Friday, September 26, 2008

An Exciting Find!

I was weeding the perimeter of our garden fence by hand today (I do this because I love to let Morning Glories grow up the fence, and the weed eater is an indescriminate killer), and lookie what I found!



The praying mantis is one of my most favorite insects. I found a very young mantis in my driveway earlier this year and very carefully transferred it to my garden.



I can't say if this is the same one, but I like to think that it is :)



So I called my Jaybird to tell him about my find, and he said, "Oh yeah! There's a mantis egg sac on one of our blueberry bushes!"



Well! How's that for Christmas in September? I'm not really sure if the egg sac, or "ootheca" has already hatched or is ready to overwinter for hatching next spring when the weather turns warm again, but either way, I'm thrilled! Mantids are voracious predators of harmful garden insects, and let's just face it; they're positively fascinating in every conceivable way!

The Life Cycle of the Praying Mantis


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I also like the praying mantis. I don't see as many around our farm as I use to.
I saw your site listed under farms on the bloglog site and stopped by for a visit.
You have a great blog.
Pam

Unknown said...

Thanks, Pam! I'm very glad you enjoyed my blog. I visited yours and I absolutely love your pics ... especially the one of "daddy plowing". It reminds me of my Granddaddy, who plowed his fields in just that fashion!

I hope you visit again soon :)