Today I took the praying mantis egg cases out of the fridge so I could set them on their journey to hatching. The photo below shows the three pods in a paper bag.
The dark string like objects coming out of the pods are thin wire that was threaded through the pods for easy attachment to a limb. Pods should be attached to a limb in a protected area and between 1 or 2 feet off of the ground.
Each pod can contain between 50 and 400 praying mantis. That means I could have anywhere between 150 to 1200 praying mantis' eating bugs in my yard. I hope this means that my roses will be aphid free this summer. Praying mantis' are carnivores with a big appetite.
The cost for the three pods was around 15 bucks. Which is both safer and less expensive that buying a commercial rose bug killer product. We are trying very hard not to use any pesticides or Round Up in and around the house.
But sometimes we have found it impossible and we must use a pesticide or Round Up. When we do use pesticides it is with a light touch and confined to just the affected area. We found a carpenter ant infestation in the rotted wood of the garden shed during it's remodel. After spraying the area we waited one day to make sure the ants were dead before we removed the rotted wood. I swept up the dead ants and burned both the rotted wood and dead ants. That was three years ago and we haven't seen another ant.
Hatching may take up to 8 weeks of warm weather before we will see anything. I will make sure to check every couple of days to see it anything has happened. But I don't expect anything right away because the weather has dipped back down into the 40's.
There is still time to get some praying mantis egg cases for your yard. You can find sellers and stores that sell egg cases (pods) on eBay.
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