# Greetings from Southern California



## Greg Richards (Sep 20, 2006)

Welp ... I thought I'd do things correctly here and post my first in the "Introduce Yourself" forum. My name is Greg, I'm 27 and live in Southern California ... I've always been fascinated with Mantids. Ever since my Father caught one 20 years ago in North Carolina and let it roam in our pattio. The last time I had a Mantis was when I was stationed in Korea around 1999. There was some construction going on in the base and alot of foliage was cut down. They put a fabric fence around the area and soon, I saw insects collecting on it trying to get out of the construction area. That’s when I spotted a Mantis. I took her and went to my barracks room.

My roomies were cool. They thought it was awesome to have a mantis loose in the room. It was about a week. I had her hand trained, she would take bugs by hand, chill on my head and clean herself. She was awesome ... But a few days later she died ... A few days after I have her the porcelain ceremony, I noticed allot of spots on the ceiling. They were hundreds of nymphs … Seems she made an ooth on my hat that was on a wall shelf … I had no way of feeding them so needless to say, they died.

Now, just last night while smoking in my driveway, guess what landed … I thought it was a grass hopper at first … Then upon closer look, I realized what it was and I quickly grabbed him and brought him inside to show my kids, as my father did to me. Needless to say the kids went ape as he flew. My wife said not in the house … But I have him on my desk as I type  …

Now since the marvel of the internet has made info easier to obtain, I wanted to do thing right with this one and that is why I’m here … Ill make another post soon with pics of what I caught … I still don’t know what species it is …


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## wuwu (Sep 20, 2006)

welcome!


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## Rick (Sep 21, 2006)

Welcome! Where in Korea were you stationed? I was stationed at Camp Howze and there was a lot of chinese mantids around.


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## Ian (Sep 21, 2006)

Hi Greg,

Welcome to the forum!


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## Greg Richards (Sep 21, 2006)

> Welcome! Where in Korea were you stationed? I was stationed at Camp Howze and there was a lot of chinese mantids around.


I was a 12B ... my home was Camp Castle ... its a small combat engineer base ... close to Camp Casey


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## Rick (Sep 21, 2006)

> > Welcome! Where in Korea were you stationed? I was stationed at Camp Howze and there was a lot of chinese mantids around.
> 
> 
> I was a 12B ... my home was Camp Castle ... its a small combat engineer base ... close to Camp Casey


No way! I was a 12B too and over there was in the 44th eng. bn. After that was sent back to Bragg and the 82nd. I got out in 03 after doing a tour in Astan.


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## Greg Richards (Sep 22, 2006)

> No way! I was a 12B too and over there was in the 44th eng. bn. After that was sent back to Bragg and the 82nd. I got out in 03 after doing a tour in Astan.


I was in 2nd Eng BN. ... Ahh what year were u stationed in Korea? ... After I got out of the army in 2000, I joined the marines ... I would've stayed in the army but the re-up NCO wouldn’t let me change my MOS ... Said 12B's were in demand but with an re-up bonus ... but I wanted to live long enough to have a family  ... So I gave him an ultimatum

Sure, the smell of C-4 with its sweet/chemical smell, using explosives, blowing the out of everything from boulders, bridges, AP and AT mines, All that which is associated with being a combat engineer was enticing ... but I grew out of it


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## Rick (Sep 22, 2006)

I was there from Aug. 00-Aug 01. Got out in 03 after seven years. Did a year in the guard after that.


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