This is the time of year when the hummers migrate so chances are that yours are on their way south for winter.

I agree with marthaye regarding spraying - please be very careful about what you spray around those plants that you know your hummies nectar from. If you have a hose nearby, you can blast insects away with the hose water instead.

I had seen a praying mantis on one of my feeders this summer , but I removed him for I too know they prey [pardon the pun] on hummers. Im surprised that you would have hummers up there as late as thurs. I think I saw my last one on sat. I havent seen any today, but it has been windy today here and Ive seen some wasps, must be some nectar leaking from the port holes.

I still have several pairs in my yard and I'm in central Minnesota. It's 43 degrees as I type this and one particular agressive male is holding his ground at the larger of the two feeders.

What's up with that? I thought they would be long gone by now.

Wow! Teresa- thats sorta shocking to me . I have a question thou, its general knowledge that rubythroats like warmer weather , so do you have a different kind up there? Ive heard that rufous hummers actually like a colder climate. My hummers appear to be gone. My last visits were on 9-16 not a sign of them since

I'm shocked too and I don't know much about them. when I got up this morning and it was 42 degrees I never thought I would see them. And it's 3:30 and they are still here. I thought they might fill up and leave,

I have two pair of Ruby Throated and one pair of something else...not as colorful.

We are supposed to get frost this week.... I wonder if they will leave then. Someone told me I should take down the feeders so they will leave. But everything I've read says they go on their own.

Someone posted a picture of a mantis devouring a hummer. Horrible. I doubt it happens often. The will hang upside down and hook a flying insect at times. I agree that spraying a mantis is not worthwhile. The picture below shows the largest mantis I ever saw which spent last summer in my garden.

{{gwi:232169}}

Teresa-- all those birds are rubys not neccessarily pairs either. In the animal and insect world the females are always drab and the males colorfull, who knows why. The young rubythroat males have black under their throats, not yet turned red, but if they turn their heads a certain way you may see a tinge of red. Also on the males if look closely when they are perched you can see they have forked tails whereas the females have flat broad tails, hence the great looking white-tipped tail feathers when they fan them to make themselves look bigger I guess.
harryshoe-- I too have seen the pic of the praying mantis capturing the hummer, it appears they watch and see where their prey spend their time and then just sit and wait. It also appears they are very fast. I saw a praying mantis on my feeder this summer and it scared my to death for that was right after I saw that pic. I had not really seen one around my place till this year. Im sorta in the country so I do have a lot of toads , tree frogs, crickets, etc. and now mantis. I cant tell you how many frogs and now mantis I have run over and flattened in my driveway.

Yes a preying mantis will catch hummers. Read my post from a year ago:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hummingbird/msg0915455025211.html

Mantises are common in gardenareas where sprays are not used. I found one in one of my hanging geranieums a couple of weeks ago. Just picked him up gently and placed him on a tomato plant inthe back garden. Hasnt been back to the hummer feeding area since. Ps. saw one hummer yestueday.

I would not use any type of bug spray on or near any plants that hummers use for nectar. If I have to eliminate a prospective predator I use a hose first and if that doesn't dislodge it and get rid of it then I resort to catching it and taking it elsewhere but I don't allow bug sprays anywhere near my hummer plants. I did one time have to spray a horde of bees and had the hose next to me to wash off any residue that may have dripped onto the plants even though they weren't really close. Ever since I have been paranoid about having any insecticides in or near the garden.

Your hummers may have detected the spray in the nectar and gone elsewhere for food.

Penny

I think I see the hummers sipping water from leafs. I rarely spray foliage for this reason.

mantis are removed from my yard as they also kill Monarchs and swallowtails and other good insects.

http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyardbirds/hummingbirds/mantis-hummer.aspx

http://www.rlephoto.com/birds/hummer01.htm

http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=13029

We had a mantis hanging on the bottom of one of our feeders last year. I removed him several times. Finally I put him in a box and drove him to the front of the sub-division and put him there. I didn't want to kill him but could not stand the though t of him getting one of the hummers.

