"Preying" Mantis - drastic

[ohioaxeman]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

its true about daddy longlegs having an odor. always remember that smell! we used to put preying mantis' in 10 gallon aquarium when we were kids, and throw every insect we could in there, especially big spiders. mantis always won!

 

[rginn]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

I never imagined that or saw it before. Cool pic. I had a hummingbird land on my hand last summer while I was sitting outside reading. Probably some sort of folk omen meaning I will go to prison and die young. (No way I can die young now.)

 

[RON (PA)]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

I never knew that a mantis could kill a hummingbird. They must sneak up and go to a special spot so that the bird does not fly away. Great pics. Sorry about the little hummer. Glad that you killed the mantis.

 

[Felinepeachy]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

Judie, that is an awesome picture of nature in action. I have to agree with CanadianTrout though, I wouldn't have killed the Mantis. It's just survival of the fittest. I love those bugs to no end. I buy the eggs sacs (ootheca's) to put in the bushes around here so I can have lots of praying mantises during the summer. They keep all the aphids off my plants. Praying mantises will even recognize you when you go outside. I fed one meal worms everyday a couple of years ago and it got to where she would make herself available at 4 in the afternoon, in the same spot everyday. The female dies about two weeks after she lays the sac. The whole experience was bitter sweet.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

That's pretty amazing! Great photo you got of it, who knew they could capture a humming bird

 

[*Molly*]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

Hi Judie, good to see you. I had no idea that kinda thing goes on. I'll have to watch out for that in future.
I do know that we used to get a lot of yellow jackets attacking the hummers, while they fed, due to the sweet feed obviously. Quite shocking..
Yep no hummers in Uk, due to the cold. They are my mothers fave birds, she would love to see one but, as to make do with my pics..

Molly..

 

[BobinSouthVA]

Re: "Preying" Mantis - drastic

Judie, that is an awesome picture of nature in action. I have to agree with CanadianTrout though, I wouldn't have killed the Mantis. It's just survival of the fittest. I love those bugs to no end. I buy the eggs sacs (ootheca's) to put in the bushes around here so I can have lots of praying mantises during the summer. They keep all the aphids off my plants. Praying mantises will even recognize you when you go outside. I fed one meal worms everyday a couple of years ago and it got to where she would make herself available at 4 in the afternoon, in the same spot everyday. The female dies about two weeks after she lays the sac. The whole experience was bitter sweet.

its amazing sometimes the "intelligence" that seems to come from the tiniest creatures. We had a mantis on our front porch this past week and the way his head would follow our movements was neat.

A few years back we were in a garage putting gypsy moth caterpillars in a spider web. The spider would run over and spin them up.
After a few his web must have been getting too heavy and he started releasing the catapillars as we put them on!!