Praying Mantis

[james_davis_nicoll]

I just found a huge praying mantis on my door step. I mean, huge; it looked like it could take on a small mouse. It didn't seem to be handling the rain well so I moved it to a more sheltered position.

Comments

[t-guy.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness it was not a Preying Mantis.

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

Picture?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I don't have a digital camera.

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

Sad. Would you like one? I have the world's smallest digital camera -- it's not very good, but it certainly is tiny (about 1.5" square).

[anzhalyumitethe.livejournal.com]

You Have Doomed Us All.

That's the ancestor of our Future Insectile Overlords, you fool!

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Considering the shape the cicadas are in, as well as the bees, of late...are you sure about that?

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Bees seem to be doing all right. No, really. Colony Collapse Disorder isn't the end of bees or beekeeping as certain hysterical news sources have alleged. Instead it seems to be a new disease associated with drought/poor nutrition.

[tsm-in-toronto.livejournal.com]

Instead it seems to be a new disease associated with drought/poor nutrition.

... or maybe associated with editorial over-excitability? (Gotta get eyes to look at those ads -- Our Pollinators Are Doomed has a certain draw appeal, no?)

[slrose.livejournal.com]

Clearly, it thinks it is a cat.

Small mouse

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

Sometimes they do go for the big game.

Re: Small mouse

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Wow. Good thing James was nice to it. I've been moving crickets outdoors so the cats won't kill them and leave me legs to clean up.

Re: Small mouse

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

I've seen footage, in a documentary I don't recall the name of, of one eating a small snake. It's incredibly arresting.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

she thinks you look like good mating material, and quite tasty too.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Huh. There was a pretty good-sized one on the door here. It seemed to be there just for the swinging rides as it opened and closed. I hope its not the praying mantises that have reached the Singularity first and have concluded it involves doors.

[liabrown]

The only time I've ever seen a mantis was on the outer wall of the wholesale store near King and Weber. Until then, I didn't know they lived here.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Praying mantises are the only insects I've met that *look back* at you. Very eerie.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

They're not *technically* insects, but wolf spiders will look back at you. Which is really damn creepy considering they have 8 eyes. My sister once encountered one that with legs was larger than her hand (they get larger as you go farther south) and it actually backed up a step or two and raised itself up on its rear legs to get a better look at her.

[tsm-in-toronto.livejournal.com]

... that may actually have been a threat display, to dissuade what it may have interpreted as an approaching predator. Maybe.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

She didn't stick around to find out. She swears that when she heard "'ow you doin'?" in a baritone, she decided that the cougar building was clean enough for one day and she was going to go be busy elsewhere. :-)

[pixelmeow.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you helped it out. Too many folks think they are one of the bad bugs, but they aren't. They are fascinating to watch, too.

I've seen teeny ones in the garden in spring, less than an inch long, and I saw one in a parking lot once that was as long as my hand. It had some red down its sides, very different coloring. I got it to walk on my hand, and I put it down in an area where it wouldn't be bothered.

As tekalynn says, they look back at you, and dragonflies do, too. Such wonderful bugs. :-)

I have seen one stick-bug, just one, but it affected me just like a mantis or dragonfly. Cool bug!

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Ah, you need to go down to the provincial park in the Carolinian forest--stick bugs aplenty. (Turkey Point, I think.) It was the first I'd ever seen them--we went in September about five years ago--and I saw them in small, medium, and large sizes.

Only seen one praying mantis, though, in Waterloo at the edge of an undeveloped area.

If you want rabbits, though, my neighbourhood is lousy with them. They drive the dog nuts on walks.

[glaurung-quena.livejournal.com]

I adore mantises. One of the many neat things about them is how calm they are -- you can usually get really close to them without making them flee, and sometimes they'll even sit on your hand.

The females do get pretty big this time of year, especially if they're lucky enough to get all they want to eat. It's been years since I saw one, but when I was in high school and college, if I saw one, I would catch it, put it in a jar and feed it, then let it go after a few days. Sort of my little contribution to increasing the mantis population.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

A couple kids at Rosh Hashanna services told me that there were praying mantises living in the playground at their school in Somerville, Massachusetts. One of them said that his friend was just sitting there, and a mantis landed on his hand. Which would have been cool enough -- but then, as the mantis was sitting on him, a fly came by, and BZZAPT, the mantis grabbed the fly and ate it, all while sitting on this kid's hand.

That remains the coolest thing I've heard this month.