OOh, most cool thing, Aggie! I buy the ootheca (egg sac), place it in one of my big bug containers, and just wait! I do this at school with my Kindergartners and it is an awesome thing. Teaches them a lot about PATIENCE because it takes forever for the little nymphs to hatch but when they do...woo-hoo! Around 150+ come out of one ootheca and it is an awesome sight to behold, for sure. So, 'raise them' isn't quite the correct term, I should use here. ;P I give each child several to take home and place in their gardens. I've had kids come back to give me reports of how large their Praying Mantids have grown (or if theirs has died), and whether they've observed them catch and eat any bugs. I've also taught them WHERE to place the insectivores so as not to have them eat any butterflies! We discuss the eating habits as well as 'preying' habits as well. It is a fun lesson for the kids and as you know, kids LOVE bugs anyway. My thinking and reason is this: I feel it is important to teach a LOT of science to children and science has really been taken out of the schools nowadays (at least in California). Gardening is an enjoyable and relaxing hobby as well as way to have your home look nice. Integrating some knowledge about insects and gardening into the school curriculum together with lifecycles (I also teach about plant lifecycles) gets the children to go home and start thinking about their OWN HOMES as well as the community and making the community a nicer place to live for the people and 'wildlife.' Knowledge about insects helps to make them aware of what is a 'good' vs. 'bad' bug (biters vs. non-biters, poisonous vs. non-poisonous, beneficial...) and at the same time, we end up with, hopefully, LESS pesticides being used in the communities and more of the beneficial insects (placed in the areas where there aren't any butterflies, of course!). I always bring home all the extra Praying Mantids for my front yard. :)

A friend of mine restored and maintains a prairie. Last night he did a presentation at a natural history meeting about Monarch butterflies, at which he showed a whole tray of recently dismembered butterfly wings due to Chinese mantis predation, mainly Monarchs. Monarchs have to migrate thousands of miles and along the way face numerous perils. With Monarchs and other butterflies in steep decline, my friend strongly feels import and sales of Chinese mantises should be banned. These mantises are not part of nature any more than your cat or dog. Chinese mantises are invasive non-native insects that not only kill butterflies, but also our smaller, less aggressive native mantises, and hummingbirds, too. There is no reason to spare Chinese mantises in your garden or yard. Hopefully one day sale and import of these aggressive predators will be banned. In the meantime, do our native butterflies and other creatures a favor and please exterminate any Chinese mantises you find.

Oh, yeah, Sandy - what an import, huh? I caught and fed one to my Argiope aurantis - Orb Weaver - spider this summer as a treat - she'd only been getting grasshoppers. That was a fun endeavor; Kenna and I enjoyed observing her; watching her "run" across the web to catch the prey caught in her web, and watching her spin the prey to mummify it and we also got to see her lay her eggs and spin the egg pouches that look like paper sacks tied at the top. I occasionally come across the oothecae of the Mantids (egg case). I usually find them on the wooden trellises, or pieces of dead wood lying around. I found one the other day and destroyed it - I know, I know, but I always have PLENTY of them around. I just want to even out the playing field for the butterflies. Susan

Hi again, Thanks for the follow ups... First, I had no idea that the mantis were wild harvested, and like you, think this is not acceptable. I guess I imagined a mantis farm where they breed thousands...but, no, not if they go and take them from their habitat. However your comment "Mantids not as much because the ones people are buying are not native usually to begin with. " does that imply there are mantis farms? I can certainly research it on the web also, just thought if you knew. Second, the suggestion for nematodes for specific climate...again...wow, had not thought of that either...and don't know if the nematode place would have brought that up. Third, no, will not spray permectrin again...it was a last ditch attempt... And we too have seen the frontline will sometimes work on ticks, sometimes not, same with fleas. Depends on the year and who has resistance...last year we switched to Advantage for awhile and that seemed to work, but we are reading some things that give us cause for pause...most all the products caution against using on elderly or otherwise compromised animals, and that is what we have a preponderance of. We don't have "grass" to speak of, being on the side of a mountain in the middle of the woods...one year we spread sulfur around the immediate areas and it drove the ticks off...this winter has been very mild so the ticks should be in abundance. Do any of you know if the sulfur would hurt the nematodes? Also, diatameous earth? We plan to start spraying early, as soon as we are sure the last freeze is over. We are expecting that to come early...will spay liberally and every 2 months we are thinking...a trial and error sort of thing. Thanks for the many helpful suggestions... and the link that I will research tonight. Will keep everyone posted... thanks again, palulukon