You see, today I was working on my daily task of watering the back lawn. While it is coming in and only partly patchy now, it is still a new lawn and in need of a lot of water. Anyway, I was nearly finished and had only 2 more "stations" to complete. I crouched down to set the sprinkler in its spot and was greeted by 2 itty bitty praying mantis babies. I let out with a very loud "oh YAY!!!!" Now you know why my husband came to see what was going on.
I told him, then got even more excited when I realized the entire corner of the lawn was crawling with these tiny bugs. That's when he giggled at me, shook his head, and walked away. He's so used to it.
Earlier in May I had ordered two praying mantis cacoons. I had been able to buy about 3000 ladybugs locally, but I had to order the praying mantis. Some might be thinking right about now that I'm crazy, and you'd be right. In this case, however, it makes sense. These are two of the friendliest insect species to have in your yard....as long as you're not another bug. They eat all sorts of other bugs!
Since ladybugs are around here in fairly decent numbers, I had wanted just to pad the population in my yard. Praying mantis are more scarce. I've seen them in areas not far from here, but none in Pueblo West. So, as mentioned previously, I ordered a couple of cacoons. They arrived in late May and I promptly placed them in two of my potted plants on the back porch. Just yesterday I was thinking I should order a couple more and hatch them out in paper bags so I could actually see the buggers. Then I could release them.
Silly me questioning the way nature works! I am happy to report that there are at least a hundred little praying mantis babies scurrying about in my back lawn at this very moment. May they grow big, strong, eat tons of bad bugs, and continue to populate the area with their interesting bodies......
![](<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8946426@N04/5240439020/" title="DSCN0785 by LEF's Place, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5246/5240439020_d76df42753_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="DSCN0785" /></a>)
2 comments:
Thanks for the pictures. I've never seen any babies. At first I thought they were mosquitoes.
Where, exactly, does one order a couple of praying mantises (sp?)? The number of bugs we have in our yard is a bit overwhelming, and I'm an anti-chemical kind of girl (don't ask what I used to do for a living, just don't).
Post a Comment