My little friend!

Helped move a mini cabin on a lake to higher ground and this guy was under the siding, never seen one around here before, cool to say the least.

I have seen a bunch the last few weeks. I dint know why I am seeing so many

They look like little aliens don't they.

She's ready to lay, keep her around your place and you will have them all over next year !

Just don't marry her Jerry. Their mates lose their heads when they consummate.

That's a female that will be laying an egg case soon.

I caught a praying mantis with an abdomen like that, when I was a kid. I let it hang out in my windows and catch flys. It disappeared for a few days and showed back up looking really skinny. Months later, I got home from school and my mom was yelling and vacuuming thousands of baby preying mantises, with a shop vac, from my windows.

She had laid multiple egg cases attached to the clothes in my closet.

Keith

Some info on egg cases...

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/praying-mantis-egg-sac-info.htm






,.,.

She was a fat thing for sure I put her back at the cabin after we moved it just cool to have around, did not see the male around. LOL

Interesting!

Very cool!

They just might be.
They are cool! I usually get them hanging out in the garden or on the mammoth sunflowers during the summer.

So, you will have to educate me on that critter?

Praying mantis has always been a favorite of mine. They are creepy when that are light brown.

Very cool

Say Hello to my little Friend ....

Thanks Adam! I just couldn't remember what they were.

They actually make great pets! We used to catch them and keep them in a screened box. We would open the door to let flies in, then catch the flies and put them in the box with the praying mantis. They can snatch a fly out of the air.....then eat them while theyre kicking. When they're done they'll lick their hands to get the last bit of goodness. Cheap entertainment. 🙂

If you collect the unhatched praying mantis eggs cases and place them with the same side oriented down, you can have thousands around your yard in the Spring. Unless you have a lot of insects for them to eat, they turn cannibalistic, even before they reach breeding age. I picked up 46 egg cases one year.

Keith

Never have seen one. Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
Mac

They also can get very big.
There is more than one video of them sitting on top of hummingbird feeders. They can catch and eat those as well.

Cool critter. Definitely my favorite of the "bug" world.

You're welcome Snowy. They are really great for the garden just like ladybugs. Fun to watch

Mantises are excellent little predators. i always like seeing them. We have always had a decent population around here.

I found this one floating in the pool yesterday morning.



We had a big thunderstorm with hail and high winds the night before. He must have gotten blown out of one of those trees along with about a million leaves.

Stone cold killers one of my favorite bugs. Nightmare monsters to other bugs though.

Those things must hump more than Stormy Daniels, we got a big crop of em this year

They are the only insect that I know of which will turn its head and look you right in the eye. I has compound eyes, but has what appears to be a single pupil deep inside of its eye. They seem to look right into your soul. LIKE AN ALIEN!

Reminds me of the time I put an egg case in a diorama at school as a kid. The teacher explained to me that over the weekend they had to remove it. When I got older I laughed when I realized what I'd done.

Thirty years ago on a dove hunt we were camping on the river and built a fire. After it got really dark, we had hundreds of them run straight into the fire. Weirdest thing I'd ever seen, like a mass suicide.

Amazing insect.

Pete

Anybody remember Zorac from Space Ghost? LOL

Now that would be fun...even at my age

I watering my mom's plants and this guy showed up looking mad because he got a shower lol. Not as cool as having one on your glove Jerry