They are voracious hunters--eating both pests and beneficial insects. Personally, I would leave them there. They probably would do far more good than harm.

I consider them very very good. If you don't want it, you could always send it to me. LOL!

Me too!!!

Worth

I think theyre adoreable. Strange, but adoreable.

Need more of those little critters!

Garyjoe

ThatÂs what I hate about the over use of pesticides.
I have plenty of Praying Mantises and spiders at my house.
I look at it this way they are the wolves of the insect world.
We donÂt have wolves down here any more (they killed them all) but we have way to many rabbits and coyotes.
We had a mama mountain lion on our place in OK in the national forest and cows.
She raised two litters of babies on the place and she harmed not one cow or calf.
I saw her a few times, "what a beautiful thing to see.
Stray dogs and coyotes constantly harassed the cows; I know I had to shoot enough of them.
Sorry folks itÂs just a sore spot with me, the senseless killing of all kinds of critters.

Worth

well I don't believe anything with the term praying would be harmful. We do not see many up here, but besides the fact, they are very interesting creatures.

Is it only a myth that a praying mantis can kill a cow if the cow eats the mantis? If it is not so, are the symptoms of mantis-disease in any way resembling an explosion?

Although the Praying Mantis falls in the good category it is not the insect that one would "seek out" as a means of controling harmful insects. First, they don't reproduce fast enough to keep ahead of exploding pest populations, partly due to the fact that the females often eat their mate. Secondly, they usually devour everything they see, often larger beneficial insects. So the point is that if you want to reliably control pests with predatory insects you pretty much need to seek the smaller, host specific, rapid multipliers.