I haven't seen one of these creatures in many years and was pleasantly surprised to see one on our screen door last Saturday morning.

It was a preying mantis, about 5-6 inches long.
It was a cool morning and I fisgured that when it warmed up enough it would move on. I couldn't find any bugs to feed it, so I gave it a worm to eat.
It hung around all day, and I was able to rustle up a couple of grasshoppers for it to munch on.
Fed it again on Sunday, and was going to again on Monday, but it had moved on.
The best/unusual part was that it didn't move far from our back door screen door the whole weekend.

I would love to have them make our yard part of their hunting ground, but with the number of birds and bird species we get, they would probably get eaten by one of them.

Anyway, it was cool to see one up close and personal!

I haven't seen one in years FT, either. We used to find their hard cocoons in the woods bring them home and hatch them in a bottle.
Funny how they like to hang around screen doors and screened porches.
They are really cool bugs.

I have seen a few this year. Interesting creatures. A number of years back I had a novel idea and thought it would be a good to buy a mantis coocoon online to take care of the Japanese Beetle infestation we had had the previous year and be a good learning experience for the kids. It came in a small box packed in styrofoam peanuts, with directions about storing it and when to take it outside. I had it in a seldom opened cabinet in the kitchen. About a week after I was supposed to have taken it outside and tied it to a branch I remembered. They were just starting to hatch and come out of the box (50 to 100 of them), all over the cabinet. I think I got most out safely onto shrubs and the garden. A month later very few were still around. I'm glad I'm not a praying mantis, because after the mating ritual the female bites the head off the male.

been a long time since i've seen one too... cool find .. alot more dragon flies this year... love those mosquito eating helicopters!

Think of how many you would have seen without mosquito spraying. I swear that stuff kills more than Mosquitos.
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I had 2 in my yard in the last week.
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I have seen a bunch this year. I freed one from a web in my garage last night. Not sure if he was the prey or not but he wasn't going anywhere without help
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Found one a year ago on the hood of a truck at work.

57057

Haven't seen them in years but this year my son and I have seen many. 9At least 10) A friend had one close to 8" on his shed. They are very cool.