Praying Mantis: What Would You Do?

If you happened to have a lighter with you, you could have had barbequed chameleon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV99SGXBuPQ


Or if you happened to be on the throne you could certainly try this option.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XcoF...eature=related

c.a.
Originally Posted by Chainsaw Anthropologist

fart lighting reminds me of when a friend of mine was going to get married and another friend asked how are u going to get her use to your farts

he said, honey, cover your head because I am going to spit straight up in the air and when she does, let her lose

Okay....I'm feeling even WORSE now than before. The Mantis is still alive...2 nights and 2 days later. As I left this morning to head out for my tour, I looked. He wasn't moving and on his back. I blow some air his direction. His leg began to move slowly. He's not moving as often or as fast, but he IS still moving. How sad.

I feel HORRIBLE that I've let him suffer for over 2 nights now. I have no idea why he's hanging on so long.

My sister's boyfriend called last night and told me to squish him with a brick. I said, "I'm not gonna squish him....he'll make a mess."
He said, just squish him in the head. I said no.

I called Mom this afternoon. She said she would have scooped him up and put him under a bush to die out of sight.

I told her I thought instead of squishing him with a brick, I could just take some scissors and decapitate him with one, quick, snip. She said no.
And now, after doing some research on Mantids, I see, they can still do things when they have no head.
For example, look at this video of a female eating the male. Halfway thru, they show another female finishing up the head
(which is already OFF the body) and the male is STILL copulating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYp_X...layer_embedded

So that leads me to believe, that beheading won't necessarily stop his misery.
Just add to it.

I've uploaded some pictures and they aren't the best.


I'm wondering if he's been stung by a wasp too because he had a stinger in the bottom part of his abdomen unless, that was part of his OWN body. I don't recall if it was there the first time I saw him or not.

These pictures are from day 1 when I first realized I hurt his leg. He was by my African Violets I had outside and that makes sense
according to this article on: http://insected.arizona.edu/mantidinfo.htm
Where to find:
Praying mantids and /or their egg cases are very difficult to locate by just looking at plants because of their camouflage.
To find adults, look on flowering plants and at porch lights in August through late September.
Adult males will often fly to porch lights in the late fall. Home vegetable and flower gardens that are organic or where no insecticides have been used may be a good place to look.
Ta daaaaaaaaaa! That's exactly where he was. (Flowering plant, porch, Sept....unfortunately, insecticides had been used that morning and professional stuff 2 days prior.)

According to this article on prayingmantis.org:
An interesting praying mantis fact is that they are often the prey of large frogs, monkeys, larger birds, bats and snakes.
Similar sized spiders and giant hornets are also natural enemies.
Even though its not similar sized, this spider MIGHT be one of it's enemies.

One where I first noticed the spider watching him:


Poor thing is Male I've decided since his abdomen is small. Also, his UNDERSIDE is bright ORANGE even though he's not near anything orange. You can see the top wings are brown and his under wings are bright green...but the abdomen is orange. Weird. Pretty, but weird. I should note, it wasn't bright orange the first night I saw him.
Has anyone ever seen an orange "tummy" on these insects or is his orange because he's dying or infected with pesticide or spider venom?

Also on that prayingmantis.org site under fascinating facts are these 3 things:
* In Turkish and Arab cultures, the praying mantis is considered to be pointing to their religious center, Mecca.
* In French culture, the praying mantis can supposedly guide a lost child home.
* In China, roasted praying mantis eggs were eaten to treat bedwetting!

I'm also guessing he's a EUROPEAN MANTIS as compared to the CHINESE one. Coloration looks more European.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_mantis

Man you can learn a lot by researching, eh? Like look at the Mantis eating a HUMMINGBIRD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDxwN...layer_embedded

According to the Wikipedia page for Mantis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#...d_life_history
There is a long-standing American urban legend that killing a praying mantis is illegal and subject to a fine.
If that is/was true. I'm glad I didn't kill it.

But I still feel horrible about leaving it behind for 2 weeks now and not knowing which day it will actually die
and how many more days & nights of misery it will have while I'm gone.

Gads...the spider....

*shudder*

*whimper*

Tia, you're a real sweetheart to worry so much about the mantis. You have a kind heart. I'm the same way. I love all of God's creatures and hate to see suffering. Anyway regarding your situation...

Mantises are voracious predators and regularly eat spiders, wasps and anything they can catch. The spider is likely in far more danger from the mantis than vice versa. It sounds like your mantis was affected by the bug spray that the pest contol guy used. It may not have been enough to kill him outright but has left him mortally wounded. Also, his legs being crushed has hindered his ability to catch food. That could also be a reason why he's dying. Mantises eat quite a bit and since he's unable to catch prey, he will starve.

If you have the nerve, you could put him out of his misery and it would be quick and painless. You could also try and feed him. Not as strange as it sounds. Many people keep mantises as pets. They can get to be quite affectionate and they are great at pest control as they will eat nasty bugs that invade homes. You can try to feed him small bits of meat. Of course, if his front limbs are broken, he won't be able to grasp the meat to eat.

Or you could just let nature take it's course and let the mantis die a natural death. Whatever you do, good luck and fill us in on what happens.

I was doing good until I got to this part of your story.. "I have a rule about squishing anything large enough to make a "wet" mess."

jan-w, I appreciate the insight, but unfortunately, I was running late leaving Indianapolis to start my September tour and did not have time to "put him down". The whole 7.5 hours I was driving to Birmingham, I thought about him and how much longer he will be there like that moving. So unfortunately, it's too late to end his suffering. I won't be home for another 2 weeks.

