They devour all kinds of smaller insects, good and bad. Did you know they are the only insect that can look over it's shoulder:):)

praying mantis.;; and look for the egg sacks for next year

rather harmless though ugly as sin.. lol ... and im pretty sure you dont want to be the male after you know what ...

and try not to soil yourself.. if you see one fly by ... its kind of amazing that they even do ... some kind of slow motion thing ...

yes.. its beneficial ...

if you search out PM eating things.. you may or may not find it entertaining .. lol.. i didnt ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=praying+mantis+egg+sacks&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

Its one of the invasive chinese mantises …. Tenodera sinensis

Nevermore - I was just reading up on that and looks like they were introduced in 1890. The adults don't live through a cold winter I guess, but I suppose if there are egg sacs they will be back.

Sadly, this invader not only eats our native Carolina Mantis, but even eats prey as large as hummingbirds.

tj

Ive been trashing the chinese mantis egg sacs each winter snd no im seeing a lot more carolina mantis since the

Nevermore44 - I'm in Massachusetts so I wouldn't have carolina mantis, would I? I was just reading that we have no natives in this state.

Wow, I never knew there was an invasive praying mantis. Interesting. And disappointing. I never liked the things anyway - too big for my taste. Not that I do anything to them - I'm too afraid they'll fight back!

So PM2, if you have no native mantises in MA, I wonder if that means we don't either here in CT, and if that's the case, are all the ones we see here the chinese ones? Can someone explain the differences? I don't really want to google praying mantises - won't want to look at the screen lol!

:)

Dee

It's either the Chinese or the Asian? There are some natives in Carolina and maybe where the winters are milder. These Chinese and Asian were imported in the 1890s and 1900, as a way to control bad bugs, by plantsmen.

I've read some articles that suggest that although they are from Asia, since they are not outcompeting native praying mantis, and no evidence of damage from them has been seen, then they aren't really invasive as the name implies. But they do eat good and bad bugs, including bees, and hummingbirds? That's not great. But evidently the majority of what they eat are bad bugs, beetles, flies, etc. Oh, they eat caterpillars, and butterflies, so I guess I wouldn't want a lot of them around. I'm just surprised that this is the first I've seen of one in a garden that is over 30 years old.

hit the button for images.. and then the button for videos for some real disturbing pix and vids .... i could not watch ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=praying+mantis+hummngbird&ia=web

one of the biggest go figures ive ever seen .... who would have thunk it ....

of course.. you start with the premise that the female eats the male .. so is it really all that surprising ....

ken

We had a lot of them on our property last year, and I would find monarch butterfly wings in piles under where they would eat them. That doesn't make me very accepting of them..........

I don't normally see more than a handful of Monarchs any season, so I'm not too concerned about that, but I can see why you would not be happy to have them.

Ken, just knowing what they do to their prey and their mates, is enough for me. No way I'm watching YouTube's of them. [g]

Looks like your mantis is patrolling your collards? He or she may be hunting down cabbage loopers, or the wasps that hunt down cabbage loopers.

That is a Chinese mantis, not a native one. Best to destory their egg sacs if you find them.

vghg - Yes, I was thinkng that too. Broccoli and Kale actually. Last year I noticed I had a lot of wasps patroling for cabbage loopers and very little damage on the plants. I've had fewer plants this year, so I haven't noticed much insect activity.

cyn, I'm curious why you might think I need to destroy the egg sacs if it is not a native? There are no native mantis in Massachusetts that compete with them. The Chinese mantis has been here for over 100 years. Since it's the first I've seen in my organic garden in 30+ years, it stands to reason I'm not over run with them. And gardening organically I would think is very much what plant/insect/animal ecologies need, so until I see a problem in my own garden ecology, I'm rather a hands off gardener. I'm not sure that praying mantis might be a help to organic practices, but since this is my first sighting, I will be keeping my eye on that to make sure that they are a help and not a hindrance.

"There are no native mantis in Massachusetts that compete with them." Yes, that is true, but you may find they will outcompete quite a few beneficial insects if allowed to proliferate.

The fact that they will eat our native hummingbirds should be all the reason you need to destroy them. Letting them reproduce in your garden is a threat to any ecosystems in your whole immediate area. Just because something terribly wrong has been happening for a hundred years, shouldnt make us complacent and and ignore the problem. You're either helping or hurting. Our hummingbirds are having a hard time as it is. Not having enough flowers because of development, climate change, and being killed by flying into glass windows.

