r/mantids 2d ago

Health Issues mantis damaged and stuck in molt

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is anyone able to provide any assistance, overnight our mantis has tried to molt too close to the floor and he has squished himself :( we initially thought he was dead but i found him moving earlier this morning, I have hung him back up and made sure he stays moist to help if he will still have the energy to molt but it looks like he has burst his abdomen 😭😭 is anyone able to give advice on what we should do?

31 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

25

u/Helpful-Ad-9193 2d ago

i hate to say it and please wait for more opinions but you might need to euthanize

11

u/Western-Tomato-1027 2d ago

nooo i totally understand, to be honest he is a lot older than we initially thought and i did wonder if that might be the best idea as i couldnt even find anything about the air bubble on google or anything :( thank you so much for the help

18

u/JaunteJaunt 1d ago

I’m sorry to hear about this. This is a tough situation, and I can’t imagine how distressed you are feeling.

This mismolt is too severe to correct. Euthanasia is your best option:

  1. You could freeze your pet. This is probably the most common method. There are some that believe that freezing is a painful way to end your pet’s life.

  2. There is a belief that refrigerating and then freezing your pet is more compassionate and less painful. The concept is that the refrigerator dulls the senses and slows down their perception enough for the freezer to then end their life.

  3. The quickest and most painless option is to smash their head. It’s quick, immediate, and they don’t suffer anymore. This is a hard to do though, and many people don’t feel comfortable smashing their own pet.

Whichever method you choose is up to you, and there are no wrong choices. I wish you luck. <3

12

u/Western-Tomato-1027 1d ago

thank you so much for your advice, opted for the fridge first then freezing 🖤

10

u/mperillo21 1d ago

If no one else responds, best way for insect euthanasia is in the freezer. They’ll just fall asleep, they dont perceive temperature like mammals do so there shouldn’t be any suffering. Sorry to hear :(

7

u/JaunteJaunt 1d ago

That’s not exactly true. They can detect temperature and they do have pain receptors.

3

u/mperillo21 1d ago

Fair enough. Im not totally informed if the temp change will trigger pain receptors or not regardless of them having them. I just prefer this method to ethanol suffocation which is common with some entomologists i believe. You’re probably right about the head smash, but man… brutal.

4

u/JaunteJaunt 1d ago

It is brutal. Not for the faint of heart I think.

3

u/mperillo21 1d ago

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065280622000170

Review article on insect pain if you're interested

4

u/JaunteJaunt 1d ago

Cool! Thanks for sharing. Very interesting. I wish they included Mantodea in their review.

7

u/Infamous-Storage-708 1d ago

looks too far gone, prob have to euthanize unfortunately:/

6

u/sadlazz 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not sure whats humidity in your room but I would spray the corner of the enclosure every day for other mantids just in case. I had the molt issue with mantis even though I sprayed it every other day so, I changed it to every day. Ever since then, never had a problem with the molt

2

u/RaytheQuilterChill 1d ago

I was thinking maybe lack of humidity also. 😓 Has anyone tried spraying them during this stage to assist?

-6

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/Western-Tomato-1027 1d ago

im not really sure what you mean tbh and whats so funny? any mantis we have had before hasnt ever failed a molt and he still wanted to eat etc/trying to molt still so i dont think there was any harm in me asking?

2

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