Here at the Snarkolepsy blog, we've had a fascination for mantids for years. It started a handful of years ago when I bought an egg sac and decided that I was going to hatch offspring in a fish tank to improve the odds of getting more of them to live.
Yeah, not so much.
Turns out Mantids are as dumb as Pandas when it comes to reproduction, and I gave up on that after one season. Most of them don't survive the molting process. So many die in the molting process in fact, I wasn't sure how this insect wasn't extinct.
Then a few years ago I started seeing them pop up in the wild. Which was odd. I don't know most things about mantids, but I didn't think I had a climate for them. Mostly grassland and such. But the past few years I've been seeing them every year. I'm guessing the constant influx of egg sacs have tipped the balance. I mean, even if you get just one or two to live, it's a numbers game. You can buy an unlimited number of those sacks at OSH.
Anyway, this guy almost lost his home this morning. I was going to take a stick and ferret out all that crap I thought the spiders were causing. And because I'm short I almost didn't see him. But.. hey - at least I know the spiders and matids are cooperating.
I decided against bring him inside and naming it Jeff like I did those other years. I'm just too tired. Thanks PMB. Here, here, and here.
P.S. I've turned back on word verification because I have some spammers who've subbed to my rss. If it becomes too bothersome, just email me.
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