cherrytheorchidmantis

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

i began preserving my dead orchid mantis cherry today, here are the notes i took:

1. thaw cherry for 10 minutes

2. pin her

3. put droplets of rubbing alcohol on her

4. let her dry

1. ive put cherry in a handmade sauna to thaw her, it consists of a very small amount of isopropyl alcohol and a splash of boiling hot water, just enough to soak up one square of kitchen paper, she is sitting on top of a small square of styrofoam so she doesn’t touch any wet surfaces, im leaving her in it for 10 minutes to guarantee shes fully thawed, im hoping the ethanol will help prevent her from rotting later on

2. ive laid her down on a larger piece of syrofoam and began pinning, it’s difficult.

emotionally its really difficult, i hate seeing her like this. i refuse to put any pins into her body. i tried, i couldnt bring myself to, i know shes gone but i cant bring myself to hurt her. i wont be stuffing her into that little vial, my baby deserves so much better

3. i pinned cherry into a position where she nearly looks alive, i put little drops of the ethanol on her to prevent rotting, shes darkened just a little but i think (i hope) its because shes wet, it really wouldn’t be noticeable if you didn’t know her,

its weird, her eyes are dark, of course they are but its so weird. no pupils. before she died i could still see her looking at me.

it felt so wrong to pin her, i did it differently to how people tend to, i refuse to have my baby stay permanently in such a scared position, i think she looks like shes standing, her head is slightly tilted up and to the side. her head was so delicate to move, i was worried id decapitate her somehow.

4. i have to leave her a week now, to dry fully, i wasnt sure where would be best to put her but i found a dry dark place, i’ll check on her occasionally to make sure nothings changed.

she wont fit in the vial i bought for her, so i decided to put all 3 of her molts in there instead, i filled it with the isopropyl alcohol and it looks beautiful

now i can at least have a part my little love by my side always

photos under the cut incase anyone doesn’t want to see them

cherry in her makeshift ‘sauna’

cherry on the styrofoam

cherry pinned in place

a video of cherry gently posed and pinned

another photo of the vial

i hope this was helpful to someone ♡︎

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

some things i noticed before cherry’s (3 month old adult male orchid mantis) death that couldve been signs

- she would rest her head on the ground occasionally, it looked like when she would drink water but the ground was dry

- she ate a little less food than usual or it would take her longer to grab her food than before

- she fell over or stumbled occasionally

- her eyes were dark for longer (mantids eyes are dark during night time)

- the last weekish her antennas weren’t constantly moving, sometimes they would be still for a 30 seconds to a minute

this is rushed because honestly i dont want to think about it but ik its important for me to post as an observation blog

i will be getting a new mantis eventually (in the next few months) but for now i need time to mourn

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

i woke up today to find cherry near death, i thought she was completely dead until i tried to move her and my poor baby used the rest of her strength to cling onto the brush i was using to gently get her out the corner of her enclosure, other than that she couldn’t move and her eyes stayed dark like it was night.

one thing that is well known about mantids is that their natural deaths are always painful and long.

knowing that, knowing that she was still alive, still in pain, i had to euthanise her.

apparently a mantis will die in the freezer by just slipping into a peaceful sleep.

i said ‘rest well my love��� and closed the freezer door, i really hope shes not in pain for much longer.

i dont know how anyone can think of the bugs they care for as less than family, cherry was my daughter, my sweet baby, i sung songs to her, i loved documenting the stuff she does, i have so many photos of her, i cheered her on everytime she ate a fly.

something so small bought so much joy into my life every day, im glad she showed so many signs of being cared for well throughout her short time with me

goodbye my little cherry baby. i miss you.

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

i love mantids… yeah. cherry especially….

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

Bug 182 be like:

🎸🦗 🎶 🥁🐜

🎶 🎤🐛 🎶

🎶All the🎶

🎶Crawl things🎶

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

worth adding! but orchid mantids eyes change colour with light! the video i posted earlier cherry had light pinkish eyes as my light had been on in the room shes in and this photo was taken after that light had been off for about an hour, her eyes are a very dark cherry (heh) red :)

devastating: long post i made about cherry eating along with a video i edited together of her behaviours didnt post and i cannot find it in my drafts :( i will have to rewrite it when i wake up later as im way too sleepy now to try again

i had lots of actual good insight on that post and was excited for it to post :(((( i felt like a real bug observation-er for a while

if anyone knows how to find posts that didnt post properly please let me know asap

picture of my darling creature as consolation

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

devastating: long post i made about cherry eating along with a video i edited together of her behaviours didnt post and i cannot find it in my drafts :( i will have to rewrite it when i wake up later as im way too sleepy now to try again

i had lots of actual good insight on that post and was excited for it to post :(((( i felt like a real bug observation-er for a while

if anyone knows how to find posts that didnt post properly please let me know asap

picture of my darling creature as consolation

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

i tried to take a few videos of cherry eating but she started pooping :(

im uploading it because this blog is mainly to try and document mantis behaviour but its still gross so watch if you need/want to see a male orchid mantis poop and get it caught on its wing i guess

in between the cut she kicked it off with her back foot, unfortunately i missed it because in real time she took too long to remove it and i gave up recording

this video, while gross (sorry cherry) does answer a question i had a while ago, i saw cherry with her abdomen bent at and angle recently and although she seemed fine i couldn’t figure out why or what she was doing, turns out she was probably just taking a shit ;w;

this is sped up x5, irl it took her about 5 mins to poop and have her body return to normal

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

thats exactly what i was thinking of when i made this post x3

i didnt know u could actually buy it tho! (i cant bc im not in the us but if i travelled maybe…)

life would be so much better if i could kiss my little daughter on the forehead but i am big and she is small xC

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

my daughter is upside down currently, i wonder if thats fun. what an inspiration. i must follow in her footsteps, i will lay off the side of my bed with my head upside down shortly and post an update :3

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

cant sleep! heres cherry in comparison to her enclosure :3

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

i wiped her enclosure after the last post bc it has so many water marks photos are hard to take! she is currently drinking the water off the wall!! here is some video ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

she cleans her paws!!! ᨐฅ

sorry for it having trouble focusing she is very small and my phone is my only camera >⩊<;

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

life would be so much better if i could kiss my little daughter on the forehead but i am big and she is small xC

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

what a beautiful child. i love her. my daughter. look at those eyes. wow. just wow.

today cherry has done a lot of walking around her enclosure, i dont know whats gotten her so active but every time ive come into the room shes been somewhere else :3

my favourite girlboy :3

[cherrytheorchidmantis]

thinking about my beautiful bug daughter