“From whence arrived the praying mantis?
From outer space, or lost Atlantis?
glimpse the grin, green metal mug
at masks the pseudo-saintly bug,
Orthopterous, also carnivorous,
And faintly whisper, Lord deliver us.”
–Ogden Nash
The Chinese Praying Mantis (Tenodera sinensis) comes out of her clever hiding
place and perches on a branch. She is looking for a secure and warm spot to lay
her eggs. Access to food is a must. As they hatch, they are ready to hunt flies, aphids, mites and other invertebrates. The egg mass she excretes is called an Ootheca, and contains up to 400 tiny mantis’. Quick and agile, they have entire schools of kung fu martial arts devoted to the swift ways they move– always ready to strike. They evoke a stillness and remain centered before action. In the garden, they are big help in controlling pests that feed off of your plants. Some even refer to them as a ‘poster child of beneficial insects’.
One spring evening here at Garden Ponds Nursery in Kilauea, we were strolling in
the garden. We came a across a curious sight: a mother mantis laying her Ootheca on a branch in the center of the nursery. Perplexed as to what she was doing, we watched, mesmerized by her methodical movements, excreting a foamy substance into a small oval casing attached to a branch. See the video of our discovery here.
Upon researching, we discovered that we had a wonderful opportunity to raise
the mantis hatchlings in our butterfly house. We decided to bring the entire
branch that the Ootheca was attached to into the screened-in butterfly house for observation. This was on March 24 and lo and behold on Mother’s Day (May 9, 2021) – 53 days later – our baby mantis’ hatched – about 200 of them! Even though the mother mantis would have died shortly after depositing her eggs, her legacy lives on! We watched the mantis’ hop and jump around the habitat and even sent some home to our clients as pets! They lived in our habitat for a few days but eventually found a small crack above the door and escaped, being the inquisitive little hunters that they are. We hope to see them in the nursery this season and continue our pursuit of raising them.
We were so inspired by these delightful little creatures that we decided to hold a contest! We want you to create a habitat that can be used to raise a baby Mantis.
The chosen habitat will need to be at least 3 times the length of the mantis, have good airflow and have moisture available. You can learn more about mantis habitat requirements here.
The chosen habitat will be shown in the Garden Island Newspaper and we will work with you to recreate the design and sell it at Garden Ponds as a habitat for others to enjoy. We will gift the winner with a $100 gift certificate to spend at Garden Ponds. We will be accepting submissions until August 18, 2021.
We are open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Give us a call at
808-828-6400 for all of your water gardening questions or contest inquiries.
We are located in Kilauea next to Kauai Mini Golf
