necrosis?

    hi and sorry if i write in english but my german is not good enough.


    i have a l7 idolomantis diabolica with a leg problem, i suppose the tissue is in necrosis, maybe because it got stuck on the mesh or bitten off by any prey.
    the mantis has no control on the leg anymore, just the shoulder, and it will shed soon.
    its still well fed but i am scared it will die during shedding. i have raised the temp to 35 degrees, is there anything i can do?


    any tips is welcome, also in german :)


    danke!


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i60.tinypic.com/2j2ym1t.jpg]

    Hi,
    Yes, to increase the temperature could be helpfull, also you should keep her dry. Additionaly you can try to put powder sugar on the leg. Other people made good experiences with honey.


    Kind regards, Andrea

    Hello and welcome!
    It's hard to say, but mostly you couldn't do more then raise the temperature and reduce the humidity.


    As long as your mantis isn't adult most times a broken part of the body, like an bitten off leg or something similar grown back with the next molt.
    But if you say it seems like a nacrosis it could be a fungal disease, this could happen if a mantis has an open wound. This means the broken part of the body rots from the inside and unfortunately there is nothing to do to stop it.


    The only thing you can do is to hope it gets better with the next molt, and raise the temperature like you did, maybe you could feed her with a mixture of water and honey/sugar if she seems to decrease, but most times thats only retards the probably unavoidable death.


    Greetz,


    Andy

    thanks,
    yes i also think its either fungal or bacterial.


    it might sound drastic, but would cutting the sick part of the leg off help in any way? i understand its wrong and all, but if it saves the life of the animal, i think it could be my last shot.

    Hi,
    any news?
    I saw that already a couple of times and unfortunately it always ended with the death of the nymph. This progressive infection (bacterial, fungal, viral, etc., who knows?) is essentially untreatable and it's not a good sign if the nymph cannot move the raptorial arm anymore.
    You said it might be bitten of by a prey animal? What do you feed your Idolomantis nymphs? Usually only flying prey like flies and moths is used as food and these ones do not have the ability to bite anything off.
    As said already, keep the temperature high and reduce the humidity to a minimum (Idolomantis do not like it humid at all).
    Don't cut anything, this won't improve its condition at all.
    Good luck nevertheless, the boy has only one moult left to go through, so in the best case you will have an adult Idolomantis male with just one functional raptorial arm.
    Cheers
    Stefan ;)