on her claws, and they're also too small for the rest of her body. Over the days, she hasn't been able to catch food because she can't even close her pincers. I've been having to hand-feed this one and even then it's hard because she can't keep the food in her mouth the whole time - it ends up falling when she picks off a wing or anything. So I have to pick it back up and put it back in her mouth (I say 'her' but it may be a 'he', I'm not positive yet).

Have any of you dealt with this before? If so, what happened to your mantid?

I was hoping that once she molts again the issue will be rectified but I don't know. Either way, so long as I hand-feed her, she shouldn't die or anything, which is good.

MandellaMandy123 · Oct 23, 2012

You couldn't slip the dead skin off. Well, it would probably come off next molt, but it might cause her to have trouble molting... At least it's just her claws, if it was her head or abdomen, she wouldn't have a chance. How much of the arms are covered?

MantidBro · Nov 14, 2012

WolfPuppy said:
You couldn't slip the dead skin off. Well, it would probably come off next molt, but it might cause her to have trouble molting... At least it's just her claws, if it was her head or abdomen, she wouldn't have a chance. How much of the arms are covered?

I could have sworn I replied to this, but apparently I didn't, sorry.

I did try slipping the dead skin off but it broke apart and I was only able to get a little bit. It's really hard to remove things from a mantid's arms, when they move around so much and every time you put your hand near them they want to crawl onto it so it's nearly impossible lol. But good news, Dakon molted today and he's now able to pinch! He's getting used to being able to use his pinchers again, it's awesome, I'm glad this situation has been rectified. You were right, got fixed with his next molt.