Look out for these.

[Worth1]

It dawned to me that folks go around and pick up sticks in their yard and trim trees at this time of year.

I just thought I would post a picture or two to let folks know that they should look out for praying mantis eggs and not destroy them or burn them.
Put the stick or wood they are on in a safe place or leave them alone.
This way you can have babies for next year.




Please don't kill my babies.
Attachment 3502

Good day,

Worth

[bcday]

Thanks for posting the pics, Worth. I've seen the empty dried-out egg cases and wondered what they were. I don't remember ever seeing a fresh one full of eggs. Now I know what to look for. I like praying mantises and there is no shortage of goodies around here in the summer for them to feast on!

[phreddy]

What do they do? We see the occasional one in BG. What do the eggs look like?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by phreddy

What do they do? We see the occasional one in BG. What do the eggs look like?

Phreddy if I understand your question correctly, ‘you are asking what the eggs look like and what the praying mantis does.
Is this correct?

The eggs are the top 2 pictures and the bottom picture is the mother.
The eggs come in many shapes and sizes and all you have to do is do an internet search for images and you will find many pictures of the eggs and the praying mantis.

The praying mantis is a predator type insect that hunts down other so called bad insects and eats them.
Some times they will just sit around real still and wait for their food/insect to come close and then they will pounce on the prey and have lunch.

Another thing to help the praying mantis is that, ‘if left alone it will take on the color of its surroundings.

If it is around old gray boards or tree trunks it will turn the same color.
If it is around bright green leaves it will turn bright green.

They can move very fast and I like to put my hand out and let them crawl on me.
They are a very curious animal and it seems that once they get used to you they will crawl all over you.

I know that must everyone already knows all of this and it is old news but for those of you that don’t I went ahead and wrote this.

Due to the above question!

That’s what this place is for, not so much as to gloat on what we did but to help others right!

Good Mantis egg hunting,8)

Worth

[dcarch]

You don't ever ever want to be a male mantis!

dcarch

[matereater]

I have a BIL who lives in Louisiana and sends me a couple dozen Otheca (mantis egg sacks) for xmas every year. In the spring I glue them to short sticks and place them all over the yard. They're so fascinating to watch.

I raised them indoors a few years back, but it gets very expensive, especially when they're small, you have to buy wingless fruit flies for them to eat, and if they don't get enough, they eat each other. Usually out of a coule hundred you only get about 20 or 30 to release in the spring.

[bcday]

Originally Posted by matereater

I raised them indoors a few years back, but it gets very expensive, especially when they're small, you have to buy wingless fruit flies for them to eat

You shouldn't have to keep buying wingless fruit flies. They are easy to raise. All you need are a small group to start with and an endless supply of bananas. Put a few fruitflies in a covered jar with some pieces of banana and let them go to it. When the first jar starts to get overcrowded or stale, put some fresh banana and a few new young flies in another jar and start again. The only trick is to keep winged fruitflies from getting in and crossing with them, because then all the progeny will be winged...not nice.

An easy way to get a few fruitflies out of the jar to feed to the mantis is to take the lid off the jar and put a stick in so that the stick leans on an angle out the top. Then slowly turn the jar around a time or two. The fruitflies don't like that and will climb up the stick and the sides of the jar to try to leave. All you have to do is lift the stick out, knock the fruitflies off it and off the rim of the jar into another container, and repeat until you have enough. I dunno about putting the mantises in the jar with the flies and bananas, maybe someone else has tried that. I was feeding the flies to tropical fish and couldn't put the fish in the jar, LOL.

[matereater]

The mantis's ate them to fast for them to reproduce. Mantids are the the sharks of the bug world, as long as foods available, they eat.

Maybe the problem was I put the jar of fruitflies in the same cage as the Mantis's, oh well, hafta try an rememer that if I ever decide to raise them again.

Thanks for the info bcday!

[phreddy]

Thanks Worth, the first pics didn't land. They have now so I see what to look for. I will be careful pruning the blackberry bush.