I seemed to have a large "resident" Praying mantis in a corner of some shrubs
in front of my house all summer. It was where the gutter drain emptied on the lawn.
At least--every time I was "messing" around down there, the .PM. would jump out and into the boxwood right next to it.

Nowadays--there is a large, weird, bright green, insect resembling (almost) a grasshopper. It seems to be hanging around my plant stands on my patio .
When I see it--it is not afraid--it just hangs around a while. I swear--once it jumped on my pants and just sat there...eeeeek...

Have to bite the bullet and see if i can operate my new camera...then I can take a picture. It is all programmed--Aina helped with that...

Maybe a katydid, Gita... more delicate looking than a grasshopper.

a quick google turned up this link with photos: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.co...

katydids come to our deck /porch light once in a while.

Jill--I think you are right! They like to eat skin???
In that case--my rough, work hands should be a feast then....
As would my rough, forever there--cuticles,,, chomp...chomp...

G.

Maybe I've never held one on my hand long enough to tell... I'll try, next time I see one.

Ahhh, I think it's cute that Mark has a pet praying mantis

Interesting article, Jill; thanks for the link.

just had an image in my head of a pretty little basket or cage of katydids ( like a cricket cage) at the front of a nail salon, to help with manicures.. ?

Joyanna has moved on from wanting to be a manicurist some day... now she also wants to be a makeup artist and own a salon. bet she'd like the katydid idea!

My dream was always to be a ballerina----LOL...
Probably, because my BF could do a back-bend and i could not. I was about 10-11 yrs. old then...
I was born with a rather rigid bone structure. No curls or bends...my back is ram-rod straight. No splits either...
OHH--those childhood dreams.... G.

Despite seeing Swan Lake this fall, I'm not sure Joyanna (in her 5th year of dance now) has figured out "ballerina" is a career option.

Garlic chives are nearly bloomed out and going to seed... going to cut off the seed heads before they drop a zillion more seeds in my front bed! The honeybees and monarchs do really love these blooms, but I'm hesitant to introdce them to the back yard since they re-seed pretty thuggishly.

YES! They DO re-seeds like weeds...

I am not attracted to anything too garlicky. Nor spicy.
BUT--For people whol ike Garlic--the garlic Chives are IT.
Yes! Their blooms are lovely.....Anyone want seeds?

Gita

Garlic chives flowers are so loved by little insects but I agree, I can't have a whole yard ful. I try hard to catch all the seeds and burn or dispose. I was carrying a bagful of them in the van, meant to throw them in the field, had an oniony-scented van for couple weeks.

Saw a Monarch BF today--flitting around my "Lady-In-red" Salvia
I have so much of this plant-everywhere...Good nectar plant for the late-ommers... I will leave it be so the wayward BF's have some chow.
Otherwise-I am in the mood-- to pull it all up and chuck it.

I like to clean all my beds up before the real winter arrives. Gita

Next BIG chore is raking leaves, They are covering my whole back lawn.

Still trying to get all my CC's inside--even if they don't mind a cold snap.

Gita

Joyanna and I stuffed all the stalks and seedheads into a box... will probably have a cup of seeds, LOL. I still have some seeds from last year for sharing, but I was thinking this would be a good one to share with the folks in the Frederick Beekeepers Association... I did a shift in their booth at the fair again this year (those observation hives are so very cool) and mentioned the chives to a couple of people, who were interested. I think they'd make a good "trap crop" for insects along the edge of a field, too.

Catmint- were you planning to update the monarch tagging Gooogle doc yourself? Or you can send me the information.
MariposaMaid- any data you are ready to send me in any format, I can add to my google doc and return to Monarchwatch electronically . Or let me know if it is going to be sent to them directly.

Sally, I have 11 still in chrysalis which should eclose by Halloween.

When is tagging report due back to Monarch Watch? Was planning to send the forms back to you in the envelope you gave me. Can you submit electronically in two or three batches or just all together?

I am still quite computer impaired. Apologies to all. Judy

Critter and Muddy, I have had Preying Mantis egg cases in my yard every year on my one clump of 'Morning Light' grass (usually two) also on Rose of Sharon, Abelia, Knock out Rose, Wild Blackberry and Butterfly Bush. (Kinda says what plants get action from bugs mantids eat!) Last year a mantis perched in my big old Butterfly Bush until I discovered numerous butterfly wings on the ground below his bush. No bodies, just wings like on Gita's patio. ( I suspect that a mantis or two servails that patio and when a butterfly gets fooled by those skylights, the mantis flies in for a meal)

This year I shooed off any mantis (both the smaller native and the huge imported) that did the same hanging around my Milkweed even if they might eat an orange aphid or two!

No problem Mariposa, we're right on track, they are not due till end of year. Thanks! I was looking at the migration info last night and surprised there are still some in this area, so you're on track there too.

Mariposa, I'm glad you mentioned the shrubs on which you've found egg cases, because the ones I found can't stay where they are. I'll attach the stalks they're on to other shrubs.

I haven't found any butterfly wings in my yard, but I suppose I will next year if I keep both of those egg cases! I could put one in a huge blackberry patch in the woods.

Muddy, I think anywhere the emerging nymphs can find a nymph size carnivorous meal as they fan out from their eggcase will be fine. All .of the plants I mentioned are in an area of my yard that had plenty of aphids until I removed a huge wild multiflora rose last year. Also, I have been plagued with flatid planthoppers whose nymphs are abundant on the shrubs I listed and emerge about same time as mantids in spring.
http://bygl.osu.edu/node/348

Because of far fewer aphids, I think my mantids did agreat job of bringing the flatid population under control. Anyone who has an organic veggie garden or a few tomato plants can use a mantis egg case or two for bug control. The annual egg case or two in my fountain grass gets tucked into the clump after i trim it back in spring as I never can tell for sure that the babies have emerged! It is near my tomato patch.

When they emerge, they really do come out all at once, and keep streaming out! Hundreds of them! Within fifteen min they fan out in all directions about ten feet! They are tiny total miniatures of the big ones...so cute. So glad to have seen that. They also will eat each other so don't worry about two egg cases in your yard...nature achieves a balance fairly quickly.

Some sweet 'bonding with mantis' stories here:

http://www.instructables.com/c...

Thx, Mariposa! Those are shrubs I have, too, and dense enough I'm probably missing seeing the egg cases. I'm going to try to find one to put in my spring-blooming honeysuckle, that always gets such a mob of aphids. They'd make great first meals!