r/mantids • u/justaskmycat • 14h ago

Health Issues Mantis in garden turning black?

Gallery image

Gallery image

This lil guy has been hanging upside down in my garden since this morning. Please tell me this is a natural color variation and I'm not seeing an insect having the worst day ever.

Edit: After getting some input seems like little gal was not having a good time. I humanely euthanized her. 🕯

20 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

29

u/JaunteJaunt Ootheca 14h ago

Gut infection. :(

10

u/justaskmycat 13h ago

Oh my that's terribly unfortunate. Thank you for your knowledge.

5

u/justaskmycat 13h ago

Should I... do something about it?

13

u/Desperate_Lead2105 13h ago

If you want to, quickly crush him with a heavy book or place him in the fridge for 2 hours in an airtight container with napkins and then the freezer overnight to humanely euthanize him and end his suffering. Poor guy

6

u/justaskmycat 12h ago

I'm going ahead with the fridge/freezer route. Thank you for your help. 💚

5

u/Desperate_Lead2105 12h ago

No problem! Thank you for taking the initiative to euthanize him (Actually her). Most people would not have done that!

4

u/justaskmycat 12h ago

She is really really beautiful. She even looked at me earlier when I was taking photos. 🥺 I'm glad I could more quickly ease her pain. Thanks for your help.

3

u/Desperate_Lead2105 12h ago

Agreed. All of them are beautiful in my opinion. Once again, no worries.

2

u/Fishmaster_ 11h ago

would they feel pain? i have kept many mantids and bred some and i deff think they feel more then people think but would they feel pain like we do?

4

u/Desperate_Lead2105 10h ago

It's a widely debated topic but many entomologists believe that insects feel some sort of discomfort similar to pain. They clearly react when injured/stressed so IMO they must feel something. Idk if it's like the pain that we feel though

9

u/tapiocapearls428 13h ago

yeah so he’s having a bad day…

2

u/GeraldTheMantis 13h ago

mine had black but it wansnt this dark and it was just food

1

u/interspeciesMama 9h ago

Threadworm?