preying mantis ?

SweetMissDaisy

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They are not plant eaters ... they eat flies, aphids, small grasshoppers (if they can catch them), etc.
They are GOOD garden bugs!!
 

897tgigvib

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Praying Mantis are GOOD GUYS!!!

Last year I was totally blessed by Great Spirit to have at least one in my garden.

While I was harvesting Beans one evening I absent mindedly reached to pick a bean and it moved! It was startling at first to see this green bug the size of a bean, but when I looked, it was a praying Mantis.

The species we have can and do change color. I kept watch on this praying Mantis, and sure enough, as the season progressed and things began to turn straw colored, so did the Mantis.

Natural bug eaters are the best thing!

It can be kind of gross I guess, but when ya have Froggies in 6 different kinds, Toads in 3 kinds, Salamanders that are my personal totem, bats, Spiders of many kinds, Mantis, Lizards in 4 kinds, several kinds of snakies, yes, even Mountain Lions that eat Deer, and Bobcats that eat Rabbits, and other things that my not yet completely coffee'd up brain can think of, your garden is much safer.

I Diatomaceous Earth'd my cabin the other day to stop the stink ants by order of the powers that be. Had to do that, especially when the big boss tried to give me Sevin poison and I refused politely to use it. It'll also kill my beloved spiders around my cabin, but at least it is not toxic.

Today my boss's boss's boss's boss is coming for a visit. EEgh!

Here's the exact chain of command, leaving out names...

The Association Board's President's Landlord's land representative and her supervisor, and his department chief of staff! One thing they will be inspecting is my garden!

Me, I'm just the CARETAKER, barely the Salamander underneath the totem pole. But I am the one who notices if the totem pole is leaning...
 

so lucky

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Marshall, a position like yours is tough in a lot of ways...kinda like the old saying about mushrooms. (being kept in the dark and everyone throws *%$# on them) But at least you don't get any lip from the plant life!
Speaking of preying mantis, we had them here about three years ago that were 6" long and nearly as big around as my index finger. Scarey! And I saw a photo on the net of a mantis holding a hummingbird it had caught. I don't think it was photo-shopped. It was in an educational article about mantises.
We once had a hatch of baby mantis in the flowers on our deck. Tiny little ferocious things were everywhere! So cute!
 

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