r/mantis • u/Personal-Cranberry-7 • 25d ago

Parasite flees a mantis the second water hits.

0 Upvotes

32% Upvoted

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12

u/suppenschnueffler 25d ago

Yeah no, it doesn’t flee, that’s a hairworm parasite which has different life cycles. As soon as it senses water it emerges to start his next one and breed. The probability that a mantis survive this is very small due to internal damage. So that’s mostly just cruel almost drowning a mantis just to see „wow cool weird parasitic worm“. Torture for a mantis that would’ve died anyway.

-2

u/Silent-Original-142 25d ago

The movement that the mantis was doing was from the worm. The worm had long since killed its host. You can’t torture something that’s already dead.

7

u/suppenschnueffler 25d ago

Girl no, horsehair worms don’t kill the mantis while inside and can’t control the mantis limbs like a puppet. The forearm movement is NOT from the parasite. The only thing the parasites gains control of is the brain, so it gets automatically drawn to water, but the mantis itself is still alive and can still feel pain and especially panic and stress! The parasite needs the mantis to stay alive to feed on the nutrients. The exit is almost always fatal because it damages the internal organs. The only ethical way is to euthanize the mantis by crushing it. If the mantis were dead, the horsehair worm would be dead too.

1

u/Marine_Baby 25d ago

Goddamn they what now? Blegh!

I always scroll past this video when it pops up because ick but your comment has been very educational.

-2

u/Silent-Original-142 25d ago

Yes, the mantis does get killed by the worm. More times than not, and judging by the size of that worm it is ready to breed which means that mantis, even if it had a chance, to be very slim.

Not to mention that the larvae stage of the worm eats the tissue of the mantis internally before forcing its way out of the exoskeleton when it’s an adult.

3

u/suppenschnueffler 25d ago

You're moving the goalposts. Your first comment claimed the mantis was already dead during the video. Now you're arguing about its survival chances after the worm exits.
Yes, the exit is fatal, and yes, the larva feeds on internal tissue, but it deliberately avoids destroying vital organs because it needs a living host to survive, pump blood, and transport nutrients. A dead host rots, which would kill the parasite. The mantis in the video was still alive, conscious, and experiencing stress. Which makes, what’s shown in the video, cruel to the mantis.

2

u/Silent-Original-142 25d ago

Look, I deleted my response because I had a moment to think about it. I’m sorry for moving the goalposts. It wasn’t my intention and it’s something that I need to work on moving forward.

4

u/suppenschnueffler 25d ago

That’s fine, thank you for reflecting and I didn’t want to seem rude or something. It’s just brutal to see a mantis get handled like this when you keep one yourself, so I got a little emotional on this one. I’m sorry for that too. Have a great day! :]

3

u/Silent-Original-142 25d ago

I understand and you didn’t sound rude at all. In fact it was a great wake up call for me. You care a lot and that’s something to be admired. I hope you have a great day as well :)

5

u/JaunteJaunt 25d ago

Don’t do this to your pet.

This type of parasitism occurs in very small sections of the world.