Know Anything About Praying Mantis Bugs ?

**TurxSki** · 09-12-2006, 09:16 PM

Trippy Bugs !
Just saw one at work, here in N Cali, where they are uncommon.
I'm wondering if it got here on/in one of the coffee bags (I work at a roaster's).

I put it outside at first, then remembered it's going to be a "cold" night tonight, on the SF Bay. So went and found it, and have put it in a box for the night.

It's about 3 inches long, and a pale dusty brown color.
So, is it likely a tourist, or just some local fauna ?
Should I let it go, or find a bug-nut to give it a home ?

Found this while I was searching Mantis Eats Hummingbird
http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/si...is-hummer.aspx

Looks like the attached image, but it's wing cases cover it's abdomen more.

**hutash** · 09-12-2006, 09:31 PM

It's just a local. There are actually pretty common, but hard to find unless you really look for them. Tmhey look a lot like a stick, so unless you examine all sticks you see closely you will miss the. They are cool little buggers, and one of the most bad-ass "bugs" around. They will eat anything they can get a hold of, including each other.

**dbp** · 09-12-2006, 09:32 PM

Cool. I found one of those when I was a kid and had fun feeding other insects to it. Only thing I know is the females often eat the male (or his head) after they mate.

Lots of cool pics on Flickr

and some at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry.

**P_McPoser** · 09-12-2006, 09:57 PM

I saw plenty growing up in Tracy, so probably a local! I actually found one in the tree I was trimming here the other day, but he was green.

**BigDaddy** · 09-13-2006, 07:05 AM

They're my personal favorite insect. I used to see a lot of them growing up in Delaware (sigh... ugly no skiing childhood). Be careful bringing them inside... I brought in a branch with a "nest" for one and then woke up to find about a thousand baby Mantis(i) crawling over me crying "mama", though!

**NorCascader** · 09-13-2006, 12:16 PM

dude...that's funny. Last weekend i was loading up the pickup with camping stuff...
and there was this huge preying mantis,I did the whole "aaah...ahhh...WTF

" thing.
I've never seen one round here, i live (north central washington)

I didn't even know they had wings...
but the one I saw had these trippy wings all folded wrong out of its body.
It was 3-4 inches long...all crazy looking. I snapped some pics, but am away from my camera.
I think i took 25 digital "shock and awe" pictures of this thing.

Man they're weird.

**Beaver** · 09-13-2006, 02:04 PM

All I know about them is that they can be found in the Kootenays, Canada. I wouldn't worry much about it catching cold in California.

**altagirl** · 09-13-2006, 02:36 PM

We had a dead one laying on the kitchen floor the other morning. Damn cats bringing shit in through the cat door.

**TurxSki** · 09-13-2006, 07:48 PM

Thanks for the info.
Well, after all, we're going to keep her, and feed her crickets

I almost gave her away a couple of times, and might end up freeing her if the whole crickets deal gets too much.
She does look frickin' cool

But will only live a year, or so

I'd like to have called her Gerald, in memory of Sid Barrett ("I don't know why I call him Gerald") but, as it's a girl, I guess Geraldine, or Grr-aldine.

**team ftb** · 09-14-2006, 08:50 AM

An awesome insect. They are probably the coolest bug around. Good find and a very interesting bug to show to children. Makes snails and worms look boring.

**altagirl** · 09-14-2006, 08:55 AM

Those pics of the mantis that got the hummingbird are amazing. That bug's got some bad-ass ummm.... claw-eye coordination.

L7 · 09-14-2006, 09:08 AM

Don't have sex with it. That tends to go badly for the male afterwards.

**mr_gyptian** · 09-14-2006, 09:29 AM

I had one as a pet last fall. Those things are f'ing violent mofo's. It was absolutely amazing how much it could eat. we'd feed it 20 beetles every two days. it ate anything. my personal favorite was when we caught this bumble bee that had a body about the size of a quarter. it tried to sting the mantis and failed. in about two seconds the mantis had her head inside the body cavity of the bee. dun and dun.

**JBrian** · 09-14-2006, 12:45 PM

I used to buy Mantis egg cases at a nursery in Santa Cruz. It was fun hatching them, put the cases in a small brown paper bag, leave it somewhere warm and check every couple days. After a few weeks the bag would be full of lil baby badmotherfuckers and I'd let em go in the yard. Good fun..

Once I saw one get ambushed by a spider and the spider won. I was really bummed about that..