Today I found my ghost mantis on the ground of her enclosure, almost flat on her front. I tried offering her some honey because I heard it perks them up sometimes, and my ghost loves honey. She refused it at first because she was to weak, but she still ate a little bit when I put it against her mouth. I put her in a smaller container with some fruit flies (would normally feed larger prey, but fruit flies were all I could get a hold of before pet stores closed. She's been fine with them for a while, and she grew up with them. She's standing up now, but she's too weak to hold herself up. If I tilt the container a bit, she tilts with it. She caught a fly earlier with a lot of effort, attempted to eat the head, then dropped both the fly and its head. A fly also climbed on her multiple times, and she flicked it off of her front legs when normally, she would instantly catch any fly that lands on her. Is she dying? What can I do??
URGENT: really weak ghost mantis, around L6 or L7
- Thread starter Thea
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How old is she?
I think your best bet would be to offer some water from a saturated cotton swab if you haven't already. Sometimes it's best to do what you can for them and leave them alone for a while. Handling when she's weak and ill may put unnecessary stress on her. Personally, I'd give her fluids, leave her with a few flies, and put her in a quiet place. Get some larger feeder insects as soon as possible... she may have an easier time catching and eating. Hope this helps at least a little. Good luck!
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hysteresis
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Give her fluids, but don't raise her humidity at all. Get it down to 40 or 45.
MantisGirl13
Well-known member
Try honey water too.
- MantisGirl13
- MantisGirl13
Mantis Lady
Well-known member
How is she now?
cwebster
Well-known member
Have lost three ghosts recently. They are quite old but i feel sad. They dont respond to honey water. Another one seemed weak, so i put her in with a male and she perked up for a day but now seems weak again.
hysteresis
Well-known member
Its bad when we dont know why.
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I'm thinking she's dying from slow starvation if she's L6 or L7 and still only getting fruit flies. There are other options like lobster roaches. An adult could survive a long time on flies but a late stage nymph needs to grow or die. It's not impossible to rear a large nymph on fruit flies but it's highly impractical and likely to result in death and bad molts.
Thank you for this information. I learned from my mistake and I'm never doing that again!!! I've seen a lot of posts about bluebottle larvae. Is that a reliable live feed if I can't get lobster roaches aren't around here?
MantisMart
Well-known member
MantisGirl13
Well-known member
Blue bottle flies are great!
- MantisGirl13
- MantisGirl13
Lobster roach nymphs are excellent food for ghosts but only if the ghost enclosure doesn't have spots for them to hide (they hide in dirt and under objects). A second instar ghost can eat a 1st instar lobster roach but I usually keep the fruit flies going though 3rd or 4th instar. Crickets are also good but aren't so easy to culture and eat molting ghost mantids. Blue bottles are good too but only for large nymphs and likewise are a chore to culture.
