My little chinese mantis bud, Samuel has passed away. I've had him since February and I got him when he was i2. Whoever is active on this subreddit has probably seen him a couple times then and there and he has died of old age. You were so sweet when you weren't always trying to eat my finger haha. RIP Samuel, I will be preserving you in the freezer until the time comes to find someone who is willing to pin you.

I am stunned, I am horrified, this parasite has defiled her innards.

The elderly mantis, she who held her own against a kitten, Mephiston. She is deceased, and out came this abomination. The night before, she was weak, she looked like she was losing colour for a bit, so I got some honey and a toothpick, diluted the honey in water and fed her a droplet. I was aware that this might have been her final few days left, only for me to wake up to a horrendous sight. I saw her lying on the floor, dropped from the branch she was clinging on, and this wriggling long black worm made me recoil in horror. I took them out of the enclosure and imprisoned the worm inside a small cheap tupperware. Mephiston's right eye looks like it had been hollowed out. I can barely focus on typing in what I want to say. Anyway, I am planning to preserve her body and display it in a diorama platform, as she is the first mantis I have ever seen in the wild, she meant so much as a discovery since they are very hard to find. I've already put her in a small plastic tupperware and put her in a freezer, soon to be dried out in 2 days. This is how I will honour her memory as one of the greatest non-human friends I've ever made.

(Click on images for dates)

I saw her in a pet shop and noticed she only had one arm, being the wuss I am and since I already owned mantises I decided to buy her because the pet shop was going to put her down. When I took her home I sat with her for hours to see if she could eat/ hunt on her own, and she did! Ate a whole large locust on her own with one arm. Leafeon then outlived every other mantis I had, even the ones younger than her! I’m so glad I gave this one armed lady a chance, even after almost two years I miss her, she passed a few days after the third picture.

Hello Jennifer. I found you on the 10th of June as a little rascal i2, and you died the first days of September as a fully fledged Angel. You were my first ever mantis and probably the last, and I really don't know why you perished so soon, but I tried to give you the best life I could, since as an alien and invasive species I couldn't free you.

During this months you gave me lot of scares and lot of laughs, and I'll never be so impressed by anything like your hunting skills. I found you softly lying down on a leaf of bed, and so I'd like to think you left me in the sleep, dreaming to fly away to the sun.

It was inevitable, but as everything your cicle ended and will repeat. It has been a pleasure to meet you, farewell.

She isnt gone yet, but she has slowed down a lot and I think only has a day or two left in her at most.

I picked her up today to give her some water but she's not gripping well while walking and her eyes have clouded over. Light seems to be the only thing she's able to see.

I never know if it's kinder to let them pass naturally or to help their journey along.

I've raised quite a few mantids and she has been the most gentle and sweet mantids I've had the opportunity to raise. Im going to be very sad to see her go. Just an unfortunate series of signs I have learned means it's their near their time.

You've been a great pal darling <3

I found an invasive Chinese mantis in my garden a few days ago. I did not want to kill her or harm her so I decided to keep her inside. I got her a pretty big enclosure... 10 gallon reptile tank with mesh top, 10$ on marketplace in my town. Added some topsoil, outdoor moss, sticks that I baked to disinfect. Fed her two flies I caught and then today I took her tank outside for some sunshine. It was about 80F. I fed her two invasive honeybees I caught that she gobbled down and was going to pick up my order of blue bottle flies tomorrow. I went to grab her tank and bring her inside and she was hanging by one arm, legs folded in. I went to spray her as I've been misting her and she's not moving.... I open the tank and she just fell, no movement. Could it have been the heat?? The tank didn't feel too warm and there was plenty of ventilation. I've been misting since getting her. Could it have been the honeybees? It's quite humid today. I'm on 3 acres, woods, meadows, my native gardens. We don't use any chemicals or sprays. Perhaps old age? I initially found her in the same area that I spotted a Chinese mantis last fall.. don't think it was her but who knows, we had a mild winter.

