# Mantis / Insect related dreams



## JoeCapricorn (Nov 6, 2009)

I had a really strange dream last night. Before I get to that, I wonder if anyone else has dreams about mantises and insects in general.

There has been a consistent pattern with my dreams. Whenever I try and experiment with raising eggs or coccoons of certain insects, I'll have a dream about them hatching and being all over my room. I've had this dream about mantises, grasshoppers and small moths. The small moths in a sort came true, because the coccoons actually hatched, but then I let them go. I never had a successful hatching of an Ooth (I never tried, a previous pet mantis of mine laid two ooths and I put them outside to overwinter) nor any grasshopper eggs. I also hatch a Monarch Butterfly chrysalis in the 5th grade, but didn't dream about that before hand.

I also have dreams about having a sophisticated garden set up in my room with no actual barrier to enclose the insects, so far only had this about grasshoppers. I have set up gardens in a 10 gallon terrarium with grass and other plants to keep grasshoppers as pets... the theory was to only have to water the enclosure, but the reality was mold... X_X;

Now, the dream I had last night was right up there with one of the most bizarre dreams I have ever had. All of my dreams are extremely surreal, many of them influenced directly by paintings of Salvador Dali. Since I'm working on a Surrealism related project for web design, the surreality of my dreams has been stronger than ever.

So, I had a dream that I went to a pet store and there were a large assortment of mantises. The place resembled Petco, but the lady that worked there was similar to the one who works at this place where I got an actual pet Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. So, in this dream I bought a cage full of two different species of apparently colonial and non-cannibalistic mantids. One resembled Chinese mantids, the other was closer to a Horse Lubber grasshopper in a Praying mantis shape. There was also this large mantis, who had a head, legs and thorax a bit larger than a Chinese mantis, but an abdomen that was extremely large, fat, leaf like and exaggerated. The abdomen was closer to the shape of the abdomen of a Malaysian Jungle Nymph, only twisted and about 50 times larger than the rest of the mantis. ; This particular mantis was not "for sale", it was some sort of super breeder. She was also apparently 10 years old. Then I saw a bunch of Orchid mantises, and I exchanged my large cage full of about two dozen mantises for this one tiny orchid mantis. Then the dream ended.

Now, I see this as mainly a reactionary dream, a reaction to me actually getting 4 baby African mantises. This dream is also reflecting my hope that a local pet store will actually carry Flower mantises, this is the same store I got my roach from (they've had flower mantises in the past). The pet store in my dream could also symbolize my recent stumbling upon the mantis pet hobby and my recent reassurance about ordering mantises from the internet... I do not know what the giant mutant mantis in my dream symbolizes, although she was green and perhaps reflects my mourning for my late pet Chinese mantis Emerald, who was also green.

Mantis dreams for me are quite recent. Most of my insect dreams were about grasshoppers, especially finding an unusually large one. I remember dreams where I was chasing 6 inch grasshoppers from when I was a kid. In fact, since I started keeping wild caught mantises as pets, I haven't kept a grasshopper as a pet. Something recent clicked that pretty much shifted my focus to mantises from grasshoppers. In previous years, I of course have been fascinated by mantises, but I never kept them as a pet before and I would relocate them in my yard so they wouldn't eat the grasshoppers.


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## Peter Clausen (Nov 7, 2009)

Great dreams, Joe!

I believe I have bug dreams almost nightly, but I tend to really remember them before some big bug expedition I'm going on (like a summer trip to Arizona, for example). Last year I dreamed about collecting Plusiotis gloriosa beetles and the year before that it was large exotic beetles. The events that happen in the dream are always realistic and detailed, but also rather off (like 4 inch Megasoma beetles in the deserts of Arizona, for example).

A woman at work told me yesterday about a Peter-induced dream she had. In her dream, a swarm of bugs came in through her window. She (for real) got out of bed and was screaming. Her boyfriend came upstairs and asked what was the matter and she recounted her dream to him, cursing my name due to a conversation we'd had about bugs the previous day. Of course, I told her it could only be classified as a nightmare because...she wasn't holding a net and collecting containers. I would certainly consider that a tragedy of screamable proportions.

Two years ago, Roxanne (my wife) had a dream that one of my tarantulas had escaped, was larger than life with a six inch tongue, and licking the paint off the wall. I told her I was so proud of her for having a bug dream!


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## revmdn (Nov 7, 2009)

I don't think so, not yet anyway.


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## PhilinYuma (Nov 7, 2009)

Absolutely amazing! I have heard a lot of dreams, but none, I think, so vividly described. Interestingly, though, your dream had a rather overtly low emotional content, presumably because visual and emotional content are closely bound in yr case. The symbolic significance of your dream goes way beyond an interest in the "plot line" subject, though. Sometimes I am lucky with this, sometimes not.

First, despite the fact that your signature name is usually thought of as male, I would guess that you are female.

Secondly, I would suspect that you are contemplating or have recently entered into an exclusive relationship or are contemplating parenthood.

Isn't this fun? I shall be checking for yr answer every three minutes or so!


