# Why did my praying mantises die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466 "2003-06-03T22:22:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466/1 "2003-06-03T22:22:21Z")
A little less than a week ago, I decided to adopt two baby praying mantises: Chris, and Sam. Chris was always the more active one, hopping around, eating more, trying to climb up my bathrobe sleeves. Sam, on the other hand, was much more cautious. However, he was finally getting used to me. Chris was growing much bigger than Sam (although they’re both smaller than a 1/2 inch). Yesterday, my brother discovered Sam dead. I didn’t know why. I assumed that he was just too weak. Today, I found Chris dying. Therefore, I assume it’s something that was put into their jars. This is what was in there: A bit of tap water Some turkey (they’d eaten turkey before, as well as ham) A few sprigs of holly A stick I want to know why they died. Was it something I did? I really want to know what happened. I mean, I know I wanted specimens for my AP biology summer assignment, but this was _not_ how I wanted to get them. ---
**Author:** ![kunoichi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4da419/32.png) [@kunoichi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kunoichi)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466/2 "2003-06-03T22:30:52Z")
Maybe they starved? IIRC mantises eat bugs… maybe there were some bacteria on the turkey that didn’t agree with them? Maybe you can change your AP Bio project to the investigation of their suspicious deaths? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466/3 "2003-06-03T22:30:52Z")
I found some information on caring for mantids [here.](http://www.earthlife.net/insects/mantids.html) Hopefully the information you need is there. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466/4 "2003-06-03T22:34:27Z")
The thing is, they were thriving on turkey. Chris seemed to love it. She was eating lots of it. Also, I tried giving her a bug, but she wouldn’t eat it. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466/5 "2003-06-03T22:49:24Z")
Could be almost anything. Turkey meat lacks a lot of essential nutirents, notably calcium. The insects could eat as much as they like and still die of calcium deficiency. Mantids won’t eat all insects. Quite a few are poisonous to them. The other point is that insects don’t know what is good for them any more than peolpe do. If you offered them slow-moving soft meat as well as insects, they may well have selected the meat simply because it was easier to catch. The fact that it wouldn’t eat an insect doesn’t tell you much. If the jars were fairly small and you put water into the bottom, the humidity would have risen, possibly leading to fungal infections. Thiose are two obvious causes, but it really could be almost anything. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-praying-mantises-die/179466/6 "2003-06-03T22:53:16Z")
Could be something in the air; they’re sensitive to different chemicals from the ones we vertebrates might find toxic. An aside: were they living together? I’ve always had any praying mantises I’ve kept eat each other till there was only one left.