Look what I found in my daylilly bed!!!!!!!!! There's another one on my rose of sharon bush- I am sooooo excited!
Ok if ya can't tell from the pic (it's a little fuzzy) or never seen one... it's a Praying Mantis egg case!
Doin the happy dance!
Heather (who is finally able to get pics off her camera and on the her puter...)
It sure is! I hope that they hatch for you and you have cute, little baby mantids soon. Oh and if you pick them up by letting them crawl on you - they are friendly, generally - keep your other hand underneath them, because they tend to "hop" off your hand and might injure themselves. They won't be able to fly (if they are a kind that flies) until they are adults.
I know Mantis Mama knows what she's doing but.... that egg case has been exposed to WINTER - snow and all - do you think the babies will be ok?
Heather
I think mantis egg cases can survive over the winter. Are you sure it wasnt there last year, or it was just recently laid?
Its neat to watch them emerge. If you want, once their bodies are starting to dry, you can scoop a few up and move them to different places around the yard, or the older babies will eat their younger smaller siblings! just be sure to put them in a nice shady protected spot and away from any spiders webs!
I love mantids, they're so weird and neat. When i'm weeding an area and find one I just scoop it up and move it someplace else so I can work. People used to get scared when I'd pick one up, first of all its a BUG! I'm a girl apparently I shouldnt be picking up insects, they might HURT me and I'm "supposed" to be afraind of them! lol...and then theres the old wives tale that they will spit in your eyes and blind you. which they cant and wont.
I am positve it's from last year (we are still in the 60's here and that's warm) our last frost date isn't until May 15th -- sigh... we had a couple of really HOT days (80's) but than a cold spell- it won't get reliably warm here for another month or so.
Great idea about moving some around... at what temp do you think they'll emerge?
Heather
frankentrina: That wives' tale probably comes from the fact that some walking sticks - these are larger varieties and usually balck with yellow stripes - will "spit" in your eyes, although actually the chemical doesn't come out of its mouth and it generally won't blind you, but it can be very uncomfortable. Maybe I'll come back later with a link with a picture of what kind of walking sticks these are.
