There's a colony of freshly hatched Praying mantises in Mum's garden...!! What you see in these pictures are just a select few. There are tens and hundreds more of them. They are congregated on two succulents that are on one corner of a balcony ledge... :D
I found this information from "Home guides" on the internet very interesting...
Finding a praying mantis lurking on one of your garden plants like a science-fiction movie escapee is nothing if not alarming. Before racing for the nearest can of bug spray, take a deep breath. Any harm mantises cause plants results indirectly from their voracious appetite for other insects.
Identification
Their triangular, swiveling five-eyed heads, long thoraxes, spindly bodies and folded, clawlike forelegs are camouflaged in shades of green, brown or pink. The 2- to 6-inch mantises are hard to spot.
Diet
Praying mantises only eat meat. These bugs see your plants only as dining venues and will not damage them. They strike passing insects with lightning speed. After impaling their prey on retractable foreleg spines, they dine at leisure.
How mantises help
After hatching, praying mantises eat soft-bodied pests, including aphids, leafhoppers and caterpillars. As they mature, they also eat grasshoppers and beetles. Adult mantises can also eat houseflies and mosquitoes.
How mantises hurt
The downside of having praying mantises in your garden is the adults also devour beneficial lacewings and ladybugs. Their other beneficial victims include bees, wasps, butterflies and moths. This indiscriminate hunting places praying mantises low on the list of garden beneficials.
And what are we going to do with so many of them. Well, Mum was alarmed at first ! And we were in two mind... But then, we decided, we couldn't take a risk with so many mantises. We had to do something about them. But, not before I'd finished admiring them to my heart's content. Folks, I'm sure you'll agree with me. Don't they look so cute...?? After I was done with my admiring and shooting, I carefully carried both the pots, one by one out of the balcony, down the stairs, out of the building and out... out... outside the compound to the colony park and shook them off onto a bush there... I'm sure a few were left behind. But I think we can contend with that many. :)
I found this information from "Home guides" on the internet very interesting...
Finding a praying mantis lurking on one of your garden plants like a science-fiction movie escapee is nothing if not alarming. Before racing for the nearest can of bug spray, take a deep breath. Any harm mantises cause plants results indirectly from their voracious appetite for other insects.
Identification
Their triangular, swiveling five-eyed heads, long thoraxes, spindly bodies and folded, clawlike forelegs are camouflaged in shades of green, brown or pink. The 2- to 6-inch mantises are hard to spot.
Diet
Praying mantises only eat meat. These bugs see your plants only as dining venues and will not damage them. They strike passing insects with lightning speed. After impaling their prey on retractable foreleg spines, they dine at leisure.
How mantises help
After hatching, praying mantises eat soft-bodied pests, including aphids, leafhoppers and caterpillars. As they mature, they also eat grasshoppers and beetles. Adult mantises can also eat houseflies and mosquitoes.
How mantises hurt
The downside of having praying mantises in your garden is the adults also devour beneficial lacewings and ladybugs. Their other beneficial victims include bees, wasps, butterflies and moths. This indiscriminate hunting places praying mantises low on the list of garden beneficials.
And what are we going to do with so many of them. Well, Mum was alarmed at first ! And we were in two mind... But then, we decided, we couldn't take a risk with so many mantises. We had to do something about them. But, not before I'd finished admiring them to my heart's content. Folks, I'm sure you'll agree with me. Don't they look so cute...?? After I was done with my admiring and shooting, I carefully carried both the pots, one by one out of the balcony, down the stairs, out of the building and out... out... outside the compound to the colony park and shook them off onto a bush there... I'm sure a few were left behind. But I think we can contend with that many. :)
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