This is insane

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Rick

Rick

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In the last week and a half I have had over half of my mantids drop dead. They start by hanging from only two legs before dropping to the bottom of the container dead. I am not doing anything different than I normally do. I disinfected my water sprayer just in case but that was several days ago. I thought it may have been from feeding wild caught insects but I always do that and half of the dead ones didn't eat any wild caught food so that rules that out. I can't think of any other reason. Temps are good as well. Last night my female creobroter who was due to lay her first ooth any day now dropped dead. She went from perfect health eating well to dead in two days. I've always had random deaths every now and then but this is different.This kind of stuff really ticks me off! <_<

 
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hummm, maybe disinfect the cages, if the water was bad, and u respray, they could be picking it back up from on the container, I don't think that is it though, but other than the work, it can't hurt. Didn't someone else post on here kinda the same thing happening?

 
yeah i had one chinese mantis fall over dead one day she was eating and everything and the next day she was on the bottom of her cage dead and thought maybe it was rough attempts at mating from a male mantis but she showed no physical signs of anything wrong from the other mantis and dont know had few more drop dead as well not as many as other people but think some just died maybe cause of temp fluxuations or decrease in humidity but there is so many factors that I just cant put my finger on any of it!

 
Wow! That is really strange. Do you have any ventialtion issues maybe? What about those room air fresheners? I hear some can contain pesticides. :eek: I cant seem to recall where i read that though? :unsure:

 
Christian said:
Did you use crickets or freshly bought plants?
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Neither. Blue bottle flies which are fed honey and wild caught moths/butterflies for a few of the mantids.

ismart said:
Wow! That is really strange. Do you have any ventialtion issues maybe? What about those room air fresheners? I hear some can contain pesticides. :eek: I cant seem to recall where i read that though? :unsure:
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Most are in 32 oz deli cups which I always use. No air freshners or anything is sprayed in the house.

I am going to put all of my containers into the dishwasher with a little added bleach and then use paper towels instead of moss and see what happens.

 
This may sound crazy, but how about doing a radon check or some other possible toxin. Just can't think of anything else myself.

 
revmdn said:
This may sound crazy, but how about doing a radon check or some other possible toxin. Just can't think of anything else myself.
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Radon really is not prevelant in my area. I've thought about it.

 
Different food for the feeders? Maybe the wild caught feeders were exposed to some kind of pesticide before you caught them? Are the affected ones all the same age? I don't know either.

 
Katnapper said:
Different food for the feeders? Maybe the wild caught feeders were exposed to some kind of pesticide before you caught them? Are the affected ones all the same age? I don't know either.
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Only about half of those who died ate wild caught food so I don't think that is it. Not all the same age. Adults, nymphs, etc. As far as different food for the feeders I guess I can change it. The flies are fed locally made raw honey. I can't think of anything better. I have some store bought honey I could try.

 
Rick said:
Only about half of those who died ate wild caught food so I don't think that is it. Not all the same age. Adults, nymphs, etc. As far as different food for the feeders I guess I can change it. The flies are fed locally made raw honey. I can't think of anything better. I have some store bought honey I could try.
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It would seem the local raw honey would be better than store bought... but I guess if you're down to trying anything.....

Washing your hands with a different soap? Walking through pesticide-laden grass on your shoes? I'm grasping at straws too trying to think....

Maybe just some odd coincidence?

Not handling them enough? (Had to throw that in there... ;) )

 
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Oh, the honey!

In the US the use of certain antibiotics and insecticides is allowed due to the occurrence of the Varroa mite and Nosema protozoans. Maybe the stuff that your beekeeper used is toxic for mantids. Usually it should be toxic for flies as well if it's toxic for mantids, but maybe the accumulation by eating many flies may pass the threshold. I don't know for sure, it is just a guess. Over here, I try to get only Germany honey, as those chemicals are prohibited (but not in the European Union, so most honey you get in the supermarket isn't safe for sure - I didn't have problems so far, though.).

 
It could be the honey, but I'm not sure. I use store bought honey and I've never had any ill effects. Maybe the additives are farmer specific?

 
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You know it could be the moss? I had a freind that used sphagnum moss in his frog terrarium. All the frogs were dead in a week. We later found out from the pet store they recieved a bad batch of moss.

 
About the honey. I have noticed that most of my flies die within a week of hatching. I figured it was just the flies because they were from a batch where half of them had hatched in the mail. I just figured they were weak from being near hatching and then being stuck in the fridge. I am going to switch the honey right now.

 
Rick said:
About the honey. I have noticed that most of my flies die within a week of hatching. I figured it was just the flies because they were from a batch where half of them had hatched in the mail. I just figured they were weak from being near hatching and then being stuck in the fridge. I am going to switch the honey right now.
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Honey might be the problem then mine live about 2-4 weeks even if they do hatch in transit.

 
bassist said:
Honey might be the problem then mine live about 2-4 weeks even if they do hatch in transit.
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Mine normally do too but I just figured these guys were weak from what I mentioned before. I did have a different batch that hatched two days ago and now most of those are either dead or staying down at the bottom instead of crawling around. Hmmmmm I had a batch hatch yesterday and now I just gave them different honey. Will see what happens from now on.

 

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