Legal Release in South Florida

[gripen]

OMG! Y'all already scared the starter of this post away and you keep bickering about it. I can't believe how far some of these things go. Agree to disagree and move forward.

I can live with that. Sorry Mykey none of us know anything!(no really we dont :clown: )

 

[warpdrive]

Then i will have to burrow that whip from Melano! inch: :lol:

If you have contradicting experiences please voice them? We are all friends here!

I agree, we are all friends here and if you have something to say that goes againt anything that I said, please speak up. no one, at least not me, will become offended.

Harry

 

[warpdrive]

OK guys here's what I have to say.

Every year in the early spring I buy chinese ooths for my 20' by 15' flower and herb garden. I buy at least two ooths from the garden store. They are sold in the pest control area along with ladybugs and such. whether or not they are good pest control or not is up for interpretation. But the section header could be misleading to some. and that could therefor cause people to buy them as pest control. Over the years of buying them at that store i have witnessed first hand many people buying ooths. Anyway back on topic. I always hatch the ooths inside than release the day or two old L1s in the garden, much like Mykey14 was suggesting.

After that day I try to spend at least 15 minutes in the garden observing them. in this time i have noticed many things that I bet the hobbyist who has never seen them in the wild will not know. I was able to see there preference for different plants and there camouflage in action. I use to think that they would all spread into the neighbors yard like many have suggested. I was surprised to find after the first year of doing this that I was wrong. The mantids were there the whole time! They were very hard to see but yes they were there. All I had to do was look in the right places! I tried this new technique of looking in the neighbors lawn and bushes but found none (maybe it was there use of insecticide that threw off these results).

By fall the mantids were maturing making them easier to find. In my small garden I now had 20 or so adults! Saying that they wander away from your property into others so that you have none left is completely false. That is why I must say that releasing chinese mantids anywhere in the continental US is a fun and valuable experience and is done by thousands of Americans every spring.

You can do this in Florida to i might add.

the problem with your story is that a) you don't live in Florida amd B) like you said, thousands of people release chinese each year, yet their are millions of home owners and renters of houses that at least have a big enough backyard to even think of releasing mantids.

while your story is great to hear, at least you were being honest and just by telling us that the possable spead of your mantids could have been squashed do to your neibors use of pestisides.

.

I also agree that thousands of people release mantids each year...I would even say that that number may be too low. but when we are talking about thousands of people out of millions, YES THAT'S A TINY NUMBER OF PEOPLE. so while I was just trying to make a point as clear as possable, I stand ferm that yes, only a tiny handfull of people release chinese mantids in Florida as compaired to people who use pestisides.

but the biggest part of your story that I have a problem with is that YOU DON'T LIVE IN FLORIDA. you don't have the weather that they do, you don't have the fauna that they do, you don't live with the same population of people that he does, and you don't have endagered native animals that may also live near by.

your story is your own. releasing chinease may have worked out great for you, but has little to do with the State of Florida and what is going on there.

I have family that lives in Florida. some live in Tampa Bay, some in Miami, and the rest in Ft. Myers. out of all of them, none have even seen a mantid, and many of them have lived there for 20 to 40 more years. most live near the beaches and inner citys so I'm not suprised. but a better question is just how many arround them do in fact release mantids each spring...they will tell you that no one does it. asking then to release bugs arround their house seems silly to them when they say they have enough bugs outside in their back yard as it is. oh, and they don't like bugs like many of us on the forum...I know it's hard to believe that people don't like bugs on bug forum. it's funny when you think about it.

the people who live near my Family fear seeing an alligator in their pool more then they worrie about insects in their garden...just something to think about, and not really on topic.

again, I'm glad that your mantids like to stay in your back yard. I'm glad that you are happy with them. I'm also happy that many people do in fact release chinese each spring. but you may as well live on a different planet when you are now going to talk about mantids in the state of Florida. the difference in ecosystems are just to different from where you live to use your story as an example of how anyone will be sucsesful in keeping mantids in their back yard.

just my two cents,

Harry