Praying Mantis

This "adored" insect is a general predator of most pest insects, mites, eggs, or any insect in reach. Each egg case contains approximately 200 baby mantids. Use 3 cases per 5,000 square feet or 10-100 cases per year per acre. Attract to twigs, leaves, fences, and other vegetation. Cases may also be placed in the crotch of a bush or tree. Do not place on ground, as they become easy prey for ants. Releases can begin after the last frost and continue through summer. The Praying mantis is a most interesting and enjoyable beneficial insect to have around the garden and farm. It is the only known insect that can turn its head and look over its shoulder. Mantis lie in wait for their food and when close enough, snap it up with a lightning movement of their strong forelegs. Measurements of their reflexes show they react more than 2 times quicker than houseflies. Mantis have enormous appetites, eating various aphids, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects when young. Later they will eat larger insects, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and other pest insects. These ferocious-looking praying mantises actually make great pets. Some will even eat raw meat and insects from your fingers. With plenty to eat they usually will not stray far. If handled properly they don't bite.

FOOD AND REARING:Providing food for a mantid can easily be done by trapping flies or other insects, and releasing them into the mantid's container; a wide-mouth jar covered with a net or screen on top and a twig or branch inside the jar. Insects used for food must be alive and not much bigger than the mantid. If the insect is too small, the mantid will consistently miss and be unable to grasp the prey. Mantids will eat insects dangled from tweezers, and most mantids will not except dead insects. Mantids in captivity do need additional water. Gently place a small wet sponge inside the container every week. The mantids will gather the water off the sponge.

RELEASE INSTRUCTIONS: