So with Thing 1 nearing her one-year anniv, we knew we'd be mantid-less soon. I was ok with that. Despite being fascinating pets, I no longer want to keep them as so. Thought it'd just be best to enjoy them in the wild and on the internet.
I'm cleaning up our yard several weeks ago, getting ready for winter and what do I see crawling out of a yard waste bag? A Chinese mantis! Since she was such a fighter (I obviously did not intend to throw her away with the brush I'd been cutting down!), so we named her Lazarus. As soon as I held her on my hand and my husband gushed about her, I knew we'd take her in. Despite hatching several ooths in our yard this year (only saw nymphs come out of the Carolina mantis egg sacs), we did not see one mantis at all! No Carolina or Chinese mantids in our yard.
So Laz has laid one ooth so far and is enjoying the rest of her life indoors instead of freezing to death in what would have been her first and last Iowa winter.
I'm cleaning up our yard several weeks ago, getting ready for winter and what do I see crawling out of a yard waste bag? A Chinese mantis! Since she was such a fighter (I obviously did not intend to throw her away with the brush I'd been cutting down!), so we named her Lazarus. As soon as I held her on my hand and my husband gushed about her, I knew we'd take her in. Despite hatching several ooths in our yard this year (only saw nymphs come out of the Carolina mantis egg sacs), we did not see one mantis at all! No Carolina or Chinese mantids in our yard.
So Laz has laid one ooth so far and is enjoying the rest of her life indoors instead of freezing to death in what would have been her first and last Iowa winter.
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If I found any wild mantids in my yard, I'd keep em, too÷
She is beautifiul
