Nature!

This morning, while drinking my coffee, I decided to check on the mantid egg case that’s been hanging out in our solarium for a few weeks.

And this morning I discovered a whole helluva’ lot of mantids inside the white paper bag.

I started yelling, “WE HAVE MANTIDS! WE HAVE MANTIDS!” and the kids came running, followed closely by Coffee.

We took the bag outside and released them – hundreds of little mantids crawling around the bag, our hands, the lawn, the garden.. It was SO COOL.

There were a few casualties, of course, but the majority survived.

I had planned to let Jenn know to come over (pictures!) but the mantids had already grown from tiny white specks to 5mm lengths – a sign that they’d been patiently WAITING to be released.

I didn’t even get my OWN camera out! GAH!

But with any luck, we’ll be running across mantids in our yard for the next while. Happy little natural pest controllers that they are.. Wheeee! They apparently breed quite quickly and efficiently.

Talk about a great way to start the day..