Lisa,

Can you believe that I once purchased praying mantid egg cases and hung them in my garden so that I would have praying mantids to help contol all the 'bad bugs'? Ooops!
When the hundreds of mantids hatched out, they promptly began eating all the insects they could find, including each other! At least they cannabalized each other, so there weren't that many left to eat all the bugs in the garden.

The praying mantids that survived often ate butterflies, and even hummingbirds and other small birds, and sometime they ate very small frogs as well. I never released mantids again, but still have quite a few of them each year. Luckily, I have lots of birds around and the birds will eat the praying mantids so the population doesn't get large enough to do too much harm.

They are interesting to watch. If you get a chance, watch the behavior of one after it eats. They often clean and groom themselves sort of like cats do....cleaning their faces and arms/legs.

Dawn

Dawn, I never knew until this weekend they would eat butterflies! I always thought of them as one of the "good" guys :)

You know, it was funny, a lady in my office gets the willies looking at a praying mantis. She said her grandmother told her not to ever let one spit in your eye or you would go blind. I had never heard such a thing.

Lisa

Sorry Dawn, but I'm a doubting Thomas. I can't picture a preying mantis being big enough or strong enough to kill and eat a any bird. I've watched one come out on the losing end against a mere bumble bee. A chickadee, wren, or titmouse would make short work of them. They "may" be able to hurt a hummingbird.

randy

Randy, apparently it can happen. Here's an article.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Birdwatchers Digest

Sorry ladies. I'm still a doubting Thomas. :-)

That's a nice photo. I'm willing to give in just a little on a mantis possibly feeding on a hummer. Maybe even being able to kill one. Any other small adult bird should have no problem casually dismantling a mantis.

That mantis in the photo looks very close to coming apart in many places because of the weight of a hummer. Probably did after that photo was taken. :-)

D. Thomas

Good morning Doubting Thomas,

The Birdwatcher's Digest article is interesting, and the picture is so upsetting to see.

In our yard, I have seen praying mantids nibbling away at dead frogs or small dead birds, particularly hummers and finches. I cannot verify that they killed the frogs and birds themselves, but they were preying upon them. This type of activity has been most common here where we live in HORRIBLE grasshopper years. My theory is that, when all my farming and ranching neighbors go nuts constantly spraying broad-spectrum insecticides, these insecticides kill off enough bugs that those which remain must eat prey which they might not otherwise eat.

I have a hummingbird feeder hanging right outside my kitchen window, which enables me to keep an eye on that feeder. Some years, I have to go outside and literally 'rescue' a hummer that a mantid is trying to attack. The mantid will sit on top of the feeder and wave its arms at the hummer. I am not sure if the mantid is trying to grab the hummer, or knock it away from feeder or what. I 'rescue' the hummer by chasing it away from the feeder long enough for me to kill the mantid.

For some reason, the mantids LOVE to sit on the hummingbird feeders. I have seen 2 or 3 mantids 'fight' for possesion of a hummingbird feeder.
Since moving to the country almost a decade ago, I have been somewhat shocked to see what a 'dog-eat-dog' world exists in the natural world. I mean, I knew all about the food chain.....but seeing everything eat everything else on a daily basis really opened my eyes to how 'violent' the natural world is.

For what it is worth, I tend not to believe this kind of thing unless I see it with my own eyes, so I understand your doubt.

I also have cats and chickens who hang out around the pond and catch and eat frogs. I never knew either one of them would eat frogs until I saw it happen. At least it explains why my big back cat is SO big....and, also, it explains where all the frogs are disappearing too. Want to see something fun.....watch a couple of chickens fight over a frog!

Dawn

Yikes, I am glad I didn't order any of them for my garden during the spring. I have been seeing a couple of them since the aphids attacked earlier this summer. I noticed they are hanging out by the canteloupe, and the aphids have dissapeared since they showed up. Sheri

Dawn, I too have seen a cat catch and eat frogs--and lizards. And of course, they are welcome to all the mice, voles, gophers and chipmunks--even though the latter are so cute and beloved by my granddaughters--because they eat so many of my bulbs; tulips, lilies, crocus, hyacinths, dutch iris have all succumbed over the years. I even planted my tulips one fall inside a tight ring of poisonous daffodils to no avail. Found tunnels coming from deep down right up into the tulips.

I have one cat in particular who hangs out a lot by the lily pond....virtually every morning and every evening....and he loves to catch and eat frogs.

Being in a very rural area with tons of wildlife, I am pleased to report that our cats provide almost total control of field mice, voles, gophers. etc. At the same time, the cats see me fill the bird feeders with seed and they understand they are not to mess with the songbirds, and they seldom do. It is not unusual to see cardinals and doves, for example, feeding from hen scratch and cracked corn scattered on the ground for them, while the cats lie just a few feet away and completely ignore them.

I also feed the cottontail rabbits and deer, and the dogs tend to leave them alone, too, although they are a little more prone to chase the deer.

We don't have chipmunks, but we do have squirrels. They don't mess with my tulips, but then, we are in a rural area with tons and tons of oaks and native pecans, so perhaps they are content with them and leave the tulips alone.

Lately, the coyotes are getting the cats....one neighbor (a mile up the road) lost two in one day a few weeks ago, and another neighbor (just across the street from us) lost one late last month. I continue to see one or more coyote every day that I am outside, but I make sure the cats, chickens and guineas are put up before sunset, and have not been letting them go outside until around 9 a.m. because the coyotes are staying out later and later.

Very early this morning I went to let the puppy outside to do her puppy business and there was a snake on the porch, presumably there to get up off the wet ground.....it was raining very lightly at the time. It is always something.

Dawn

There are bug war videos on Youtube. For any doubting thomas, I've seen a clip of a large, probably tropical, mantid catching, killing, and beginning to eat, a mouse. Obviously there's no way any mantid could devour a whole one.

I suspect they like the feeders because they somehow know moths and wasps and bees will come to them. They probably think a hummer is just a large moth.
-MB

There are probably tropical mantids that would like to munch on us. :-) I was referring to our local species.

Thomas