My Garden Patrol are re-assembling for duty!

[applestar]

Yesterday, which was Earth Day and Last Average Frost Day (for my area), one of the 14 praying mantis egg cases hatched. By the end of the day, the little babies had scattered to do what they can.

Today, I spotted a tell-tale curled down leaf on my Enterprise Apple tree. Having already eradicated a bunch of Black Oily Aphids from the Cherry espaliers, I uncurled the leaf, ready to find the dreaded mob. Instead, I found Lady Bug, finishing her breakfast! Of course I apologized for disturbing her and gently curled the leaf back up again.

[Ozark Lady]

Apple, did you buy the cases, or just find them and make note of them?

Can you post photos of what they look like so we all know not to destroy them, by accident?

I may be odd, but I like to play with praying mantises, I like the way they sway and then just jump!

[applestar]

They look like walnut or slightly smaller-sized triangular lump of foam, usually on sturdy upright branches or weed stalks.

I'll post some photos later. 2nd egg case hatched today and kids and I were busy taking pictures and catching the babies in a cup to spread them around the garden. DD8 was particularly enthusiastic. (She's the one that was so bug-phobic as a toddler that she had anxiety attacks as a toddler. )

All 14 were found around my garden. In one location, there were 5 clustered in approx. 12' square area, 3 others in another part, 1 on top of my Enterprise apple tree ,... and so on.

It's kind of thought-provoking that there were sufficient bugs in my small suburban garden to support at least 14 female and presumably another 14 male praying mantids (Is it true that the female bite the male's head off after coupling? I forget....) to maturity. Hmm... is this a good thing or bad thing?

[soil]

the egg cases are called ooths, and they come in more than a few shapes and colors. if you google image search it you should get a good idea what to look for. I find them all the time, in fact I found one the other day on the wisteria.

applestar you gotta love free pest control!

[applestar]

The ones I see are usually grayish tan-color.

Just a little while ago, I was weeding/picking salad greens and saw one of the little guys hippity-hoppinng among the straw mulch.

applestar you gotta love free pest control!

You know it, soil!

[applestar]

Here are some photos. Aren't they ADORABLE?
You can see another -- what did you call it, soil? OOTH? -- in the last photo. On closer inspection of the photo, that other one looks shrunken and has holes in it so it might have hatched already. Either that, or some bird found it tasty sometime during the winter or early spring.
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image6748-1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image6760-1.jpg[/img] [img]https://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll272/applesbucket/Image6767-1.jpg[/img]

I once thought it would be interesting to observe them hatch, brought one of these inside, and kept it in a 1-gallon wide-mouth jar with a rubber-banded cheesecloth lid in the SE-facing dining room. One warm day, they hatched. The little babies turned out to be smaller than the weave in the cheesecloth... Their first instinct is to scatter...

[gixxerific]

Very cool Apple. I have seen them around in my town but not at my house. Good to hear you have some bodyguards or should I say plant guards.

If a bird did get them they better watch out when they get older. I saw some pics of a mantis actually catching a hummingbird in mid flight.

[url=https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyardbirds/hummingbirds/mantis-hummer.aspx]Here is the link[/url] if you care to check it out.

[Ozark Lady]

That link is so weird, who woulda believed it?

Seeing is believing! That really surprises me.

Thanks Gixx for sharing it.

So does that mean, don't put hummingbird feeders in the garden, where the mantises are?

Wow!

[applestar]

I spotted another curled up apple leaf, uncurled it and found another ladybug. I think I might not have to bother uncurling any more leaves.

[scoobdoob808]

That is wonderful. I wish I would find some in my garden I love Praying Mantis they are amazing little creatures and such wonderful pest controllers.

[rainbowgardener]

When I was moving the house plants out to their summer home on the screened porch, I found a preying mantis egg case that had overwintered indoors! (Along with the big cluster of ladybugs, my house was a very popular winter resort this past winter!) Fortunately I found it before it hatched out, carefully snipped off the stem it was on and moved it all outdoors. It has now disappeared, so hopefully there are lots of little praying mantises around. We are usually pretty well supplied with them.

The ones I see are not so fuzzy as your first picture, AS...

[applestar]

You do know that first pictured ooth "looks" fuzzy because it's COVERED with baby preying mantises, right?

The ones with holes in it that I though was a dud -- I tied it to the raspberry trellis in the garden on the other side of the house since it was nice and warm there against the fence. I noticed it had a trail of fluff dangling from it (like in the 2nd photo) the other day so I guess it wasn't entirely empty. I hope baby matids like sawfly/rose slugs because the raspberry leaves are starting to get lace-holes in them.