Praying Mantis/Praying Mantid
Voracious Predators in Your Garden

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The mantis eats insects that harm garden plants, making it an excellent weapon in your gardening arsenal.

However, they also eat beneficial insects, so it's a juggling act of keeping the bad bugs under control while providing conditions for the good bugs to flourish.

Mantises wait motionless for their prey to come to them. They often look like a small twig on a bush or plant.

They can take many different colors, usually matching their surroundings.

What the Mantis Looks Like

Praying mantids (the correct spelling) get their name from the way they hold their bodies. In the photo above, notice how the insect holds its large front legs as if folding them in prayer.

The praying mantis is usually about 3 to 4 inches long, ranging in color from green to beige/brown to spotted. The forelegs have spiny spikes on the back, which they use to grasp their prey.

The head is small compared to the rest of their body. The eyes make up the bulk of their head with the rest being the mouth to eat large insects.

The scientific classification for the praying mantis is:

Kingdom- Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Mantodea
Family: Mantides

In the North America, there are 3 species commonly used: European, Chinese and Carolina.

Reproduction

The praying mantis mating season begins in the fall with the male on the female's back. He deposits sperm in a chamber in the female's abdomen. Then she sometimes will turn on the male and devour him.

The female lays eggs in a huge mass in a gummy substance that gets clued to twigs, plants stems or other items. There is only one generation per season.

In spring or early summer, the nymphs emerge from the gummy mass. The nymphs can become cannibalistic and need to be separated when rearing mantids, as the young have been known to eat each other if they are not fed enough other insects.

Part of Your Insect Control System

They praying mantis is excellent at controlling moths, mosquitoes and flies. Some are even fast enough to feast on grasshoppers.

Experts recommend 3 egg cases for an area of 5,000 square feet.

It's important to understand that mantises are not the sole answer to insect control. They can't do all the insect control in your gardens. You'll need ladybugs and other beneficial insects, especially to help control the tiny problems, like aphids.

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