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## JoeCapricorn (Nov 7, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> Absolutely amazing! I have heard a lot of dreams, but none, I think, so vividly described. Interestingly, though, your dream had a rather overtly low emotional content, presumably because visual and emotional content are closely bound in yr case. The symbolic significance of your dream goes way beyond an interest in the "plot line" subject, though. Sometimes I am lucky with this, sometimes not. First, despite the fact that your signature name is usually thought of as male, I would guess that you are female.
> 
> Secondly, I would suspect that you are contemplating or have recently entered into an exclusive relationship or are contemplating parenthood.
> 
> Isn't this fun? I shall be checking for yr answer every three minutes or so!


Hahahaha! Are you referring to me?

I am a male. I am hoping to find a lady friend one of these days, but I have no one in mind. I am 22 years old. lol


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## Ntsees (Nov 7, 2009)

I've had mantis dreams too. European mantids were once my favorite mantid because they look like a typical mantid with no extraordinary designs. Where I live, European mantids are not too common and when I do find a female or male, I usually try to find a partner for it. I sometimes end up dreaming that I found a mate for it. I was very excited only to find out that it was just a dream when I wake up.


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## cloud jaguar (Nov 7, 2009)

Last week i was outside with my wife in the garden. I saw a mantid that I have NEVER seen before - it was rather large and very ornate - it looked similar to b. mendica, yet its colors were very muted. It had a large prothorax shield kind of like idolomantis. It was very fat so I assumed her to be gravid. Yet, the coolest thing about it was that it had a projection on its head that looked like a small flower! I was sure Christian would not have a clue about the taxonomy of this one and I was certain it was new to science.

The instant i saw it i instinctively captured it with my hands. As I cupped the mantis i could feel it struggling in my hands - and i felt it weasel out through a crack inbetween my fingers. I was trying not to crush the mantis so I did not have all of my fingers closed as tightly as possible.

As she jumped off my hand I saw the vividly colorful inner wings flash for a second - I jumped after her and grabbed her on the ground. I again kept her in my cupped hands and AGAIN i felt her snake between my fingers. Again I scrambled along the ground and low lying plants of the garden to grab her before she slipped through the passion vine covered chain link fence that borders the garden into the neighbor's yard and gone forever. Finally I caught her again. Again I struggled to keep her within my cupped hands - i started walking toward the front door of my house so that I could put her in a large net cage that was already set up with fake plants. I could feel her struggling furiously.

My wife ran before me so that she could open the front door - i welcomed the gesture since the mantid was doing anything possible to try to get out of my grasp. Just then the front door swung open and i rushed into the house. I was dumbstruck as I entered my home - in front of me was the inside of my house, yet the large wall from my living room was gone and i could see out into the canyon beyond. As i puzzled over this the mantis leapt from my hand and disappeared out into the canyon through the missing wall!

"Help!" I yelled as if in slow motion. My wife was already awake and even from the next room she heard me say in a small and muted voice "help!"

Then I woke up


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## PhilinYuma (Nov 7, 2009)

JoeCapricorn said:


> Hahahaha! Are you referring to me? I am a male. I am hoping to find a lady friend one of these days, but I have no one in mind. I am 22 years old. lo


Cheers, mate! I guess that you know best!  Your female "breeder" with the huge abdomen though, "above price" ("not for sale"), and unobtainable, is a really powerful female fertility symbol. It was also interesting that you were prepared to swap all of your mantids for one seriously cute one. What is yr thought on that? &lt;_&lt; 

In any event, keep us up to date on yr mantids and dreams and let us know when you find that lady friend!  

Hey Arkanis! Yr dream, thank goodness, totally defies my limited abilities at interpretation. I tried to think of some kind of archetypal story about a man and wife in a garden. The "thistle" and the "devil's flower" (noter that you use this image twice. Later you notice that yr elusive mantis has a flower on her head) mantids would have to fit in there somewhere I guess, and I also tried to fit in the word pun on "snake", but I couldn't think of anything. If I could, I would then wonder what the elusive mantis could represent that it could cause the destruction of your house and expose you to a "canyon". I believe that if you can think of something suitable, you might well be on the way to interpreting this one!


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## hibiscusmile (Nov 8, 2009)

Yea, funny u should mention it, I dreamed of a mantis dream last night, I think my first, only it turned into a turkey with a big body and tiney head, ddont know why and I wa s in a bank I used to work in with it, had other mantis in dream, but this one turned into turkey.


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## ZoeRipper (Nov 16, 2009)

I probably have, but more recently, you know when you're almost asleep and you've got all those weird thoughts going through your mind? I learned exactly how boring I am a few nights ago.

Here's some of what I can remember:

"Hmmm.. I wonder if mantids from the same ooth can mate.. Oh wait yeah, I already know that.. I wonder if they're all hillbillies, dating their cousins? Haha, they go to family reunions looking for dates... I've never eaten any dates, are they like grapes? I like grapes. Ooh, and cheese. I need to make spaghetti tomorrow.. I wonder if mantids in Italy make bug pizzas? Mmm.. Pizza."

WOW.


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