Great photographs!

Yes, that's our buddies the praying mantis. In the spring they will hatch out and be itty bitty little mantis, miniature copies of the adult (don't think they go through a nymph stage). One will adopt a tree and pretty much spend the season there, staring at you with its weird head as you walk by.

Applenut

Thanks A-nut: I'm looking forward to their arrival, hope the dormant oil didn't bother them last Nov.. Guess I better keep them in mind if and when I spray.

Michael

Michael:

I see Mantid egg cases nearly every fall when I clean out the pepper plants from the past season. The cases I find appear as rough, baglike structures, often more than an inch long, attached to a pepper branch at the end of the case. The material of a Mantid egg case is extremely tough, like styrofoam on steroids. It is so tough that it is difficult to cut even with a sharp knife.

I have never seen a Mantid case laid flat against a tree branch or twig as yours is. The fact that I have never seen it does not mean, of course, that it never happens, but I have seen quite a few of them since Mantises are active in my peppers and tomatoes nearly every season in late summer. Your egg case also appears to have suffered some physical damage on the surface, though the photo may be misleading in this respect. The tough material of a Mantid case would normally not suffer any damage from environmental conditions. If the egg case was hit directly with dormant oil, the prognosis for any creatures inside would not be good, whatever they may be, since the purpose of oil spray is precisely to smother overwintering insects.

When I find egg cases on the pepper plants, I cut off a small part of the branch to which it is attached, and place it in a glass fishbowl with screen wire on top, then bring it in to my attached greenhouse, where the winter temperature never falls below freezing. If the case is healthy, hundreds of little mantises, about the size of healthy mosquitoes, emerge with the warmth in late April or May. I don't know how the little rascals get through that tough styrofoam, but they do, and when I figure they have all hatched out I take the fishbowl outdoors, remove the screen wire, and set them free.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I have to agree with Don. I have lots of mantis egg sacks in my orchard. They tend to be laid on thinner stalks and are bigger/puffier than the one in your photo.

I found this photo of mantis egg sacks on the net at http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/
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I've seen the type of egg sack or cacoon in your photo all my life, but have never know what's inside. It could perhaps be another variety of mantis, but I don't think so.

Thank you Don and Gene: I think I'll go give it a gentle poke to see how tough it is this evening. I'll keep my eye on it and try to catch whatever it holds coming out.

My guess was the mantis as they are around my gardens but I didn't remember exactly what the over-wintering structures looked like. Looking at it on the tree with my magnifying glass it looks to be rather artfully laid down complete with the light stripe down the top.

Michael

Why would you poke it? Leave it alone and you'll have an abundant amount of mantises this spring. If you poke it, you might mess up the metamorphisis that is going on in there, plus possibly introduce bacteria or mold. I've seen this type many of times and it always leads to preying mantises.

Leave it be!!

Elaine

I don't know where Michael lives, but there must be different ways of egg laying amount various mantids, because mine all look like the first photo, and are on trees or roses, never on peppers. They do not look like the puffy ones on the peppers.
It's hard for me to tell the difference in the egg cases pre- and post-hatching, just one day there are fingernail-sized little mantids jumping around, so I know they have hatched.

Carla in Sac

Same here, mine look like the first photo.

I usually find them stuck to the wood fence. The ones we get are not hard feeling, more like a paper wasps nest.

Dont ask about the wasps!

Michael:

Well, it certainly does seem there are several different species of Mantids (3 in the state of KY alone), and that the styles of their egg cases vary. Yours seems to closely resemble a species called Mantid Ootheca.

The various species come in differing colors and sizes. The females I see here in late summer are bright green and very large -- about 5 inches long -- and visibly plump before depositing eggs. These produce the sacs that Gene and I see.

I share your hope that the egg case on your pear tree survives the application of dormant oil.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Now I really hope they survive the oil. Who knows, they might have taken care of any insect problems the pears might have had this upcoming growing season. If any subsequent sprays are done, I'll wrap plastic around the egg case and then spray followed by the plastic's removal as soon as the spray dries.

Hey, maybe I should put one of those 24/7 web cams on it and start a web site! Nah, too old, fat and wore out.

Thank you all for your contributions,

Michael

Who knows, they might have taken care of any insect problems the pears might have had this upcoming growing season.

Hi Michael,

Great photos, as usual. I get those same cocoons on our trees, but have never known what they were. I doubt the mantises will help you much with any major pests though. We have lots of assassin bugs here (specifically wheel bugs) and they never seemed to make a dent in the major pests here. Lep moths lay so many eggs, and the larvae tunnel so quickly in the fruit that they beat the predators pretty easily. Predators are interesting to watch though. I once saw a wheel bug feeding on a small june beetle. The wheel bug stuck him with his straw and was sucking out the good stuff.