A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 praying mantis

Bug lady this is probably one for you.

Apples, until Buglady shows up....

I don't think theyre'd be a problem getting infested indoors with Praying Mantis'...They're cannibals!...and territorial. They tend to want to lop heads off one another if they feel crowded.

The last egg pods we bought weren't viable, because the outside temp didn't stay warm enough to hatch them (no wonder, we got them on clearance at the garden center too late in the season).

Buglady will have the best info.....

Geeeeez Jillie ....having second thoughts now Apples??? :rolleyes:

That's one reason I knew I couldn't keep them say in an aquarium. I'd like to have one in my bedroom that would most likely go in some type of container at night and one in my indoor food garden down stairs. But the rest of them ? I don't think I want to be held resposible for a full scale mantis war! Bad carma I'd figure.

I've kept them as pets before. They will eat each other even if there is enough other food available. You could keep one or two indoors and put them into separate aquariums at night. I leave mine live free outdoors. It gets pretty cold here sometimes (Ohio) but the mantis eggs always survive. I even had one egg case inside all winter and it hatched the same time the ones outdoors did. You would have to have a male and female in order to produce viable eggs.

Crickets, mealworms, and stunned flies make excellent mantis food. I was surprised to see the tiny babies catching and eating prey that was twice their size.

Aren't they cute, Dan29???
I caught sight of our babies after they hatched..Dang...they'll turn their little heads and LOOK RIGHT AT YOU when you when you come close.....

We had dozens of them all around our house last spring! The tiny ones are sooo cute. I even put some in my greenhouse where they did a wonderful job of eating the fungus gnats. It's kind of a good thing that they do eat each other, otherwise we'ld have been overrun. I'm looking forward to this springs hatchlings.

Thanks!
I guess I'll just let them free outside but keep a few indoors. The only reason I would want to keep the one in my room in an aquarium is for fear of squishing it in my sleep or getting up in the middle of the night and steping on it that would be kind of sad. I'm going to be ordering some seeds in the next two weeks and they have mantis eggs in now so... An expirience it will be! are their any poisones house plants that might afect them dose any one think, not that they be eating them? Oh last thing is how can you tell if they are male or female? I think I remember the female being bigger and bright green.

Let's not lose the connection this time.

Poisonous plants won't harm a mantis but lack of humidity will keep the mantis from properly shedding it's exoskeleton. One mantis we had lost a leg because the old exoskeleton would not separate from it's leg. That one we kept until it was mature then we set it free to find a mate.

I can't tell male from female until the female gets that huge abdomen, then it's pretty easy.

I am sorry I am sorry I am sorry.. I did not get to you sooner. I have been so busy I have not hand a chance to read the boards ... you can always email me direct if there is an emergency.

Anyhow DON'T BUY MANTIDS!!!! they collect them out of the wild to sell them (also they are not native). They also do not provide really any benefit to your garden except eating your butterflies and other larger insects. Most insect plant pests are too small for mantis to feed on. For example, mites, aphids, whiteflies and caterpillars. Now they may eat some fast moving caterpillars but remember mantids hunt by sight.

I say of you want to release something go with lacewings ... they will give you the most benefit.

PS they don't have to mate to have babies

Thanks buglady. Nice to see you back!
It's a good thing I've been postponing my ordering. I was somewhat wondering if it was a good idea to let them go here in canada as I don't think they're around here at all, I've seen a stick bug once! The thing though is it will be indoors I think lace wings will annoy my parents just as much as the fungus gants. Would nematoids be good in my plant pots as the only problem realy is fungus gants. I mainly just kind of wanted... I just had to take out a fungus gant just now! I just hate having to kill them my self I'd rather give the job to something that will injoy it. Anyways I just kind of wanted them as pets as well but not that hundreds!! Is their any way to get 1 or 2 mantids? Oh I naturaly have alot of ladybugs in my house, will they help or do they only realy eat aphids?

to answer your questions

1. use nematodes for fungus gnat control, i buy them from www.nematodary.com

2. Don't think you can buy one mantid, and its work to keep them as pets. I have reared many of them.

3. To the ladybugs.. if they are in your house they are most likely The Multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis. And yes they do eat aphids.

"The Multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis. This species has become quite a nuisance in the United States even though it is a voracious predator. History: This Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle was intentionally imported from Russia, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere in the Orient and for releases in the United States as part of a Federal effort to naturally control insect pests in trees. With the first releases (1916 and 1960) the beetle did not establish. The in the 1970s and the early 1980s, tens of thousands of these beetles were intentionally released by the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) in an effort to control insect pests that injure trees. All did not go as planned, as many home owners found out."

here is a link to the rest of the article so i dont fill up all this text box
http://www.bugladyconsulting.com/Multicolored%20Asian%20lady%20beetle.htm


let me know if you have any more questions!!

