G'day

Besides being a valuable insect in any garden, Mantis are rather cute,
although they do bite finger tips quite hard for their size. Make sure
they have access to moisture.......I mostly spray some pot plants with
water and they drink the droplets.

Bronwyn ;-)



John Savage wrote:

In rec.gardens.edible, "Farmer Joe" writes:

I got a praying Mantid egg case and put it on my Cux trelles April
10....I live in zone 5-6 St Louis MO area. Its been real warm
lately. Saturday I saw 12-15 babies around the case. I got a few to
go onto spoons and put them on Brox plants. I sawa a few others
later....but Sunday I see no more.....Is this the deal?? Do they all
hatch on one day and then....poof? Educate me. Madison, IL
weather report. 64f soil temp 65f. Thanks Farmer Joe


That sounds about right. I remember as kids we once kept a mantis egg
case in a glass jar. One day we noticed the jar was crawling with
tiny mantids so took them outside and set them free.

I'm crossposting this to my local group, aus.gardens in case someone
here (Australia) can add more to this. Mantids would be a valuable
biological control of some garden pests if the mantis numbers were
high enough.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)