I'm 22 and up until recently, I had only physically seen one praying mantis in my presence my whole life. Then about a week ago (9/21) a huge mantis was just chillin on the side of my garage. (9/21) The mantis is such an amazing animal. It is a superb example of evolution and a down right hardcore creature. They're kung-fu style is undescribable to watch. So I see this praying mantis, take some pics and check it out for a while....then thats it. Not much else to do. In my state (CT) they're proteced (probably most states)... I dont know the exact laws but I'm pretty sure screwing with them carries a fine.... and killing one must hvae a bigger fine. Even though there wasn't an official from any wildlife commitee there, I decided to leave it alone. So I go about my business for the next several days, until I went outside to water my flowers last night. Sure enough, there was this 5" beast looking right at me. Thats one of the coolest things about praying mantis'..... they're very big and have a neck that rotates their head so you can tell, without question, when its looking at you. Directly at you. When I was like 11 a bright green mantis landed on my shirt. Thats was my only experience with one until this week. Then I see the same one twice in a week. Theres no way of telling for sure it was the same one, but I ave good reason to belive it was. Also, one thing that gets me excited is that it looks pregnant. When I saw it on 9/21 compared to last night (9/28) it got A LOT fatter. Does anyone know anything about them? Like how to tell sex, if its pregnant, what it eats...etc??? You can see from the pics who much fatter it got. I think this one is female... if my memory serves me correctly, which it often doesn't, males are bright green and females are brown with green on their sides or under their wings. I know they're are protected so I think it would be awesome if it was able to continue its species legacy in my yard. I'm guessing since it was in my front yard one day, and my back yard 7 days later that it is living somewhere quite close to my house. Feedback?????
thats awseome dude..the coolest insects in my book.. leave him wild, but check in on it every once in a while..
I've only seen 2 one when i was like 6 and i killed it. I wish i didnt but i was like 6 and had no idea what it was. Then i saw one like 1 week ago and held it, it was crawling up my arm and it was cool.
i usually find a few each summer. i always take the hugest ones and stick em in a glass jar with sticks and grass and a few crickets and grass hoppers and watch the switchblade wielding blood bath commence. its soooo cool they swipe out them blades and snag the poor bastard closest to them and take a huge chop right out of the meals brain killing it instantly. its amazing to see a 8-9 in. kung fu bug with inch long switchblades in action. what a preditor. they look fuckin rediculous when they fly away tho.
We used to have one that lived in our front garden. I would see it on our front door all the time. I had to protect it from the cats.
the mantis is definitly my favorite insect... theyre so fukin savage <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNcIUIULafw"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNcIUIULafw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
just had a great idea.. praying mantis to guard peoples crops...get rid of alot of pesky outdoor insects, and the mantis would wipe them all out..
They are awesome, the only time I ever saw one in nature I was 7 or 8 and it freaked me out so I killed it. I thought it was an alien insect or something. I felt really bad when my grandma told me that they were a protected species.
agreed, fucking awesome insects. soon that baby will grow to become a gnarly ass killer. Check out this link, amazing little creatures http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyardbirds/hummingbirds/mantis-hummer.aspx
one time there was one of those in my room looking at me so I used the eraser end of a pencil and put it in front of it to see what it would do and it fucking attacked it with its claw arm things. suriously what kind of bug does that? you can buy egg sacs of them cuz gardeners use them and I was gonna buy a shit ton of them and hide them in my school as a senior prank so they would hatch and get everywhere but I decided i'd rather not risk not graduating
Hempy its soo cute! Yup they are bad ass,heh I remember reading somewhere that after mating, the female will bite the males head off.....
This thread & pictures made me think of one of my favorite images... Look at that face... such a happy little guy
I have 4 outdoor kitties.... thats one thing I'm worried about. My littlest one, the Lexecutioner (lexie) fuckin grabs chicaidas out of mid-air. that is an amazing sight to see. I come back and all thats left are wings. Hopefully this big one will spit out a bunch of those little babies. cutest monster i've ever seen. its crazy to think that there is really a kung-fu style directly based on like 50+ moves from the insect itself. There was some show where a guy goes to different places around the world and completes tasks and once he had to fight a asian girl using praying mantis style..... he got his ass WHOOPED!
i find it amazing that alot of you have only seen a praying mantis a few times around here they are everywhere i see probley 100 every summer and also if you really want them to protect your crops some gardening stores actually sell the mantis egg sacks and you can hatch them yourself and have like 500 protecting your crops those little guys are awsome