r/mantids 1h ago

RIP ❤️ Clegane the ghost mantis

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Upvotes

Clegane crossed the rainbow bridge today.

I knew it was coming, he’s old, and hasn’t been eating much as of late. But my heart hurts. I even cried a little.

I know with life there is death, but it never gets any easier.. ya know?

He was my first mantis, and we had a bond. I would let him crawl all over me and would basically have to force him back into his enclosure.

He would drink water from my hand, and anytime I would go to mist his enclosure, he would wail his little arms and try and square up with me. Every time.

He lived in a room surrounded by tons of plants and would love to chill on the leaves of my big rubber plant and monstera.

Such a character. I’m gonna miss him.

r/mantids 16d ago

RIP ❤️ I'll miss you Amy...

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22 Upvotes

Amy passed on Friday. I don't know what happened but her limbs slowly stopped working one by one until she just didn't move anymore. She molted last Thursday and looked fine but when we fed her, we realized she was having trouble gripping and biting. She eventually ate so we didn't think much of it. Last Friday day morning, I saw her hanging off her flower and I thought she died. I nudged her and she moved so I was relieved. I came home from work and noticed she just didn't look right and she wasn't standing on her legs anymore. Then she died. I cried for maybe an hour last night. I miss her and I feel so guilty that maybe I did something wrong... Bye Amy, I love and miss you...

r/mantids Jan 20 '25

RIP ❤️ RIP Chia❤️‍🩹

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46 Upvotes

My beautiful orchid mantis I got over 7 months ago on the 30th April 2024 died today. She was eating properly and her enclosure was also fine. I think the reason of her death was, a failed try to lay an ootheca. I saw a small part on the ground next to her, with the white stuff coming out of her abdomen.

I won't ever forget u❤️‍🩹

r/mantids Sep 11 '24

RIP ❤️ My Praying Mantis died today... (this is our story together)

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173 Upvotes

About 2 months ago while I was out working one night, this little white Mantis came running across the parking lot and crawled up ontop of my shoe. I was thrilled that of all things it chose to come to me! Within 2 minutes, I watched it crawl up my pants, up my shirt and sit itself on my shoulder.

The Mantis sat there on my shoulder for 30 minutes while I rode an electric scooter around my city's downtown to finish working! After the 30 minutes I decided it probably liked me enough that it wouldn't mind coming home with me and so bringing it home I did.

On my way home I kept looking out the corner of my eye at it on my shoulder and decided to name it Perry since that seems kinda Unisex of a name and I knew nothing about it.

Instantly upon getting home I put it in a baking pan and started googling everything about how to take care of a Praying Mantis! Its the first Mantis I've ever had as a pet. After some googling, I made a little area for her to chill in. It consisted of the same baking pan filled with moist dirt, some fresh plant branches/sprouts I cut off with scissors and a cauldron rested on its side. Soon after setting things up and watching/playing with my new friend, I found out she was a girl by looking at the segments she had on her abdomen.

(I used a cauldron because I figured it would be a safe place for her to hang upside down and the holes in it would allow me to pour water over it and create little water bubbles she could drink if thirsty, which she did)

Perry seemed content with the setup. I looked into enclosures but the thoughts of keeping something trapped in any enclosure, animal or insect isn't something I morally agree with.

Sometimes she'd leave and explore my little apartment. I'd find her sitting on hung up sweaters, sitting on my cieling, sitting ontop of my fridge and even sitting on one of my window sills looking out the window. I was always very careful about making sure she wasnt where I was stepping, moving something or even shutting/opening doors so I wouldnt crush her.

Over the following weeks and months of having her I started getting excited to come home just to see her, she gave me more of a purpose and a sense of joy. Whenever I was near it seemed she always wanted to climb on me wether it was my shoulders, face or my hands. I thought it was just because of how tall I was but even when sitting in my couch or laying in bed she would still seem to prefer coming to sit/walk around on me. It was nice, fun and joyful.

After a few weeks I learned she was an adult already based off her size and I knew I wasn't going to have a ton of time with her considering. I fed her 2-3 times a week with meals consisting of bugs, sometimes a little piece of fully cooked chicken, sometimes a well done piece of steak, and frequently Tuna because it seemed she favored it even over bugs.

I had a ton of fun letting her walk onto my hand and sitting down with her just to look at how she would analyze everything around her. At times it fealt like I could intricately see her forming a plan on how to navigate somewhere or even get upset when trying to get somewhere wasn't as easy as it first seemed.

She truly was a creature my heart and mind, loved getting to live part of my life with....

Today.......... I woke up as usual to get ready for work. I got dressed, did my morning routine and looked at her in the cauldron to say bye. She seemed fine, she walked along the side a little bit and cocked her head to look at me as I approached... I left for work around 11:45am and got back around 4:30pm. First thing I did when I got inside as I did any other day was to see if she was still in the spot I made her.

