Tragedy

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I really hope your little sweet heart can make it. This is why I always urge people to give a missmolt mantis some time before messing with them. It is amazing how much recovery they can do on their own. It seems their exoskeletons are not as set in place as they might first appear.

 
Wing buds are definitely not swollen. They are still flat on her back.

 
So....she molted. Unfortunately she still has that bend in her thorax, although not as pronounced. But more disappointing is that her left raptorial is still completely crippled. As a matter of fact I had to pull the whole skin off of it this morning as it was still stuck inside.

I'm going to give her a couple days to see how she sets and to see how much mobility she gets. I am having the thought of maybe keeping her around for mating purposes as she wont be able to do any damage to the mounting male.....lol. As horrible as that sounds, he may be able to have his way with her.

Thoughts?

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Also a bummer because she is my only true green mantis that I'm raising right now....she was my favorite.

 
It is amazing that she made it to adult! If she is still eating and able to use the other legs maybe she will be able to mate and lay ooths... You can still feed her and offer water( if you still can) I am impressed she was able to get her wings and become an adult! You did a great job.

 
So she's acting strange since the molt. She keeps going down to the bottom of the enclosure, so i take her out to feed and water her, and she barely eats? She did drink alot but has only eaten a mealworm and a half since motling last night.

 
A large mantis needs some time to harden their exoskeleton enough to eat something with a hard exoskeleton.

I give them more than a day to prevent them from possibly injuring their mouths. Handling can cause problems for the teneral mantis as well.

When a female Chinese mantis is ready, they can have quite an appetite.

 
likebugs said:
A large mantis needs some time to harden their exoskeleton enough to eat something with a hard exoskeleton.

I give them more than a day to prevent them from possibly injuring their mouths. Handling can cause problems for the teneral mantis as well.

When a female Chinese mantis is ready, they can have quite an appetite.
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I'm just wondering why she is going to the bottom and laying there......

 
She's probably okay. If you put her on the bottom maybe she just doesn't have the strength to climb back up. She looks a lot better than I expected. :) I'm surprised she was able to molt at all.

 
Yeah my Giant asian female didn't want to have anything to do with other insects for like 5 days. But then she's become a bottomless pit eating anything basically

 
I give water to my big girls with small plastic baby spoons. Its not too hard to teach them to drink from it. Touch the water in the spoon to her mouth and be patient. They can learn fast. Try milk too.

 
WolfPuppy said:
She's probably okay. If you put her on the bottom maybe she just doesn't have the strength to climb back up. She looks a lot better than I expected. :) I'm surprised she was able to molt at all.
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I never put her on the bottom. I put her on the side and she makes her way down there on her own. Usually that means they're ready to eat something. This is why it's puzzling me.

 
Nicolas said:
Yeah my Giant asian female didn't want to have anything to do with other insects for like 5 days. But then she's become a bottomless pit eating anything basically
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Good to know. I'm going to wait a few days before introducing food to the other newly molted adults.

 
Sticky said:
I give water to my big girls with small plastic baby spoons. Its not too hard to teach them to drink from it. Touch the water in the spoon to her mouth and be patient. They can learn fast. Try milk too.
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I give mine water out of a dropper. Very, very easy to do.

 
I'm glad to see so many people, who are not willing to give up on their mantis's so quickly, no matter how bad it looks. I just had a female orchid that was on her last molt and I was so excited. She was hanging good, lots of humidity, and I watched the whole thing. Then i noticed her head was still stuck and her forearms were twisted, and stuck. So I panicked and grabbed her and got her out and gently untwisted her forearms, and sat with her in my hand for about 4 hours before setting her on some coconut fibers for her to grip to and to cushion her body. her wings were completely wrinkle, twisted and awful. I was told to put her out of her misery and stick her in the freezer, but I didn't have the heart to do it. She laid there for about 4 days as if she was paralyzed. I sprayed her 4 to 5 times a day, and gave her honey on the 3rd day, and fed her on the 5th day by hand, she ate great, had barely any control in her forearms, but she is able to hang upside down on the screen top if i place her there, but not move around. I doubt she'll be able to breed, or get back to normal, but she's alive and eating and cleans herself, so who knows what will happen.

So...... NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!!! hahaha.

 

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