square face plate and long wings = Chinese mantis

Chinese mantis. Not a fan of them in my herb garden this year as they preferred to lurk under the basil flowers and eat my bumblebees, butterflies, etc. daily in a very gruesome way.

One mantis parked itself in my potted Wendy’s Wish salvia in an attempt to nab a hummingbird (I trimmed the flowers off to force it to move).

If the picture below is any indication, I should have mantises next year too which I will relocate.

I'm thinking I should dispose of it and try to find the eggs? I just looked and he is still on the same shrub he was on yesterday.

Later....well, design fan, I couldn't tolerate a bug that kills bees and butterflies and hunts hummingbirds. I was really lucky - I went back and there was the same PM I saw yesterday in the very same location only deeper into the evergreen it was on, under a branch. We got him out of there only to see a 2nd one! I think they were actually mating and right there was what looked like eggs. So no search required. The two of them and what I hope are all the eggs, are out of the garden.

I decapitate them.