Donald James, age 13, Of Springfield, Mhss.~or his question:
How do you care for eggs of the mantis?
The honey bee and a few other insects help our garden and crop plants by carrying pollen from flower to flower. But most insects feed on plants. Some suck the sap from the stems, same devour leaves and nibble holes in the blossoms and others attack plant roots. The mantis is our ally in this warfare. She is an insect which devours insect pests.
Once in awhile a mantis may devour a honey bee.. But most of her life is spent feeding upon the insects that destroy our crops and gardens. Capsules of mantis eggs are often placed in fields and gardens where the insects Will hatch and carry on our war against our enemy insects. Some, like Donald, keep a mantis as a pet and wonder how to protect her eggs.
There are more than 100 species of mantis, and most of them prefer life in warm climates. They are lean, leafy looking insects varying in length from two to five inches. Twenty of the smaller varieties are natives of the Carolinas and southern deserts though some of them survive when their eggs are carried north and allowed to hatch in cooler climates.
The giant praying mantis was imported from the far east some 50 years ago. She is an amazing insect with a long, stiff thorax and a skirt of delicate green wings wrapped around her abdomen. Our native mantes have leafy wings of greenish brawn. In any case, a mantis is dressed to blend in with the background of foliage where she lies in wait for her victims.
A mantis lays her eggs in the fall. There is a mass of them, and the mother insect seals them in a capsule to protect them through the winter. The egg capsules of the Carolina mantis are stuck to twigs and leaves. They look like scaly mounds. The praying mantis of the Orient covers her mass of eggs with froth which dries into a papery wad somewhat like a forgotten spit ball.
If you want the eggs to rest until spring, you should leave them Outdoors in the cool air. If you want a batch of baby mantes in the middle of winter, then just put the eggs in a warm place indoors. Since the mantis feeds On live insects, it may not be a good idea to start a new brood in the w1nter when insects are hard to find. The wisest thing to do with the a pet mantis is to place them outdoors in perhaps a cardboard box well ventilated with holes. They will hatch at the proper time.
The youngsters have no wings, but apart from this they are miniature copies Of their parents. After they have grown and molted a few times, they will emerge with wide wings folded around to look like leafy skirts. The youngsters have a hard time finding food, and many of them perish. It is not easy to tend a brood and bring them up as pets. Some experts suggest that the youngsters have a better chance of survival when they are let loose to fend for themselves in a garden.