The Praying Mantis Emerge

Some time back I blogged about our praying mantis egg case. I promised to update when they hatched. Well, I am keeping my promise, albeit a few weeks after the fact. They made their debut on Easter morning. While others were enjoying baby bunnies and chicks, we were watching a gaggle of mantis nymphs! When we woke Easter morning the case looked the same as usual. No change. I made breakfast and we had our egg hunt. Then the kids spent some time looking through their Easter basket goodies. Around 10 am I walked into the kitchen and noticed that the mantis had begun to emerge. I called the boys in and we spent the next 30 minutes in awe, watching them. They made their way out of the case in small bunches and then each one droped down on a silken thread and hung for a bit while it's exoskeleton dries. It is unbelievable how many came out of that egg case! I would estimate that there was around 150 nymphs. Within a few hours they were hunting the small fruit flies that we had provided. Have you ever watched a cat just as it prepares to pounce? They wiggle their hind quarters back and forth and then spring! Well, the mantis nymphs do the exact same thing! TOO Cute! Within a few days they had pretty much exhausted my supply of fruit flies and since I had been unable to find pinhead size crickets at any of the local pet stores, they turned to eating each other. Blech! All the information we had about mantis' said that this is in fact normal and that about 12 out of every 100 nymphs will actually make it to adulthood, most having been eaten by their siblings. I am happy to report that I have since obtained pinhead crickets and the 30 or so nymphs that are left are enjoying cricket snacks all day long. If My Honey knew how much money I was spending on crickets to feed the mantis he would just about kill me. I must admit that it is unbelievable and a bit hard to swallow that I am now shelling out more money per month to buy crickets than I pay my pest control company per month to kill them. :0 But it's all good! This has been so fascinating, and it is worth it for the boys to experience the many amazing creatures God gave us. What an imagination He must have!
I have included a few pics for you to check out. Enjoy.
This first picture is of the mantis cage during the emergence. You can see how many are already around the walls of the cage. The two vials on the floor of the cage are the fruit fly larva and food. There is also a jar lid with some brown banana to feed the fruit flies. You can also see the egg case still hanging from the branch

 

This second one is just another view of the little nymphs as they begin to wander about the cage. They are fast little buggers. Everytime I open the cage to put in water or food or anything, 4-5 escape. Little Man has become adept at rounding them back up for me and helping me get them all safe back inside.

 

This last photo is a close up of one nymph on my finger. It gives you a pretty good idea of how small they were. They have since grown to twice their birth size. Although they were really tiny, they seemed huge when compared to how small the egg case was and how many came out of it.

 

A few days after all the nymphs emerged, we removed the egg case and cut it open. The inside is structured like a honeycomb, with many, many, many, little compartments. There was not a single nymph still inside. I still do not know HOW they all fit. It really was amazing.