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New Roses, Compost and Grasshoppers Epazote, Gotu Kola and St. John's Wort Central Texas Fall Planting Guide Gardening for Birds and Butterflies How to grow Apples in Central Texas Problems growing Tomatoes in hot weather Herbs and Late Spring Gardening Tips
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The Praying Mantis Over 1700 Praying Mantis species are distributed worldwide and depend on camouflage for protection. The Carolina Mantis is the most common in America, but the European and the Chinese Mantis were introduced about 75 years ago for pest control. Some species in Africa and Asia look so much like flowers that insects land on them to get nectar. In some cultures they are considered holy. According to folklore, if you are lost, you should go in the direction the Mantis is facing to get home. Others believe that they always "pray" facing Mecca. Because the Mantis sways from side to side when it hunts to mimic plants in the breeze, African legend has it that the gods cursed the mantis so he would feel dizzy whenever he walks. Dizzy or not, this formidable hunter grabs insects in its strong, cruelly spiked forelegs and paralyzes them by biting them in the neck. They eat beetles, wasps, bees, cockroaches, caterpillars and sometimes each other. After mating once, the female will usually devour the male so she can fatten up for her egg-laying duties. She will lay 30-300 eggs in a frothy egg sac called an ootheca in late fall that hardens to protect the eggs from cool weather. She may make up to six oothecae in a season. The oothecae are easy to identify because they are usually secreted on a woody type shrub, have a seam down the middle and are rock hard like papier-maché. To me they look like a mummified puss caterpillar, a soft hairy insect larva with a powerful sting so don't get them confused. If you are clearing and find an ootheca, place it in a safe, protected place in the garden where the babies can have lots of hiding places. In the spring, usually late March or April, the eggs hatch and the babies hang by a thread until their skin hardens off. Since the first thing the hatchlings hunt is their sibling, they usually disperse quickly throughout the garden. Although birds love to eat the Mantis, the biggest enemy of the Mantis is the bat. Therefore, nature has provided some species with hollow tubes in their bodies that can detect the high frequency sounds that bats make while hunting.
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In addition to the gigantic and destructive grasshoppers that you are seeing in your gardens right now, or will be soon, there are some beneficial insects that lay eggs in the fall like the grasshopper's cousin, the grand and majestic Praying Mantis. This large cannibalistic insect is also known as the mule killer, or devil's coach horse. The name "mantis" comes from the Greek word for "prophet" or "soothsayer." It stalks insects in the garden with its triangular head held high and it's forelegs folded in a "praying fashion." The pea-green or brown Mantis is the only insect that can turn its head from side to side in a 180-degree angle. 