During my research last night I saw that HORNETS are an enemy of mantises as well as BATS. So maybe he would eat wasps, but I would think if African Hornets are his enemy, perhaps any kind of wasp may be too.

I did read about them making good pets, but it also said they are insatiable and if you don't watch it, you might overfeed it. It said that this one guy fed his pet too much and his stomach/abdomen exploded (probably not so much like a bomb, but perhaps burst).

It's not like I can go grab a cricket or fly that happens to be around. I couldn't find any. I hope then he got to eat that spider, but I suppose I would have seen the remains of the spider nearby. He was not able to move fast enough to catch the spider. He was moving in slow motion all the time...as if he were in instant replay or playing an older Benjamin Button in the local insect community theater.

Fortunately, his front legs were not broken that I could see, but when I left him, and for at least 12 hours, he had been on his backside with his front legs in the praying position. I'm sure he was praying for an early death. I'm just sorry I didn't have the guts to give it to him.

I read that as a pet, you could feed them a cricket every other day (so as not to overfeed them). If we are going by that instruction, he's gone at least 2.5 days without food.

stanmarsh...yeah...sorry about that, but it's true. Most times, I capture insects in my place and set them free. I feel there's good karma to that too.

tigerbeemer...wish I had seen your post before I left town.

The spider doesn't look that big in the picture, but I tell ya, he was (with his legs fully spread), at least a tad larger than a quarter but under a 50 cent piece. The mantis looks semi-small in this photo but he's at least 4-5 inches long I'd say.

Tia the only thing i would have done diffrent from you is I probobly would have moved the mantis to a window ledge or a safer place away from the spider or any poision. Now the way you described that the mantis was acting id say that it either got into the poision or ate a bug that did just losing a leg wouldnt slow the mantis down much like that

Shouldn't this thread be in the Alerts section?

Seriously, it sounds like your best course of action is to sign him up to Eccie, give him a cool handle (OnMyKnees) and starting posting for him. Maybe an ISO ("searching for a realllly small spinner, should have a lot of eyes and be delicious"). Cause if he knows you haven't squished him by now, he's thinking he's pretty safe and ain't going nowhere. Just a thought.

Next time you have to put something out of it's misery and you don't wanna squish it, put it in a jar with a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover, and then put the lid on. Insect gas chamber. Learned that technique in Biology class when we were collecting and preserving insects.

It's refreshing to hear someone has a similar respect for life . The praying mantis is viewed as good luck in animal symbolism, by the way!

The lizard/hairspray thing is going to bother me for the rest of the day, possibly forever LOL

Tia the only thing i would have done diffrent from you is I probobly would have moved the mantis to a window ledge or a safer place away from the spider or any poision. Now the way you described that the mantis was acting id say that it either got into the poision or ate a bug that did just losing a leg wouldnt slow the mantis down much like that Originally Posted by wcdann

I did move him away from harm (like to the side of my apartment) and against the wall....but after thinking about what you said a few days after...I'm beginning to think I should have moved him to a different location as that was where things were "sprayed" with poison and that's probably why he was acting the way he was. Too much poison kept him from escaping. So instead of feeling half good that I may have given him a private personal spot to die , I actually was poisoning him more.

It's been a week now since I left. I hope for goodness sake, that he's gone on to insect heaven by now.

Thanks for all the replies.

Dannie...I'm not sure I would have done that to a bug that wasn't injured, but I'll keep that in mind for ones that are.

Tia, once you get back home, tell us how it turned out. Don't keep us in suspense. I suspect though that like you said, he will have gone to insect heaven.

I want to finish off this thread and say when I returned home, the watering can I hid the Mantis behind was still where I left it but the carcass was nowhere to be found. I asked the neighbor lady who watered my plants if she saw it or touched it. She said no she didn't see a praying mantis near the watering can. I don't know if he was eaten by a stray cat (and I don't mean Brian Setzer here), or if a bird got him or spiders dragged him away. I highly doubt he walked away on his own and I hate to admit it, but I'm glad I didn't see him all shriveled up there or see him there at all. I was kind of relieved. All I can hope is that he's in a better place now.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread.

I'm the kill it whether it was suffering or not type.

Girl - I had a tiny lizard in my bathroom the other night!

I freaked the fuck out! lol

I sprayed it with hair spray and tried to get it to go in the drain of the shower!

Originally Posted by berkleigh

No need to worry. There are plenty of those little gecko's around here, they are totally harmless. They couldn't hurt you if they wanted to. They are nice to have around your home, as they eat bugs and pests that can cause damage, like ants, termites, etc.

I suggest doing the following to get rid of one you find. If indoors, and you have air conditioning, they will be moving pretty slowly, as they are cold blooded. A plastic cup or glass and a sheet of thin cardboard or paper is what you need. Trap them under the cup or glass, and then slide the cardboard under the edge. Go slowly and don't trap their legs or tail. Then take them outside and release them out there to eat the bugs around your home.

Tia,

This may make you feel a bit better...

Most scientists believe that insects do not "feel" the way that you and I feel. Most insects do not have a fully developed brain, but rather a set of ganglia (sp), a collection of neurons that controls motor functioning, and low level reasoning. Most insects do not have nerve receptors in their limbs, so losing a limb would not cause them "pain" as the pain is an impulse in the brain caused by the electical impulse received from the nerve receptors. So... No Nerve, No Brain, No Pain.