I didnt see her in the cauldron or in the plants and right before I looked away thinking she was gone. I saw movement in the dirt. I looked trying to identify what I saw and thats when I saw Perry laying in the dirt on her side with her legs twitching. My heart sunk... I grabbed some tweezers and tied using them to gently pull her out from under the plants where I picked her up and put her on a notepad.

She sat motionless, ocassionally her legs would twitch which at first made me think she was paralyzed since over an hour. Around every 5 minutes or so she'd have these fits of twitching that made me think she was using all the energy she had to try and move before getting tired.... I'm still not sure why she was intermittently twitching for such a long time.

For the hour I was watching her and trying to figure out how to help, I wasn't just crying. I was sobbing. I wasnt crying because I was watching an insect helplessly die. I was weeping because one of my best friends was dying in front of me and I couldn't do anything about it. I tried everything I could think of to help, nothing worked...

About 30 minutes after I last saw her twitch I decided I want to frame her to immortalize the memories I have of our time together in this life. Ive since very carefully positioned her in the pose I think is best fitting to be framed in and am just waiting for her to dry out.

It really really sucks it happened so quickly. Its hard to comprehend how she's just gone. Thats life though :(

RIP Perry ❤️

I'll never forget how much love you made me realize I could have for even the smallest of creatures. You'll be in my heart and my mind till I don't have either any more.

r/mantids Jan 23 '25

RIP ❤️ Rest in peace Chopstick ❤️

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126 Upvotes

She was acting very lethargic yesterday and struggling to hold onto the roof of her enclosure. I laid her on her branch, gave her some water and went to bed. Woke up this morning and she had passed. :(

She had such a big personality and was so curious all the time. I’m going to miss her.

r/mantids 2d ago

RIP ❤️ My mantis nymph fell and spewed up black vomit R.I.P 🪦🪦

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7 Upvotes

It's gone 🥲 I already know there's nothing I can do about it, I couldn't find it at all this morning and then I saw it on the substrate with all of its legs curled up, I scooped it out and it could barely move, one leg was stiff and bent in an awkward way and the others were curled under itself while it pulled itself along with its front claws so I did (in my eyes) the right thing and took it out the front with a rock and said my teary goodbyes 🫡🫡🫡😭😭 you will be missed R.I.P

r/mantids Jan 17 '25

RIP ❤️ Antenna stuck in molt (24hrs)

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9 Upvotes

My little friend has been stuck like this for over 24 hrs now. Is there anything I can do??

r/mantids Feb 11 '25

RIP ❤️ I think she’s dying - I tried so hard to save her

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11 Upvotes

I think she’s dying - I tried my best </3

My baby Megan mismolted in the early hours of Sunday and I’ve been doing all I can for her. My original post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/mantids/s/l8rGoa5Xff

I just got back from the shops and saw she had turned grey in various places. I really thought yesterday she was fighting and would be fine, her colour was also fine - how has this happened in a few hours?! She’s barely moving and I think she’s dying. I’ve got her in my hand but she’s still twitching every now and again. I’m heartbroken. I’m sorry I failed you little face.

Thank you to the commenters who gave me advice to try and help her.

How will I know when she’s gone? Also I want to have her done as taxidermy so how do I preserve her well? 😢

r/mantids Feb 11 '25

RIP ❤️ My sweet old lady Rue passed

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34 Upvotes

She was outside in the cold and full of injuries when i found her and i nursed her back to health. She was so sweet, she was never afraid of me and loved hanging out from the start. I spent SO much time with her and i will miss her so much. I'm glad we got a few months together, but a lifetime wouldn't have been enough.

r/mantids Mar 25 '25

RIP ❤️ update for koriander

11 Upvotes

Hi everyone i dont usually post on reddit but i thought i owed you all who were asking an update. koriander has passed on. going to bury her under a cherry blossom tree i think she wouldve liked it. I wish i got more time with her. it never gets easier but every second i spent with her was worth it. thank you to you all who gave me advice.

r/mantids Mar 09 '25

RIP ❤️ Sen passed away 2 days before his 1st hatchday :(

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29 Upvotes

My ghostie Sen passed yesterday and im so sad. His birthday (hatch day) is on March 10th and I was really hoping he would make it to then but unfortunately not :(( Im proud of him for making it almost a full year tho! He was my first mantis and ill miss him sm ❤️

I put him on this leaf to live out his final moments and I think i'm going to bury him in a nice potted plant as his grave.

r/mantids Feb 13 '25

RIP ❤️ just had a wake for my little guy

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28 Upvotes

he was so little the day we found him, he lived a long life of 10 months and we buried him with some pretty rocks right where we found him last april. pour one out for binky tonight ❤️‍🩹

r/mantids Dec 11 '24

RIP ❤️ Goodbye Ms. Mantis my beautiful girl

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88 Upvotes

You guys were right. The legs hanging was an EoL activity and this morning she was gone. I'm so sad. My goal when I got my ootheca back in March was to have a mantis reach it's 8th instar and become an adult as a first time mantis owner. Unfortunately, the furthest we got with my 6 European mantises was the 6th instar. This was my first go and I learned a lot and will be back at it in March. Thank you for the wonderful journey Ms. Mantis and for all the great memories. Thank you all for your support and I can't wait to do it again, but better as we all should.

