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I went to a friend's house to search for oothecae, and I found these 3. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if they have already hatched, if they even are mantis eggs, (if possible) what species they are, and any advice to hatch them if they do have mantids in them. Any information would be marvelous!
Cheers,
Ams
@ams2431 They are indeed mantid ooths,
European mantis (Mantis religiosa) species actually. The bad news is all three are old and empty, the little holes are where the nymphs hatched from.
The one with the most damage is from other insects eating and reusing the ooth. If your interested to know, in the last photo, the ooth on the left was from this year (as judged by the coloring of the hatch area) and the others are a few years older (maybe the previous season, 2015, but likely the year before that, 2014).
The good news is if you are finding old ooths if you keep looking in the same area you should start finding good ooths too, waiting to hatch in the spring.
