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My praying mantis are huge - a good five inches or more. A praying mantis, as big as Godzilla, fly into my house last fall. According to the Wikipedia, they can reach lengths of 20 cm or about 8 inches.
"The Praying Mantis is a large insect from the order of Mantodea. It's called the "Praying" Mantis because it often stands in a pose that looks like it is praying. There are different types of Praying Mantises. They are often named after different areas of the world (like the Carolina Mantis, the European Mantis, and the Chinese Mantis), but many can be found all over the world.
How Big is a Praying Mantis?
These species will vary in size. For example the Carolina Mantis will grow to about 2 inches long, while the Chinese Praying Mantis can grow over 5 inches long."
There was one sitting on my faucet. It scared the crap out of me when I went to turn it on. I stuck my finger out and it climbed onto my arm. This was late in October and I thought it would be fun for the kids at the Halloween party. I had it in a big fish tank and there was lots of screams when I fed it crickets for the kids.
I found another one in the fall and brought it in. It lived on my kitchen curtain and in the plant I had there in the window. You could pick it up anytime. I always marveled at how it could hold one cricket and eat another.
When it stopped eating the shorties and I took it to the woods in the park where the Indian spirits lived to offer it as a gift. (You have to tell them stories with morals and respect )
They're pretty amazing bugs but I don't think you need to save them. Nature has a way of working that out.
When I was in my teens, me and a friend of mine were walking around in a wooded area and found a mantis that was trying to get out of a puddle. We got it out and it seemed kind of limpy so we brought it home and set up a 'mantis habitat' in a large aquarium with tree branches and houseplants. After a meal of a couple of crickets and an overnight rest, the mantis had perked up and was sitting on top of the coffeemaker preening itself the next morning as if nothing had happened to it.
I held my hand out and the mantis crawled right into it and we released it into my friend's mother's garden where she was having trouble with pesky beetles eating her flowers. She saw the mantis pretty regularly, often chomping down on the pesky beetles. We finally figured out "it" was a "she" when next spring came and there was a hatching of a bunch of mantises in the garden.
Thanks for all the replies it is great to hear all the stories. Had a storm nearby last night and it got a little windy and he did OK. I put a bunch of dried bermuda grass around the plant, it is very fluffy and sits several inches high so he might survive if he gets blown onto it. He is about 3 to 4 inches long and growing. I will update in a week or two.
You're so kind to think of the creature. I had one that I thought was dying, so I kept him as a pet for two weeks. I turned him loose when he did better and missed him horribly.
I read an article about them haning around hummingbird feeder and killing hummingbirds.
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