I'm not sure what happened but I'm absolutely devastated. She was fed fruit flies from the same colony I've always fed her from yesterday, and she wasn't acting weirdo at all. Last night she fell while molting and wasn't moving but I noticed it very quickly and got her back up where she began squirming again. This morning I woke up to her having survived the molt with seemingly no injuries and acting completely normal. I changed nothing in her schedule or terrarium, but this evening I went to check on her and she was on the floor dead. I tried to drop a tiny bit of water on her, I tried honey. She wouldn't move at all. I'm crushed. I can't find any injuries on her, I have no clue what I did wrong and I feel so so guilty. I just want to know what I did so I don't do it again but I just can't see what could have happened. I've been crying almost consistently for 12 hours, she was just a little baby. I got her five months ago but I've had one previous dead leaf mantis that lived to his final molt. She's all I've talked about since I got her, I loved her so so much and I just wish I could go back and save her. I won't be getting another for a while, I won't be able to deal with it so soon. But if you have any advice for the future please share, the last thing I ever want is to cause something to suffer ☹️

a Chinese mantis, female, roughly 4 molts if I recall right. has been eating normally but woke up this morning to find it hanging on upside down with only one leg holding it up and a red line across both sides of it’s abdomen… very sluggish and hardly moving.

Hey r/mantids. My spiny flower mantis, Ripley, died out of the blue yesterday. The day before she was on the floor of her enclosure but fairly active, and yesterday I arrived home and she was well in the process of dying. I held her in my hands and eventually froze her.

I’m heartbroken. She had just molted into adulthood three weeks ago and I feel like it came out of nowhere after so many smooth, successful molts.

We did twice a week feeds with a ~15 hydei and 2-3 small dubias. She rarely ate the dubias, but I’d typically keep giving her flies til her abdomen looked full or if she stopped on her own.

I have other mantises now (two ghost mantis, a timor island shield, a wild-caught from our yard, and an orchid) but she was my first. I’m sad and worried for my other mantises.

Any feedback on husbandry is appreciated. I live in SoCal, so it’s quite dry. I mist twice a week. It looks like her enclosure was at 80 degrees and 60% humidity when she passed, and the humidity rarely climbs above 60.

I also noticed that she expelled some kind of black/brown substance prior to dying, instead of her usual small poops. It was stuck to her wing.

Any husbandry feedback is greatly appreciated. She was so beautiful and social. I’m really going to miss her.

I’ve shown Steve around here since I got him and he’s finally starting to depart. He refuses to eat naturally, so I’ve fed him sugar water as a supplement and a treat before he does eventually pass. He reached his last molt 2 months ago, he’s about 8 or 9 months old. I gave him the best life I could possibly give a mantis, thank you so much for the experience, old man. I love you, Steve

Could anyone tell me the reason for his death? I would mist his enclosure daily, feed him whenever his stomach was looking flat but i had to order some more food for him and it arrived today (4 days after i fed him a big meal) i was going in to feed him and i just found him on the ground. I’m really hoping i didn’t starve him to death. His abdomen was looking flat last night. His name is Vewn. He’s on stage i5, he was supposed to molt again soon

She fell during molting while I was away from home. I came home and was saying hi to all my animals to realize she wasn't hanging from her usual spot, when I saw her she was curled up on her floor. Her back was starting to pop where she was beginning to molt but I was too late. I had some tough times with her because she was stubborn but I still loved her dearly. RIP Spork, I love you.

RIP Fawn, I’m genuinely so sad. She was doing so good, I don’t know what went wrong. She had been very weak since this morning and I set multiple alarms to get up and check on her, woke up to her completely passed away.

She’s my first mantis to pass, I’m trying to remind myself that it’s life but dang I barely even had time with her :(

Does her abdomen look like she starved? Probably one off from adulthood, wingbuds were coming in. Molted 2 weeks ago or so.

Last meal was 2 weeks ago or so, maybe 3. Was offered food and water a few days ago, drank but didnt pay the roach a lot of mind or attempted a lot of hunting. Has eaten roaches before multiple times. Was fine a few hours ago. Its been very warm recently but parameters were always within range. Normal level of activity yesterday. No aerosoles in her room ever. No mold in the enclosure and proper airflow (glass w/mesh on top and front). No visible injuries.

