a new friend
I found a new friend in my garden last night clinging to my beans. I'm must say I am happy to see her. I had been attempting to grow some komatsuna, but had all but given up on them after the caterpillars took over.
I know preying mantis like to eat moths, but will she also like the aphids I saw on my spinach the other day? (Luckily, the caterpillars don't seem to like spinach).
She seems quite pregnant, so I'm hopping to be around at the moment the eggs hatch so I can get some shots of the little baby preying manti.
One thing I won't be doing however, is inviting the babies into my apartment (as I did the mother last night) in order to get better photos. I'd hate to have one of them get loose and decide that Awii or Klee might make a good meal.
UPDATE:
I found some good news and bad news here. The good news is that the baby mantids will eat my aphids. The bad news is that they wont actually hatch until next spring.
Comments
in the U.S. you can buy mantis egg sacs at gardening stores. i have bought about 4 of them but i never have seen them "hatch" and i have never seen a praying mantis in my yard. you can buy ladybugs too, they will eat the aphids as well. Do they have gardening stores in Japan?
Posted by: john | October 27, 2005 07:35 AM
I have never seen the eggs in the srote, but then I have never looked either. I guess I am just lucky to have her choose my "garden" -actually, it is just a couple of old boxes with dirt totally about 4 square feet.
Posted by: bastish | October 28, 2005 03:14 AM