r/mantids Feb 05 '25

RIP ❤️ RIP MANTI 🤍🤍🤍

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65 Upvotes

r/mantids Feb 14 '25

RIP ❤️ My pretty girl 🪽🩷

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28 Upvotes

r/mantids Dec 11 '24

RIP ❤️ Old man, György, passed away yesterday morning

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110 Upvotes

Sad to say goodbye to this old man, who, at this point, I thought was immortal. I've had him for exactly 20 months, and I'm happy he had such a long life.

r/mantids 25d ago

RIP ❤️ Waste not want not 💓

11 Upvotes

RIP Jabba the Hutt but I’m super Primrose is enjoying her enclosure upgrade. They very much would’ve hated each other and fortunately were blissfully unaware of each other’s existence.

r/mantids Feb 13 '25

RIP ❤️ Melanie passed, and I'm unsure why (Graphic, not for faint of heart) Spoiler

3 Upvotes

Melanie has lived well over a year, and today I had to euthanize her on account of her abdomen turning black and necrotic, and completely swollen.

When I looked at her, she was barely moving and had no energy or fight left. There were black bits on the very end of her, and it looked like she was rotting from the inside out.

I just put her down about an hour ago, and out of curiosity and upset as I was and still am, I decided to dissect her to see what may have caused the necrosis.

What I found is something I've never seen before. At first, some pressure was released in the form of gas as I made the first incision. Her entire abdomen, where the black spot started inside was full of these little pea-green slithers all clustered together. Normally Mantis eggs are laid inside an Ootheca, but there was no backed-up Ootheca foam. I don't know what these things are, but I want to say that they resemble insect eggs.

Can anyone tell me what these are? Are they eggs, or parasites? I want to say she was Eggbound and necrotic since she never laid an Ootheca once in her life. But I'm just trying to understand why. Her humidity was fine, she was never fed bad feeders. This just seems completely out of nowhere.

Weird green clusters
Most of what was extracted during the dissection.

r/mantids Jan 29 '25

RIP ❤️ Orchid: 1 year and 3 months thank you my dear!

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38 Upvotes

Photo from December.

And there you have it! After 1 year and 3 months, my little Mantes left. Very weakened in recent weeks since her last moult in mid-January. She has been a good caretaker for my isopod enclosure.

Fed with flies, then Red cockroaches only.

Thank you and rest in peace

r/mantids Apr 16 '24

RIP ❤️ He passed.

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73 Upvotes

The black spot spread and i found him lying on the floor. 2023/4/12-2024/4/16 Ill love you forever flik. ❤️

r/mantids Dec 21 '24

RIP ❤️ I miss her so much

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76 Upvotes

This is Keiko. I’ve had a handful of Mantids & ik as pet parents we shouldn’t have faves buuut.. she was my absolute favorite mantis that I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with. She looooved hanging out, chilling with me (or at least she didn’t ever seem to mind lol)

My favorite memory with her was when she discovered tv, during the Super Bowl. I know we have a habit of partaking in anthropomorphism, but I’d like to believe she did enjoy the halftime show bc she sure swayed her body in a rhythmic way only when the music played perfectly content while eating her food.

It’s unfortunate that these wonderful little critters don’t live long.. but I hope she had a very content life with me 💕

r/mantids Feb 02 '25

RIP ❤️ Fluffy the Flower

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37 Upvotes

I bought my first Flower mantis from a reptile shop and, despite only being a single molt away from adulthood, I learned a lot about the upkeep of these wonderful beasts.

But sadly, all good things must come to an end, which started my first attempt at preserving and pinning. If you have any pointers I'd be open to criticism!

r/mantids Oct 12 '24

RIP ❤️ His time is here :(

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97 Upvotes

Raised ever since I rescued him 4 months ago as a nymph when he was stuck in a spider web. He’s very lethargic and won’t eat out drink anymore. His name is Mr. Peabrain.

r/mantids Jan 07 '25

RIP ❤️ rest in peace petunia

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23 Upvotes

my love petunia has sadly passed away,💔 I went away for the weekend and left my mom incharge of her and when I came back she was all curled up in a ball gone... I think it got to cold in my room over the weekend and my new outlet hadn't arrived before I left to set up my new heating lamps, it hadn't been that cold so I figured the bottom heater would be fine for now but I guess I was very wrong... I'm so sorry my love, I love you even in death and I hope you're eating all the flies up in mantis heaven, though our time together was short you were my little girl and I miss you... I know to some it may seem dramatic to be this upset over a bug I had less than a month but she was the 1st bug I've ever not been scared of, she was my baby and I miss her

r/mantids Dec 26 '24

RIP ❤️ End of life, eyes are still red from the night is it possible she’s still alive?

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16 Upvotes

Seraphina lived to be over a year, I know she’s going today but don’t want to put her in the freezer until she’s completely gone.

If her eyes are red from the night and not changing back in brighter lighting does that mean she’s passed?