It is that time again! You may remember we hatched a mantis egg sac last year for our garden and watched them all summer long. This year we got another sac, and have been excitedly waiting knowing they would hatch any time now. When I heard the rustling late last night over by the canning jar, I knew they had arrived!
From the egg sac hundreds of little mantises hatched and this morning we took them out into the garden and put them in safe spots throughout. The boys were so excited to gently put one at a time on their finger and relocate it to its new leafy home.
While we start with a lot of them, most will be prey until they are big enough to be the top predator in our garden insect hierarchy. The few mantises that make it to full size will feast on the bad bugs in our organic garden...and we love that. And, of course, they are just plain cool to watch.
12 comments:
:) awesome!! what do the eggsacs look like?
I wish that they ate bunnies.
:D
Have a great weekend, friend.
Very cool little guys - they will help keep down the "bad bugs" in the garden right?
Cyndi - there is a pic of one about halfway down here:
http://mominmadison.blogspot.com/2009/06/hatched.html
The sac is really light and papery feeling, but solid walls.
Jodi - Do you plant marigolds? We haven't had any bunny problems since I lined everything with them. We have chipmunks who think they own the place who eat the strawberries (and plant birdseed all over the garden), but the rabbits only come in winter anymore.
I think we'll have to do it next year!
I'm needing ladybugs, too - every time I'm outside I feel an aphid tickling me!
Nice. We did the same thing earlier this spring - the process was very cool, but like you, the vast majority were prey in our vegetable garden before they could prey themselves.
What an interesting science observation for your boys. And what an excellent way to keep (little) pests under control!
you said it- so cool!!
We've been wanting to do this, too. About three weeks ago, we released the painted ladies we had raised from larvae.
That is simply amazing - love it!!!
We are doing the same thing this year! We are still waiting for them to hatch though. My boys are so excited.
Denise... this is so cool! My littles would absolutely love this.
We have some eggs we are waiting on here. Rosy Maple moths. Not so great for the garden but still such a fun way to learn about nature!
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