Aliens have started the season of battle.

I have both Tenodera sinensis (Chinese mantid) and Stagmomantis carolina (Carolina mantid) in my yard.

While removing brush in December, I saved a Chinese mantid ootheca and put it into protective custody in a critter keeper under a porch eave. Late yesterday, they emerged. If you enlarge the photos, you can see most through the lid slats. A couple hundred of them have now started the year's battle in beds encircling the house.

All of my Carolina mantid egg cases are against brick, wood, or other surfaces making them risky to attempt to remove and protect.

Now, I'm keeping an eye on my six Argiope aurantia (black and yellow garden spider) egg sacs...

I found one of those Saturday, the Chinese ones. I dispatched it as instantly as possible.

I wish we had a few of those.

Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought this was a discussion about invasive species.

3 similar articles about the one I found Saturday
http://jimmccormac.blogspot.co...
http://beautifulnativeplants.b...

Garden spiders are beneficial predators, catching many flying insects that are harmful to garden plants. They do catch bees but not to the detriment of active hives.

Mantids are indiscriminate predators, but are beneficial in gardens with plant eating insects. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/...

We'll accept both in our garden.

Did you look at any of the articles I linked? The mantis I found is not supposed to be in north America, not part of the ecosystem.

The "reading eagle" article didn't open since I don't have a membership. The other 2 were informative regarding the Chinese Mantis. I've never seen one.

We have a lot of non-native creatures in North America. Killer bees, in the central US, boa constrictors in Florida, zebra muscles in the Great Lakes, invasive carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and too many more to list. The biggest problem common to almost all of them, including the Chinese Mantis, is that they were brought here to solve some other perceived problem, then escaped, and are now a much bigger problem than the one they were imported to solve. I don't know specifically how big of a problem the Chinese Mantis is, but probably minimal compared to many of the other invasive species. We don't purchase any type of "control" insects for any purpose. No lady beetles, no predatory wasps, nothing.

Sorry, I removed the reading eagle link. It let me read the article earlier, but I got the same message you did when I clicked it again.

I'm completely unqualified to discuss the overall environmental impact of the mantis I found, and would not begin to think *I* could have an impact on it in any overall sense at all even at my local level, just contributing a report of spotting one to what I thought was a discussion about invasive species from its' title.

It was big enough to eat a hummingbird, other small or baby bird, and pretty much anything smaller than a squirrel that visits my yard, including all of the other small predators like spiders, anoles, geckos frogs, toads, so I removed its' threat from their home environment. It was quite an intrusion into nature for me, I don't mess with wildlife except to try to support it through gardening (vs. having nothing on our property but mowed area,) and by not using any 'cides of any kind. I don't even feed the birds because I watch many different kinds daily forage for and find food in my yard, as nature intended. They have a bird bath here instead of store-bought food, and there is a water dish in case squirrels get thirsty. They do, about the same time I make coffee in the morning, it's very cool. From what I could gather in regard to the mantis I found, it was here to eat many of the sweet little critters for which I've worked so hard to establish a home.

By all means, if you found the mantis to be a current or future threat, then remove it. I really like chipmunks, but had to remove them due to the damage they were doing. I was able to live trap and road trip 2 of them but the other 2 avoided the live trap and I had to revert to other means. Not something I'm proud of, but necessary. We have several wild critters here (see my badge above) and enjoy having them around as long as they don't cause serious damage. We feed our birds and squirrels, and have 3 birdbaths for their use. The only major damage we get is from raccoons, but they live in a nearby woods. We've live-trapped a few and "deported" them. We live in farm country and have a serious shortage of pollinators, likely due to chemicals, so we do what we can to encourage them.

@UrbanWild, I apologize if I've taken your discussion in an unintended direction. What is going on at your end?

Nah, don't sweat it. It has been interesting. I normally kill invasives as well. However, in this case I am not sure they are much of a threat as they exist side-by-side with natives. I will be gringing in more native egg cases this year. If I could just train them to discriminate and target japanese beetles and spotted asparagus beetles!

Nah, don't sweat it. It has been interesting. I normally kill invasives as well. However, in this case I am not sure they are much of a threat as they exist side-by-side with natives. I will be bringing in more native egg cases this year. But, I am about 10 blocks away from a supply house which provides Chinese mantises to local gardeners. It will be hard to turn the tide here. Now if I could just train them to discriminate and target Japanese beetles and spotted asparagus beetles!

UrbanWild said:if I could just train them to discriminate and target Japanese beetles and spotted asparagus beetles!

And kudzu bugs!

stone said:
And kudzu bugs!

Holy crap! I was unfamiliar with Megacopta cribraria (kudzu bug).

Then I found this map. Sigh...it looks like they are getting close...

https://www.kudzubug.org/distr...

and read...

https://www.kudzubug.org/homeo...

Looks like I will need to get ready. This old house (and neighborhood) has cracks/crevices a-plenty.

Kudzu bugs eat all beans, not just kudzu and soybeans... Although, they do seem to prefer my climbing varieties, as do I.
This spring, they covered my buckeye bushes.

Really never noticed them in the house... Just in the garden.

I saw some kudzu bugs in 2013 but none since. I can't remember which plant they were on. A potted tropical.