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.

Hi, Libby! I was just passing through and noticed your post, thought I'd throw in my two cents! :o) We have found several egg cases around here, and since I knew they would probably be mowed down, I've moved them. I sometimes will take the stick/stem it's attached to, and stick it in the ground somewhere else. I've also stuck them in with other plants in a container on my porch. I think yours will be fine. They hatch once the weather is warm, but I'm not sure of the temperature. We even had some hatch in the house this winter!!! (A praying mantis had been in the house last fall, she left an egg sac up inside the corner of a window. When the weather got cold, we turned on a heater near the window, and they hatched!) Hoping you see lots of babies in your garden this year, Angel

Funny story, when my daughter was nine she brought a cocoon from the woods which appeared to be dried up and wanted it in her bedroom. Fast forward and one early morning I hear a blood curdling scream coming from her room. I go in the room and there are dozens and dozens of baby praying mantis's all over the walls etc and she's under the cover. I call a garden center and they said "get her out of the room" and close the door and they will eat each other. YIKES!!!!!!!! so I did as she said and gently opened the door in the afternoon and there they were about three left and apparently very full. I got them outdoors, threw the cocoon in the woods and scoured the room. Fun day. lol

If you raise them in a terrarium, you need individually housing. If held in a common space, they will eat each other until only one fat one remains. (They're cannibals.) If you want to rear them outdoors, ask the vendor if they will survive in your region. They are predators, but are non-selective. In other words, they are likely to eat whatever walks by. So, not very effective as far as pest management goes.