So I was out before the heat hits cutting some spike grass, in my flower bed, since it was dying. I come in and hear a shriek from my friend now staying with me. "Faye, get outside quickly, you have something on your back, hurry hurry hurry." So I rush out in a panic and she follows still freaking out. "Shake it off Faye, hurry before it gets in your hair. What do I do?" "Well snap my crop top bra and knock it off." Snap, snap, snap, "He is won't move." I asked what it looks like and she says a praying mantis. So while she is muttering, "oou oou oou," I sashay over like I have all day and get a big leaf from the lawn and hand it to her, telling her to put it on his front legs and he will get aboard. She does and then she jumps and shrieks again tossing down the leaf. "He was crawling toward me and trying to bite me." My telling her that they didn't bite humans except in rare instances, was not reassuring to her ears. So I pick up the leaf and transfer it to a plant. Drama over, now watching a mystery series, "Echos."
I saw a baby praying mantis in my bucket of peas recently. I picked a leaf and let it crawl on the leaf then put it on a plant. They are one of a gardener's best friends. I taught my children not to fear most insects. When my son was about ten years old, he picked up a praying mantis about six inches long. It turned it's head and bit him. Didn't take him long to turn it loose. The bite only left a small red spot.
I used to buy the pods and hatch my own when I had a garden. They are a lot by the river here and they eat the mosquito larvae.
I see quite a few of them on my property. I've had to stop my car on the way up the long driveway to get one off of my windshield and put it on a plant...I didn't want it to get blown off at 45MPH. I've mentioned a mantis I had at my old place when the weather was turning cold, and I brought it inside to live. I just let it hang out on my house plants, and bought feeder crickets for it at the pet store. This was on my tomato plants last year:
Neither have I and to me that is sad. But then I've never had any phobia about insects or reptiles.my oldest daughter freaks about spiders yet snakes don't bother her at all.
I just read an article about a photographer (Pang Way) in Malaysia who takes pics of mantises in the jungle. They range in length from less than 1/2" to 3". When I see insects and birds of other continents, I get the feeling that North America is among the most boring. There are more pics in the article.
Hmmm. Is that so. Well, maybe they didn't mate with the butterfly ???? maybe they did some scientific gene splicing ???? or photogenic synthesis ???
I like the little chameleons that often get trapped in my bathtub. I let them get on a piece of paper and bring them out and let them down someplace safe. The love to eat everything I don't want in the house.
I had a pet [captive] chameleon when I lived in Indiana, but at some point he made a jailbreak. I remember them being all over the place at my sister's house in Jacksonville. You could hear them *PING!* in the window A/C fans. I don't recall any mantises om Florida, they were likely gigantic, like everything else.