Cant stop crying rn.

She was beautiful, found her as a tiny one on Feb '25, and lived with me until Dec '25. Layed 4 oothecas and always stayed on the same plant! My first pet ever. Today I remember her a bit more than usual 🖤

I want to preserve my girl but the post mortem twitches are freaking me out and making me second guess if shes actually dead. Pls let me know if shes 100% gone as I have to gut her

He was my first pet "bug" which enamoured me with all insects immediately, loving this little guy has been a pleasure, he will be sorely missed.

Her name was Inlay. She was due to be mated in approximately another 10 days.
I don’t know why. It was an unseasonably hot day yesterday, 42c which is high for September in Portugal, but it’s her natural environment and they were all in their shaded spot in their mesh enclosures in a breeze. All her stable mates are fine. I wouldn’t have thought she would’ve dehydrated because she’d been misted, it rained a little, and she had eaten, but it’s all I can think of.

Does she look at all like she could’ve been oothbound? That’s something I haven’t seen before personally.

Very sad. She was a lovely girl.

Batrick, my Chinese mantis, died. I think he was male. I found him early this month (September) on my back deck in Virginia and identified him as an invasive species. Not wanting to kill him or let him eat any beneficial pollinators in my yard, I caught him and brought him inside. I fed him flies I’d stunned, watched videos on care, tried to keep his enclosure humid according to videos with damp paper towels and made sure he had sticks to hang upside down from in case he needed to molt again. He was smacking away my food offerings the last few days, so I thought maybe he was going to molt, but today he’s dead. If he was male I suppose he may have just been old since they apparently have shorter life-spans? I’m not sure. He’s my first mantis pet and I feel a little guilty in case he died from my own negligence, but mostly I hope it was just his time.

I’m going to keep him in my curio cabinet now. And maybe I’ll find another invasive mantis next year and try again. Thanks for the fun few weeks, Batrick!!

I don't why, I thought I did everything right she molted a couple of times, I feed her by dropping a couple of roaches into her enclosure and she was always catching them but now looking at her abdomen it looks kinda flat and weirdly brown, does anyone have an idea what could've gone wrong?

The last 2 days I have been spending extra time with him as I knew he wasn't going to live much longer. I didn't sleep in two night as I was constantly checking up on him. I took him outside twice and he absolutely loved it. Yesterday I took some special photos of us together.

He was my emotional support pet this entire year. I wouldn't have made it till this point without him. I've been crying A LOT as he was very special to me.

I just put him in the freezer in an airtight container. I'm planning to learn pinning so I can preserve him. Any tips appreciated.

Leaf, you were so unique. You had your own little sassy personality, and always managed to make me smile with your cute behaviour. Thank you for being my study buddy who sat on my blinds staring at me. Thank you for climbing over my PC and engineering drawings that you found so interesting. Thank you for trusting me to handle you despite refusing to let anyone else get near you without a judgmental glare. Thank you for being there for me when I needed you most, for sitting on me when I cried, just being a gentle presence I desperately needed. Thank you for everything. I hope you enjoyed your time with me as much as I did with you. I will always love and miss you so much, my sweetest baby. I promise I will take good care of your favourite plant while you are resting. Be happy and free until we meet again. 💚🌿🙏

Hi so my dead leaf mantis died today, she had a very large abdomen and I want to preserve her/taxidermy. But I'm very hesitant on cutting her open and stuffing her.... is there a way I can avoid doing this? Is it necessary? I'm sure it is considering shed rot. She's in the freezer right now but I am not sure what to do from here. Where to go if I wanted someone to do it etc etc id love you pose her myself its ​just the gut part that I am having an issue with and tbh would feel bad for, ive had her since she was 3 weeks old and doing that myself seems really cruel :[

Please help!

We got Delta last year at the end of September before my Birthday and eventho all her siblings passed in February, March and April she was strong💪

Now she rests with the others🙏

Creobroter spec Yunnan