On Mar 18, 10:57*am, Bill who putters wrote:
* We have a few that live here. *The ladybug is common. Ant lions like
it near our house on the south side where they lie in wait for ants to
tumble in to their large jaws. They then turn into Green Lacewings and
travel about munching insects in time.

It's "aphid lions" that turn into green lacewings. The young eat lots
of aphids, and so do the adults of some species. Ant lions are in
the same order but a different family.

Ant lions: http://bugguide.net/node/view/137

Green lacewings: http://bugguide.net/node/view/140

*I used to gather praying mantis cases at a nearby large field but it
now has houses and a large lawn. *Just ordered two cases don't ask how
much (

I won't, especially because according to Eaton and Kaufman in the
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, the benefits of
mantises are questionable, since they eat beneficial insects as well
as destructive ones.

By the way, Eaton and Kaufman say you shouldn't do anything about
aphids unless they're obviously doing damage, since they attract adult
wasps and flies whose larvae parasitize other insects that do more
damage.

I don't spray anything--I don't want the sprays around, and I like
having a varied insect ecology in my yard. Fewer grasshoppers would
be nice, but since I'm next to a big vacant lot, there's not much I
can do.

--
Jerry Friedman