Well, blogosphere, here is the answer to Michelle’s question.
Over the weekend, I became the official, lucky recipient of my very own praying mantis egg sac, plus jar. Michelle had some extras, and emailed me last week to see if I might be interested in seeing if I can get one to hatch.
Hmm. The potential for 200 baby praying mantises in my yard? Absolutely yes!
If you missed last year’s praying mantis excitement, here are links that will get you the full story:
The mail carrier knocked on my front door on Saturday morning, and I headed straight out back with my precious cargo. I was a little scared to open the box in the house, just in case the egg sac had somehow hatched in transit. I love praying mantises, but wasn’t relishing the thought of having dozens running around my living room.
My neighbor, Tom, came by with his dog as I was taking pictures of the egg sac. “My friend sent me praying mantis eggs!” I said.
“Really?” he said, edging away from me as if I had just said something crazy.
“I’m hoping they’ll hatch.”
“Ah,” he said, continuing that edging away. “I’ll see you later.”
Michelle enclosed helpful directions, and I’m hoping to have as much success with these as she has had. We’ll see what happens. So far, there’s no sign of activity, but I’m hoping to see something soon.
on Jul 3rd, 2007 at 7:28 am
I found a mantis egg sac on one of my azaleas and I was very excited, but it hasn’t hatched and I think some sort of parasitic wasp or something must have gotten to it because there was some debris that came out of it.
on Jul 3rd, 2007 at 7:44 am
Steven, dang…that’s too bad. I’m hoping these guys are OK and that they hatch…and soon. I want a mantis circus in my back yard, to go with the tomato circus!
on Jul 3rd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Woohoo! Glad to see they got there, don’t leave them in the jar if you are leaving or they will cannibalize each other before you get home.
on Jul 3rd, 2007 at 9:30 pm
That is so cool Genie. I expect you to name at least 17 of them after me. Thank you.
xx
on Jul 3rd, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Genie, good luck with your new pets. Just wanted to invite you to participate in a meme that’s been floating around the gardening blogs. You can get all the details at the following link: Gardening Blog Meme
on Jul 4th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Michelle, that’s an excellent tip. Thank you!
Cole, I might even name 23 or 24 after you…assuming they hatch. :-)
on Jul 4th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I once brought in a mantis egg sac on a houseplant in the fall. The plant was atop the tv and boom! one day I had hundreds of infinetismal clear baby manti running about. They looked like they were made of glass. Check your house plants people!
on Jul 5th, 2007 at 6:35 am
Jenjen, yeah, see, I’m trying to avoid having them all over my house. All over the garden would be great, though!
on Jul 7th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
so jealous! i don’t think i’ve seen any since i moved from texas… i’m hopeful now that we’ve moved further up the hills. we do have junebugs again, though it’s mostly just the cats who are delighted about that.
on Jul 8th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Bright, I’m hoping I can manage to actually get the sac to hatch. So far, no luck…but I’m hopeful! They’re such great insects.
on Jul 20th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
[...] The egg sac arrived just days before I left for my last business trip. Before Michelle even mailed them to me, I’d asked her whether the freaking bugs were going to hatch while I was gone. I mean, I didn’t even have them yet, and I was already frustrated. This is how it goes in the Inadvertent Garden. Frustration without representation. [...]