Posted on 12/22/2021 11:15:53 AM PST by Red Badger
Why?
Let them out and spread them around to take care of the real pests in your garden.
preying mantis eggs... thousands of them will hatch. they are federally protected. do not kill them... they will eat every other bug in your house. in spring, leave the windows open and they will leave.
my dad, an arborist for the city of baltimore, trimmed some thorny bushes and found some sacks among the clippings. He forgot them in his truck and the sun warmed them and they hatched in the winter... thousands of babies in his truck... it was like a miniature jurassic park.
I agree.
I was mostly being facetious - they are certainly better left outside.
Just saying that if they hatch inside it’s not a big deal - as the headline suggested.
I found one of those nesti g in my compost bin. A baby.
Only when there are Hummingbirds around. Preying Mantis are really cool insects.
Organizations will pay good money for those things. I know a fellow who goes into fields of trees that were clear cut a couple of years ago. He collects all of them and sends someplace in the far West for cash.
Most species of praying mantises are not big enough to kill a hummingbird. There is one exception that I know of where the female is large enough, and has been photographed in the act, but seldom does so since there is so much other prey available.
There is an invasive Chinese mantis species established in the US and if memory serves, that is the one that is large enough to capture a hummingbird.
Free kitty! I had a pet one.
I had 4-5 hummingbird feeders hanging off wood planks & one day I saw a hummer hanging upside down in a bush underneath my feeders. Saw that 6” mantis were hanging off my feeders trying catch them. Started researching and they’re are videos on it.
I removed the boards and replaced with metal hangers and the problem stopped. I had so many hummingbirds, I took a picture and sent to an expert and based on the number in the photo, they estimated we had 2-300. They were going through about a gallon of sugar water everyday.
See my post #30.
Added a link to our thread. Thanks!
The same advice applies to neighbors you may be thinking of inviting over.
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