Thanks,
I think they're the normal lady bugs cause there allways the standerd red, black spots and they're not very big or glossy. Dose nematodary ship every where. Just making shure. I'd be up for the job taking care of mantids but that many would probably be an inconvienence and hard on me. Maby on day in the future I'll have a large greenhouse and I'll give it a shot!
P.S. Bug lady, I like your site !
It's nice and very informative.

Yes, nematodes can be shipped anywhere. and I am glad you go to my sight before it was hacked. I think i have it fixed now... 56&^%12&^*& HACKERS!

I just read this post and got freaked out about the Praying Mantis. I had a bad experience once, and it left me scarred mentally! I was working in the garden and didn't even see it. It grabbed onto my finger and by the time I got it off there was blood dripping off my elbow!!!
Was it trying to kill me?

P.S. I know they are good, and I wouldn't hurt one for the world.
(A chicken tried to kill me once, too, but that's a whole nuther story.)

That's one of the crazziest things I've heard in a while but I'm ready for that chicken story!

Well, here's the chicken story.

I had a 70 acre farm and grew almost all my own food. Since I didn't eat meat, but DID eat eggs, I decided I needed some chickens. (There was a nice chicken house already there when I bought the farm a few years earlier.) I got some chickens and it was great. Fresh, brown eggs!

One day my husband suggested egg sandwiches for lunch and there were no eggs in the fridge, so I went up to the chicken house, like I had done hundreds of times before, to get a few.
Well, there was a hen sitting on her eggs to hatch them. I had no intention of bothering her...I loved the baby chicks we ended up with. So, I passed her up to get the eggs that were in the next nest.

NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!

She flew into my face and grabbed hold of my t-shirt, proceeding to try to peck my eyes out! When I finally pulled her off of me, she came right back with full force, tearing me up with her claws and beak. I didn't want to hurt her, but every time I got her off of me she came back again. My face was bleeding so much I could hardly see because of the blood running into my eyes. I tried to just get out the door, but she would not give up. I threw her about 10 feet and turned to get out the door, but then she got onto my BACK, and ripped my hair out and shredded what was left of my shirt. I had to get down on the ground and roll to get her off my back.
I finally made it back to the house, covered in egg, feathers, and blood, with NO shirt on and half my hair pulled out.
(Picture that!)

I told my husband if he wanted an egg sandwich HE had to go get an egg!

We didn't have egg sandwiches that day!

This is funny to me NOW, but when it was happening I had visions of them finding me dead in the chicken house! How embarrassing!

Headline:
"Local Artist Found Dead In Chicken House.
Murdered By Ill-Tempered Hen"

Oh, Cindy, I was laughing so hard by the time I finished reading...

How scary, though.......Rampaging hen...Whew!
Glad you got out with your skin....

cindy, i am still giggling!
and to think i wanted chickens!

P.S.
I do eat chicken now.

When ever i would collect eggs around hens that were "broody" I took a 3 gallon bucket and would hold it in front of me. When i go close enough i would just it over top the chicken. Also if i needed to collect her eggs I would put a bucket on her and she would peck away at the inside but couldnt get me.

For future use if you get chickens again.

thanks for the tip, i'll have to remember that!!

Cindy, that was hilarious ....I had to come read it after you posted about it in your slug story......very funny stuff, but not funny for you at the time.....OUCH!!!

Cindy, you tell the best stories. I especially like the headline at the end! Glad you made it through your chicken attack and lived to tell the tale!

If you need to control and infestation of Mantids, just let the kitties loose! hahaha

My darling Mr. Malimar caught a Praying Mantis one evening. It was a little more than he bargained for. Mal is a Sylvester lookalike, with beautiful long white whiskers and cheek fur that's an inch or so long. Well, he started out just batting the bug around, playing with it....then the Mantis pinched on to his cheek fur and would NOT let go! hahaha Mal was freaking out, rolling around pawing at this creature clamped on to his fur making awful sound (both of them...the bug made a sound and Mal was mrowrrring)....I didn't know, at the time, if Mantids bite or could be poisonous, so once he did get it off his cheek, I shooed it off the balcony and Mal looked at me like i had taken all his Christmas Presents away for no reason hahahaha