And they would be just as happy to take a bite out of YOU, so watch out for them!

I did not know they bite, but the way they look at you I was leery of putting my hand down ther for very long!

billyporter said:Awesome pictures. I usually see one here in the late summer and always under the walnut tree in the front yard, and usually when I'm mowing. I saw one eating a cicada over at the neighbor's and it kind of creeped me out too, but, everything has to eat. I cringe over the thought of the hummers and butterflys tho.

sandnsea2 said:And they would be just as happy to take a bite out of YOU, so watch out for them!

I'm certainly liking them less now that I've read all this. I've lived here for 35 years and have only seen a ''handful,'' but not in mine :o)

Not for the squeamish.... Google mantis eatting snake alive.....

or this unfortunate Hummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

billyporter said:I did not know they bite, but the way they look at you I was leery of putting my hand down ther for very long!

I got pinched by one of them accidentally this year as I was grooming one of my Agastaches. I had my hand down the stem of the plant (didn't see him/her) and got pinched!

They kind of scare and creep me out the way the turn their heads and watch your every move.

I was watering some container plants on the patio and saw a PM on one of the stems of a Hummingbird plant, didn't want him to get the little Hummer and tried to drown and move the PM off my plant to the ground with the watering wand. I think I might have done it.

sandnsea2 said:Not for the squeemish.... Google mantis eatting snake alive.....

or this unfortunate Hummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Scary! Don't think I can handle the snake one (didn't know a PM could eat a snake) and I know I couldn't handle the PM eating a Hummer.

Nope, I don't believe I can watch. I saw a hummer stuck in a large spiderweb once and it was awful!!

I was down on the ground to get the picture and if he had clamped on any part of me I would have been shrieking and slapping myself. The neighbors would really think I was nuts then!

Thank goodness for garden gloves. I wear them constantly! I'm a bit braver with them on too, strut strut :o)

"Nope, I don't believe I can watch. I saw a hummer stuck in a large spiderweb once and it was awful!!"


"I was down on the ground to get the picture and if he had clamped on any part of me I would have been shrieking and slapping myself. The neighbors would really think I was nuts then!"

:o)

Very good Animal Planet video on the PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Yeah, they do look like something out of a bad Sci-fi movie...

I'm on my way to bed. I better not have bad dreams, LOL!!

I still crack up over the title of this thread, LOL!

No bad dreams. I slept soundly!

When the mantis sits on top of the hummingbird feeder, the hummers see them and usually stay away. But when the mantis hides underneath (and they do!) the hummers can't see them.



That's when I become the predator and the mantis becomes the prey.

Karen

Great, Karen!
When I saw a growth explosion of PMs in my yard, the number of Hummers and Butterflies went down exponentially.
So the PM population is being "controlled" by the predator at the top of the food chain now.