Praying Mantis the Pest Police:

Organic gardeners who avoid pesticides may encourage

mantises as a form of biological pest control. During fall

in temperate regions, mantis females typically deposit a

cacoon on the underside of a leaf or on a twig, and in some

species these are harvested commercially. If the egg case

survives winter, the offspring, called nymphs, emerge in

late spring or early summer. The nymphs have voracious

appetites and typically cannibalize each other if they

cannot find an adequate supply of aphids and other small

insects. Tens of thousands of mantis egg cases are sold each

year in some garden stores for this purpose. However,

mantises prey on neutral and beneficial insects as well,

basically eating anything they can successfully capture and

devour.

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