Feeding and Caring for the Praying Mantis: Aliens as Pets

Just a few clicks of the mouse brought the most wonderful package to our home last March. Upon opening the package - we discovered exactly what we had been anticipating - our praying mantis egg case had safely arrived. 

What did this contraption look like? Well, I can only describe it as a cross between spray foam insulation and something from the movie Alien. It was about three inches in length and two inches high. Tan in color, and its shape was an asymmetrical oval with interesting valleys and crevices about its surface. Silently enclosed in the strange pod were the miraculous heartbeats of infantile mantises. 

One day, as I was washing the dishes, I spied an almost undetectable movement from within the container holding the mantis egg case. As I walked over to the container, I laid my eyes upon the most glorious sight. Hundreds of little mantises were crawling about the container, newly emerging from the case to catch a glimpse of the outside world. Their bodies were minuscule in size, measuring less than a 1/4 of an inch a piece. The majority of the insects were safely hatched - others lost in the fight for freedom. My children marveled as we watched God's incredible creation spring into life. 

After watching the hatchlings for a few hours, we decided to let most of them go - keeping only ten to rear. We placed the container sideways on the ground outside and observed as they wandered off into the landscaping of our home. Praying mantises have proven to be a natural insecticide for gardens and crops - being a major consumer of aphids and other produce-harming pests. The Website in which we had ordered the insects sold them for this purpose. 

The ten remaining mantises were then placed in a small aquarium with branches and leaves for camouflage and places to rest. Their home was sprayed daily with a misting of spring water on the walls of the aquarium which the mantises lapped up like kittens to milk.