Praying Mantis questions allowed??

When I was looking into these last year, I read that they pretty much kill each other or are killed by predators until there are only 1-2 survivors. They are very territorial.

I was pruning the shrubs and a mantis as big as my hand crawled out. I relocated it to our patio area landscaping, but we have a cat, so I don't know how it fared.

That sounds about right. I remember as kids we once kept a mantis egg case in a glass jar. One day we noticed the jar was crawling with tiny mantids so took them outside and set them free.

I'm crossposting this to my local group, aus.gardens in case someone here (Australia) can add more to this. Mantids would be a valuable biological control of some garden pests if the mantis numbers were high enough.

-- John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

G'day

Besides being a valuable insect in any garden, Mantis are rather cute, although they do bite finger tips quite hard for their size. Make sure they have access to moisture.......I mostly spray some pot plants with water and they drink the droplets.

Bronwyn ;-)

John Savage wrote:

Hey Mate..... Thanks for the reply from Downunder.. I haven't seen any more Mantid emerge. I know the cux beetles are on thier way and I hope the mantid get big quick since I want to keep an "organic" garden but when that crowd shows up its TIME FOR WAR...Chemical Bastard Killer and the Mantids will leave/die from the stuff. Where do some of the college Ag web sites come up with crap like??? solutions to Cucumber beetle problems...Try hand picking??? Last year for me within 24 hours of the cucumber flowers there were thousands of both spotted and striped varmits. I had 12 plants...Like these college eggheads have ever been outside a sterile greenhouse before. Anyway I put all my "babies" out 3 weeks early here in Madison, IL St Louis area and the weather has been REAL WARM and soil temp too. So far Toms, Cux Squash Peppers are doing fine. Brox and Brus Spts have been in for