Praying Mantids!

Back in early May, I bought a praying mantid egg case from a young gal at my local farmers market. Given my garden pest problems, I've been extremely anxious for these little guys to start poking their swively heads out and into the world. Today was that day.

I read that creating a humid environment helps with hatching, so for the last week I very lightly misted the egg case. I also warmed the container a bit on the colder days by running hot water on a metal pan, leaving about a 1/8 inch of water in the pan, and then putting the mantids' container in the pan to sit on the counter for an hour or so. Today, midday, they hatched. 

My daughter released them into the yard. They seemed to like her and hung around, and a few perched on her hand.

We were told that there would be about 200 or so hatchlings from the one egg case, and I would say that was about right. We released some in each of the three main planting areas in our yard, and left their container open and out in the back bed in case the babies wanted to hang out in what has been their home for the last months.

I checked in on them a few hours later and saw lady beetle larvae in and around the container. Who would win out in a battle between the two, the lady beetle or the baby praying mantid? Not sure. They are both beneficial to my garden--let's hope they work together to get the bad guys.

On my midnight garden outing, I spotted one lone praying mantid perched on the highest leaf of my previously earwig-plagued broccoli plant, no earwigs to be found. This morning, there are a half-dozen sunning themselves on the leaves of my iris plant, which is in the bed where I had the mite problem. Go forth and prosper, you little cuties. I'll be watching out for you.