To entomologists and anyone else interested: Tested puke! Interesting results

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Today I grabbed a couple tryptic soy agars and a blood agar. I have a second sick mantid from the worms. I feel so helpless.

I think I will try some amoxicillin like you suggested.

 

[aNisip]

the ooth should be fine (should being the key word) however its difficult to tell "bad" food from good food.... if this is any help, I've never had black death from feeding roaches, plus they are pretty easy to culture. There really is not much else to do. Most cases of black death kill the mantis, Ive only seen/heard of maybe 5% surviving it, then dying a "naturally-timed" death. I dont mean to be pessimistic, but the outcome isn't usually too good. Keep what you are doing and let us know how the antibiotic works...(first try a very very very dilute solution) ...then like a normal case of antibiotics try getting her on a schedule... good luck and keep us updated

 

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I used a speck of my cat's antibiotic (like the size of a pin head) for my 2 dying mantids. I never would have if I thought they had any chance of survival.

DON'T EVER USE ANTIBIOTIC!!!

They were dead in hours and turned to moosh. They probably suffered too. I can't forgive myself for this. I should have just let them die in peace.

 

[aNisip]

I used a speck of my cat's antibiotic (like the size of a pin head) for my 2 dying mantids. I never would have if I thought they had any chance of survival.

DON'T EVER USE ANTIBIOTIC!!!

They were dead in hours and turned to moosh. They probably suffered too. I can't forgive myself for this. I should have just let them die in peace.

Sorry to hear :blush:

Don't put this on yourself...if anything, I'll take the blame, as I mentioned it in the first place... they didn't have much longer to live, and they would've just died from the sickness and it would've prolonged their suffering. They wouldn't have died in peace. They would've died likely from dehydration and/or the actual infection/cause of the puking. Sorry for your loss, but dont loose hope. Loosing them is the most difficult part, sadly, it comes with the hobby. We get so much joy from watching them and being apart of their lives, that we forget how short of a time we have with them.

 

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DO NOT GIVE ANTIBIOTICS EVEN LOW LOW DOSE!!! I would not have tried it if there was any hope. The antibiotics killed them in hours and turned them to moosh! I'm afraid they suffered. This was the most disturbing experiment I have conducted. I feel awful.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Interesting stuff.

I wonder if the little white specks were mites vs. springtails vs. booklice. I've seen all three appear out of thin air, now and then. Also I wonder if they weren't attracted to the agar itself ,or even a film on the container. All three of these animals probably live in many homes at a given moment. Even now the colony of mites living on my forehead are all, in unison, nodding approvingly.

Pretty neat to read about somebody culturing mantis gut fauna. If you're Thomas Edison I guess you only have to fail 9,998 more times before your science succeeds. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Trundlebug]

Interesting! You probably won't be able to ID bacteria just by culturing (you'll likely need a lab and pcr for that), but to see if it's gram positive or gram negative is helpful.

Right now I actually work on the bacteria in the guts of kissing bugs, and let me tell you, there is quite a lot! All insects have symbiotic bacteria in their gut that helps them digest their meals... my guess is that, since the 'black death' seems cricket related, it's a pathogen from the cricket side based on what they've been eating. It might not really be affecting the crickets enough to be noticeable, but the pathogen might be wreaking havoc with a mantid's symbiotic bacteria. Crickets are scavengers and will eat all sorts of delightful, disgusting things, even in controlled environments!

Anyway, that's just a theory. This is all super interesting though. I might look up to see if there are any published findings about mantids in general.

 

[mantisman 230]

I only use honey with its low power antibiotics, it works a charm.