I love hummingbirds and I barely see one in my garden a handful of times a summer. Does anyone have any figures on how many hummingbirds are known to be killed by Praying Mantis?

Hummingbirds must have some natural predators. It is interesting that Mantis seem to learn to hang around the manmade hummingbird feeders like it was made for them to wait for prey.

I saw one today in Ohio, I assume another Asian Mantis, was sitting on an Asian plant Amorphophallus bulbifer.

I don't use a hummingbird feeder, so I'm trying to figure how realistic a concern it is that hummingbirds are endangered by the Mantis. People appear to have opinions on both sides of the question about whether Mantis are beneficial or not. Anyone aware of any studies on the subject?

All types of mantis are generalists.... so they eat anything they can catch.... including all sorts of bees and butterflies (monarchs) etc. I watched on top of a sedum and was just going bee to bee chowing down. Quite fun to watch.

Nevermore, thanks for sharing your experiences. I do value beneficials and bees and monarchs and it would upset me to see a Mantis eating bees. Bees may be too trusting to escape them perhaps. Especially bumble bees. Well, if I come across the egg sacs, I will take it out of the equation.

Thanks everyone.

Something I have been wondering about this morning - where these Mantis are native, don't they kill bees and hummingbirds too? I'm just wondering what role they play in an ecology if they are indiscriminate about what they attack.

No native hummingbirds in Asia, so no impact on those 😉. Bees and butterflies is another matter. But I guess enough of them get snapped up by predators, so they don't decimate the bees and butterflies there. We lived in South Korea for almost 10 years, and I saw praying mantises, butterflies and bees. The mantis was not rare, but nor were we overrun with it.

So, maybe what you are saying is that where Mantis are native, there are native predators that keep things in balance. Looking at it from that point, in an area where they are not native they might not have natural predators and get out of control. Which has happened with other insects.

Yes, in another environment they might get out of control. Or not.

Wow, what a coincidence. I saw a mantis tonight while watering. Haven't seen one in this yard ever.

:)

Dee

They're pretty creepy looking actually. Such a large insect, I could see it about 8ft away. I haven't seen it since and no egg sacs yet. Strange.

They're extremely creepy looking. I can see one in a Godzilla movie lol. I've never liked them ever since I almost touched one as a kid. Was turning from the sidewalk into my yard, reached to grab the knob on the chain link fencepost like I always did to unlatch the gate, and sitting there on the knob was a praying mantis. Yuck. That was too close for comfort.

:)

Dee

A few years ago one of my nieces was picking green beans in the garden and she "picked" a mantis by mistake, it freaked her out, nyuk. If I find one outside I'll place it in our screened-in porch so that it may feed on the flies and other bugs that get trapped inside.

I find the most creepy thing the way they slowly turn their heads to follow your movements. You don't expect an insect to turn its head. And those big eyes… It seems some people keep them as pets. I will take a snake over it any day 🤪.

Oooohhhh I haven't had that experience yet. That would really not endear them to me....lol. That sounds like the movie Jurassic Park when the raptors turned their head to follow people's movements. I find myself wondering where the assassin in the garden is today. [g] To some degree, I think you have to cultivate a level of detachment and not think about things like that for too long. lol

Hihi, true!

I saw this a couple weeks ago, and I let it be, and now my visiting hummingbird has disappeared. I fear it was eaten. I haven't been able to locate this mantis since then. I removed a Chinese mantis egg case from the side of my house.

Jay.....it's that time of year when they start going south, or they've found another food source. So hopefully that's what happened to yours.

I don't believe they migrate south or north. The Carolina Mantis is native from NJ to Florida, but I have definitely noticed more of the Chinese mantids in NJ. They don't bother me in the least; it's roaches and palmetto bugs that I detest (btw, mantids and roaches are actually kin to each other from what I've just read).

I think Catherine meant the Hummingbirds that migrate and that might be the reason for not seeing the hummingbird.

Everywhere I've been in the garden since I saw the Mantis, I've been looking for it. I'd think my vegetable beds full of brassicas would keep it busy. I see holes in the leaves so something is still there eating them.

I’m north of Jay and my hummers are still here.

tj

I still have the occasional hummer too, but the female that was daily in my garden in July and August, is gone. Without mantises, I am sure. Sometimes they just move on, it seems.

I don't use feeders and I haven't seen a hummer since the beginning of August.