Mantis Care #5 - Mantis Nymph Molting Guide, Tips for Successful Molts

It’s molting time! Mantises unlike beetles, butterflies, and moths; go through incomplete metamorphosis. Baby and juvenile mantises are called nymphs; and they resemble their adult counterparts. Unlike adults, nymphs do not have wings and cannot breed. This video is to ensure your mantis has a successful molt.

I am working with Chinese mantises, tenodera sinensis. If you have other mantis species; all this works, just adjust accordingly. The mantis' behavior can tell you when its getting ready to molt. Make sure your mantis is in an adequate container for their size. The medicine tubes shown in the video house L1-L3 mantis nymphs. The cylinder container can house L4-L6 mantis nymphs. A mantis about to molt to adulthood requires a larger space. You can place them on indoor plants. An aquarium works fine for L7 mantis nymphs about to become adults. Make sure you keep an eye on your mantis while its molting. Be sure to mist your mantis' enclosure; each species requires a different humidity.

a) Mantises will not eat, some might drink water. They may strike their prey; but only to keep them away.
b) The mantis will remain still. They will also choose to remain at the top of the container or on a stick.
c) The mantis will seek out the highest peak.

When a mantis is molting, do not disturb it. Interfering will put them in danger and stress them out. You only step in if you see major issues: the mantis falls while molting, its leg is still stuck to its old skin, etc. If your mantis fell, be sure to put them back to their original molting position. The mantis will continue on its own.

Unfortunately, even with all these precautions; a mantis may still have a mismolt or molting fail. I have created these two terms and are by no means official. A mismolt is when the mantis successfully molts but there are a few imperfections. The L3 mantis in the video (at 4:00) is an example of this. These mantises will slowly fix themselves with each following molt. A molting fail is when a mantis is unable to complete its molt. At this moment, you decide whether or not your mantis should continue living. Example: the mantis was not able to molt successfully.

There will be a future Mantis Care video regarding molting to adulthood. Currently, all my nymphs are far from reaching it. If you have any questions or suggestions for videos, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching!