Last time I bought these I never saw if they hatched or not. This year I know for a fact that my mantis hatched because I took pictures of it this morning. So beautiful!! The first shows them this morning and the second shows them later in the day after they've browned up.

That is awesome!

Aw, that's neat! I had a friend many years ago who bought mantis eggs and didn't put them outside soon enough and ended up with them all over her back porch!

Guilty!
I've had them hatch on the kitchen counter before. Yikes!
Fortunately I was there soon after and was able to gather them up and put them in the greenhouse pretty quick!

Congrats on your babies, tiki. Hope they have plenty of creatures to eat!

Shoe

Unfortunately Shoe they do. There is enough for about 10 egg cases (or more!) Good for them but bad for my plants. The condo has a habit of wiping out the good bugs but fortunately I'm going to the board about it before Spring.

I wonder how they kept them from hatching till this late in the season?

My garden mantis all hatched in April.

I can explain that Cinda. I live in NW Washington and unlike the rest of the world, we've been experience Fall-like temps here this Summer. We do have bouts of warm temperatures but not consistent enough for the egg case. The last few weeks have been perfect for it though.

Unfortunately we had a wind storm the day after they hatched and I can only find a couple. I hope they are just really good hiders or blew down to the rose bushes without getting hurt.

gardengus, I collect mantis egg cases along the woods line. When the weather is cool they won't hatch out. If it starts to heat up too early I store a few in the fridge to keep them from hatching, then pull them out as needed. (Hence the time they hatched on the kitchen counter. I forgot to take it outside!) :>)

Shoe

I was wondering if one could store them in the frig , that info is very helpful. I collected over 20 this spring while cleaning the garden and would have liked to share them but April was a bit early for my gardening friends to come over.

I think a wind storm is a good thing because they should be widely dispersed , they eat each other.

Would love to try to hatch some eggs. What do you look for? I was told I had a praying manthis pod (whatever they are called). I was told to put it in a milk jug with lots os holes, cover and keep cool. Low and behold when it hatched I was scared and yet surprised.From the side it looked like I had a huge spider, but It was a "Lunar Moth" I was told. I cut the jug opene and left it outside on the deck in a protected area. A few days later I had this beautiful moth. I will see if I can find a picture to attatch. Could someone attach a pciture of the egg sack so I know what to look for and where and when should I start looking? Do they eat only aphids and mosquitos? Please hlep me.

If they eat mosquitoes, I WANT them! Aaaak, we have tons of skeeters this year!

never did a research, just was told they did. anyone know for sure?

The pods are light weight and feel like crunchy Styrofoam, normally on a stick or stem of a plant.

newly hatched babies are brown , but turn green when they grow.

I sometimes will find pods in the late fall , but mostly in the early spring when cleaning up.

Mantis are opportunist and will eat any thing they can catch( the good the bad and the ugly) , I have even read and seen photos of them with hummingbirds.
They will eat each other and I have seen that on a few occasions.

I have the large green type mantis in my garden , but there are other types.
The one above is from a garden I tend ,it is grey/brown and only gets about half the size of the green ones .
I can not seem to find a photo of the egg case for this one but it is usually laid on a flat surface wood or wall and is about 1-11/2''long and flat and grey in color.

According to one website, they do indeed eat mosquitoes (among other things )!

Mantids do eat hummingbirds and there are many videos online if you google it.

I cater to hummingbirds, and most years I get a lot of them. I have to watch my feeder closely. The mantids stalk the hummers at my feeder.


They hide under the rim.


Karen

Thank you everyone. So now that I hear they eat Hummingbirds, I am not going to go out of my way to bring any into my gardens. I definately will go to the web and do some research on my own. I know there are a lot of knowledgeable people on this site and thought I would learn from experienced gardners. If they get here on their own, I will let nature take its coarse. But, I too love Hummingbirds and have several. Thanks again everyone. Nice pictures and useful information. Would not mind the mosquitos being eaten, and I do not want any BATS!

I agree, doglover. I don't think I could deal with them eating our little hummers. And they'd probably also munch our fly predators, too. Think I'd rather deal with the mosquitoes than the flies!

I feel the same. While I realize that everything has to eat, I put out my feeder for hummers, not for mantids. Lets say that when a mantid starts staking out my feeder, he doesn't live to tell about it

Karen