Ootheca "picking"

[Tegmina]

So I've found a few bushes on my college campus that appear to have ooths on them! I could be wrong because I'm very new to the hobby but three bushes all close together have three ooths that appear to be unhatched. They're all similar in size and shape and were probably from the same female. So can I just snip off the branch it's attached to and cart it home with me? I've read up on ooth care but I didn't think I'd stumble on some so quickly. I'm not sure what species this ooth is but just based of a bit of googling it looks like a chinese. Here is one of the ooths in question. I'm sorry if this has been asked before! I tried to search the forum but doing anything on mobile is frustrating.

 

[CosbyArt]

Indeed, what I've seen it appears to be Tenodera sinensis, aka the Chinese mantis. Here is a care datasheet on the mantis and hatching. To collect it simply snip the branch several inches below and above the ooth.

Congrats on the finds! I've spent several hours so far looking for wild ooth's and all I've found are old previous season hatched ones - seems like all species have moved away from the several areas I've searched (even a field 30+ miles away).

 

[Tegmina]

The one on the right looks like it has hatched to some extent. Not sure about the left ooth.

 

[Tegmina]

 

[MantidBro]

They look fertile to me! It's odd but you can sort of tell. Good luck!

 

[Rick]

They look fertile to me! It's odd but you can sort of tell. Good luck!

You cannot judge fertility just by looking at them. These are ooths of the Chinese mantis, very common and in some places you can find hundreds of them in a few hours. Just bring it indoors and it will hatch.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Just keep in mind if you bring them indoors and they hatch, you will end up with potentially hundreds of nymphs. This species is known for large ootheca hatch rates. Winter is coming, so if you live somewhere where it gets cold, this will mean releasing any extras outdoors will be sentencing them to death. If you were only planning to keep a few and release the rest, you might want to store them outside or in the fridge until winter is over and hatch them come spring.