I actually saw it happen. I heard something "scream-chirping" for help in my zinnia garden a few years ago. I ran to the center of the garden and saw a hummer in the clutches of a mantis. I grabbed the mantis and he held on to the hummer until I gave them a shake. Then the mantis was left with throat feathers in his mouth and the hummer flew away. The mantis bit me and I flung him away. All that being said, I think preying mantis do more good than harm. I think they eat aphids and other destructive bugs. I don't think they go around "devouring" hummingbirds....it's just one of those things about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Opportunity presented itself and the mantis took it.

I know thzat mantids are 'good' bugs but I would rather have lady bug or even my hummers eating aphids than mantids. I remove them when I find them. My few hummers aremore important to me than the mantids are.

Penny

Aw...c'mon. It's not easy being green. :)

Spraying insecticide will kill not only the mantis, but all your pollinators, bees, moths, butterflies, and definitley harmful to all birds and amphibians as well. Since I went organic, I have many, many more hummingbirds, toads, mantis, ladybugs, butterflies. I used to reserve just a bit of liquid sevin for the much-hated Japanese beetles, specifically on my hollyhocks, flowering apricot, and Japanese maple in June. Then I saw a bumblebee visit a large hollylock blossom and drop dead to the ground. Now I carry a cup of soapy water around to knock the JP off into. I used to think going organic was for folks who ate granola and wore Birkenstocks (no offense meant), but now I'm sold as a gardener and lover of wildlife.

I've seen video of the mantis vs. the hummer,it's heart breaking but that's the wild.The hundreds even thousands of bad bugs a mantis eats in a life time is worth the risk to me.

I inadvertently clipped two egg sacs from my tree and then discovered they were praying mantis eggs. Question now is, how do I overwinter them in cold, cold Ontario? Does anyone know? Nora

Every year I seem to have mantis problems but I remove them from my garden and property and hope they dont come back. Last year I spied one on one of my window feeders waiting for his meal , removed him luckily. This year one was in my cuphea which got removed. I value lady bugs in my garden much more than a mantis, sorry.

As shocking and sad that a mantis can actually catch a hummer (which amazed me), I expect it is an EXTRAORDINARILY rare event. In my 25 years of organic gardening (encouraging mantises among other beneficial insects), I have never seen a mantis with anything larger than a grasshopper or moth. And in untold numbers of weeding events, I have never found a hummingbird carcass on the ground among the flowers.

Mantids aren't perfectly beneficial; they will catch a few "good" insects, too. But they shouldn't be considered any real threat to hummers either. Heck, I kept one as a "pet" for a couple of months once (put it on a thread leash and fed it moths).

They are relatively safe to handle. You can just grab them gently from behind (like pinching a pencil in the middle) and they can't reach you. Or just put a long stick in front of them and they will generally get on it (they are afraid of you). Or push them into a slippery bowl and dump them on any plant away from the hummer feeders; they do not usually travel far.

I'm a hummer-lover, but I am also mantis-friendly...

That's sad. Preying mantises are amazing creatures... beneficial too. I am so excited when I see one in my yard (or anywhere).. I would never DREAM of killing one.

I just found a huge praying mantis sitting on my rose bush. That put him less than a foot from my hummingbird feeder. He is in a plastic container now. Does anyone know how far away I need to release him? He keeps looking at me and I wish him no harm, but need him a safe distance from my hummers and butterflies. Maybe release him in a park near here?

I was so surprised to hear a Preying Mantis devour a Hummer??
How on earth do they manange to catch them they are so fast.
Maby I dont want to know.. but what a shock. I also am in Michigan. It got down to 43 degrees last nite and we still
have 2 hummers today. One is fatter than the the other. I
keep the feeders fresh and watch them constantly. terri_stoklosa Sorry yours are gone.. mine will be soon I took
a fews days vaction and probably wont accomplish a thing for watching those little critters :)

Dont kill any bugs ~ move them