Mantis Garden planting

[cloud jaguar]

Last year my wife and I made a "Faerie Garden" with our 3 and 5 year old boys. The weeds were much more forthcoming than the faeries, so this year we all decided to plant a Mantis Garden instead. In a way, mantids are arguably the real faeries, anyway. The garden consists of two raised concentric circles enclosed by large granite rocks, like a stepped wedding cake. The outer circle is about 14' and the inner circle is about 10.' We planted many late blooming perennials from 8" to 48" including zinnia, snap dragons, sunbursts, sweet alyssum, and a perennial and butterfly attractor seed medly.

Our S. Limbatas are producing more ooths than we want to raise so we will place all of the other extra ooths at the center of this garden. It was a nice day here in sunny Southern California, but I can think of more fun ways to spend the day than with a hoe and shovel. At least the merlot was flowing. Hopefully the mantids will enjoy the garden as much as we will enjoy spying on them!

By the way, are there any plants that we should avoid placing in this garden? What about Marigold and Nistertium? Thanks.

~Arkanis

 

[hibiscusmile]

Marigolds are a deterent to some insects, maybe a small border around the biggest layer would not hurt, but why chance it. Sounds like u guys have a lot of fun!

 

[Peter Clausen]

I'm going to be in Santa Clarita this weekend. Maybe I can find a few cases in the area while I'm down there. I don't really need more, as I have two gravid females (one ooth so far). But you never know what you're going to get out of an ooth until it hatches.

Anyhow, your garden sounds really neat. My parents built a similar one in their backyard in Mexico. I've never heard of any plants that harm mantises...maybe a venus flytrap . I would guess plants that attract bugs (food) would make the mantises hang around longer!

I took this photo in Arizona in 2001 of S. limbata on a cactus:

Peter

 

[Rick]

The places that produce the most mantids are weedy meadows or overgrown lots. These places have tons of food insects. I do not think this can be recreated in your garden the same way.

 

[cloud jaguar]

The places that produce the most mantids are weedy meadows or overgrown lots. These places have tons of food insects. I do not think this can be recreated in your garden the same way.

I can see that. We will tame back our expectations that it will be a Mantid Jurrasic Park then, lol. Basically, we are attempting to create a mini flower oasis - we live in the desert foothills of So. Cal and the mountains hereabouts are pretty dry. The few flowers around abound with insect life since they are so few and far between. We went to the nursery and selected all of the plants which had tons o' bugs fluttering around them or snorting nectar. These include ground cover - sweet alyssum, and a bunch of stuff my wife said was good Then we have two large specialty packets of seeds 1) Butterfly packet has 1/2 nectar producing flowers and 1/2 host foliage for butterfly worms. The other is a perennial packet with stuff that lasts all year and flowers that only last part of the year. Both are from 8" to 48." Plus, and this is my 'ace in the hole,' I bought a pack of zinnia seeds - since 2 of our mantids came from this type of plant. I figure that if we put one or two ooths out there, then in the spring add another ooth of euros that we should DEFINITELY have at least 2 or 4 mantids to look at, and then it will not all have been in vain.

~Arkanis

 

[hibiscusmile]

Remember to post pics when in bloom!

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I would suggest instead of placing the ooths in the garden, to hatch them in one of your cages and release the nymphs into the garden once they hatch. Predators can potentially raid the ooths so letting them hatch in the safety of your house gives them another leg up in the game of survival.

 

[Rick]

I can see that. We will tame back our expectations that it will be a Mantid Jurrasic Park then, lol. Basically, we are attempting to create a mini flower oasis - we live in the desert foothills of So. Cal and the mountains hereabouts are pretty dry. The few flowers around abound with insect life since they are so few and far between. We went to the nursery and selected all of the plants which had tons o' bugs fluttering around them or snorting nectar. These include ground cover - sweet alyssum, and a bunch of stuff my wife said was good Then we have two large specialty packets of seeds 1) Butterfly packet has 1/2 nectar producing flowers and 1/2 host foliage for butterfly worms. The other is a perennial packet with stuff that lasts all year and flowers that only last part of the year. Both are from 8" to 48." Plus, and this is my 'ace in the hole,' I bought a pack of zinnia seeds - since 2 of our mantids came from this type of plant. I figure that if we put one or two ooths out there, then in the spring add another ooth of euros that we should DEFINITELY have at least 2 or 4 mantids to look at, and then it will not all have been in vain. ~Arkanis

The smaller species may do ok then. You may see one or two.

 

[cloud jaguar]

MANTIS GARDEN UPDATE

So we did some more serious gardening this weekend - now the mantid garden will be 25' long bordered by a 6' high fence which will be covered by 3 cultivars of Passion Flower vine - this vine is like a magnet for butterflies plus it should make an excellent photo backdrop some day when it fills out. Since the garden will now be 25' long instead of only a 14' circle, we will add a field/meadow featuring major amounts of Aster and Goldenrod (and perennial hummingbird haven attractors seed packet) to the new area - . Also, to make the kids happy, we made the first stepped up level of the original circular mantis garden have a garden railroad track circle for our garden train. We had to do that to make the kids happy since we bought the garden track last summer and it has been sitting in our garage forever gathering dust. Well, I guess we will have to make a small Mantid Crossing sign and frequently check the right of way. The circular plane which whill have the garden train track is about 14" wide and will, other than the train track, just have "fairy meadow attractors seed packet."

 

[hibiscusmile]

haha, I post signs of mantis crossing at all our get togethers too! :lol: The kids just love it! hey did I send you some hibiscus seeds? If not pm me for your address, you will love them and the mantis and stick insects love them and u can use the leaves and blooms for tea! Here's some of the colors, they are dinner plate size blooms. They return every year.