What would cause this?

[Rick]

This male was fine a few days ago or at least seemed it. Today I found him like this. His head is turning black and he seems to not have control of his upper body. His lower body seems almost to act normal. I am guessing old age. He was an adult for just over three months. He was captive bred.

 

[dakota]

so he may die? hm.... thats what my female carolina did, she did exactly like that mantid of yours, hey if it does die can i have it? oh and do you still have those chinese ooths? sorry about your mantid though . i hope it does not die.

 

[Ian]

rick, that looks very much like a bacterial infection. Many of my mantids have had this on their legs and neck, and I think it was possibly because of a cricket bite. To be honest with you,. there really isnt much you can do. I tried aplying tamodine wound cleanser, but that didnt really make much difference. But good luck with it.

Cheers,

Ian

 

[dakota]

is it contageous?

 

[Jesse]

Most likely, as a result of old age and the weakening of its immune/defense system it became more susceptible to the infection, but it does appear to have some sort of infection. Oh well, 3 months is good for a chinese male anyway.

 

[Rick]

I put him down shortly after the pic. I raised him from the ooth and he lived total of over six months. This all came on suddenly. He shared half a tank with a female who is fine but she is much younger. Not upset because they all die. :wink:

 

[Joe]

I had this happen to my adult male d. desiccata. and it was only 5 weeks old. but it attempted to mate with my female 20 times and kept "missing" so i think it died of early old age.

Joe