Mantises are good to have in a vegetable garden because they prey on insect pests that can destroy your plants. Minerva likes to hang out in the part of our garden where we've planted hot peppers - Calabrese peppers, hot cherry peppers, and lemon peppers.
OK, Myth Killer - There has been some misunderstanding about mantis mating behavior. The popular belief is that the female kills and devours the male after mating, like black widow spiders do. But this is not always the case. Researches have found that this happens only about 30% of the time, so it's kind of a crap shoot for the male. Talk about fear of intimacy issues!
June 24 - Here she is chowing down on some other insect she's snagged.
June 24 - Here she is chowing down on some other insect she's snagged.
July 3 - My morning visit with Minerva. She's getting bigger and becoming comfortable with me and isn't afraid to climb on my hand.
July 5 - Just a pic I took today.
July 10 - Bought three praying mantis egg cases recently. Baby mantises hatched out of one of them this morning. But not without a little drama - a spider was skulking nearby as you can see in the second and third pics and went after the newborns. The baby mantises are too young and small to mount any kind of a spider beat down, so I helped. The spider is now gone.
July 11 - Minerva has remained perfectly still for hours in this upside down position beside a Calabrese pepper. My only thought is that she is lying in wait for an unsuspecting insect by making herself look as much as possible like one of the peppers. Every now and then I go outside and check.
July 12 - So this morning I'm poking around in the garden and find this - the molted exoskeleton of our garden mantis! Looks like Minerva is going through a growth spurt. In order to grow, mantises must molt their skin, their exoskeleton as they get bigger. I knew she wasn't feeling well yesterday, hanging upside down, feeling bloated and head achy. Now I know why... She'll get her appetite back now. This is a photo of the molted exoskeleton of Minerva. Lisa says it looks like she was dancing when she disrobed. A little salsa number...
July 13 - Found this little guy today on the same pepper plant Minerva likes. He's only about 3/4 inch long.
July 15 - This is our cat Cow lounging among our pepper plants and above is Minerva. Thankfully, he didn't even notice her!
July 16 - Pics
July 26 - Minerva eating what looks like a wasp or yellow jacket. Still staying onthe same 2 -3 pepper plants.
July 28 -
August 3 -
Checked the garden this morning and saw that Minerva had gone through her final molting and got her wings -
August 6 - Guarding the cherry peppers
August 8 - Minerva snagged herself a bumble bee who was snooping around looking for nectar on the basil flowers. You can see she has already devoured the head. The bumble bee never knew what happened.
August 17 - Minerva and Zinny
August 22 - Close up in the basil
August 28 - Close up in the cherry peppers
September 4 - Minerva is pregnant! See the enlarged abdomen. We didn't even know she was seeing anyone! Soon she will be looking for a safe secure place to lay her eggs. She will secrete a protective coating around them that will harden to a consistency similar to styrofoam that will protect and insulate the eggs through the winter. Next spring several hundred mantises will hatch out. Only a few will survive to adulthood, most being eaten by birds, other insects, spiders or each other.
September 9 - Haven’t seen Minerva since last Thursday. Searched all over the usual plants and areas of the garden where she can always be found. No sign of her. My guess is that she found a place to build an egg case for her future mantises. I think female mantises die after they lay their eggs so there is probably not much chance of seeing her again. But I will look for the egg case. It’s somewhere out there. This has been quite an interesting and fun saga watching her life cycle from baby to adult to “mother”. We’ve had a lot of fun ascribing human qualities to her. I’m glad I had photos all along the way documenting her life.
September 12 - Whoah, look who's back! Lisa spotted Minerva this morning back in her favorite haunt - the peppers, after 9 days away, having slimmed down after her "pregnancy". I didn't know mantises could lay more than one egg case a season, but they can, sometimes 3 - 4, as I found out this morning after checking a number sources. Maybe more "litters" ahead.
September 21 These are the last photos of Minerva. have not seen her since this day
Love this Blog...I to had an outdoor Mantis Pet.
ReplyDeleteI have a Minerva too! I named her that cuz I used to have a Manny. Then I googled Minerva Mantis hoping to find a googlewhack & found this blog instead! Thanks for the story & all the beautiful pictures. I wish I could send you a pic of my Minerva I think she is pregnant too!
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ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story about Minerva! Having a resident praying mantis in the garden is such a treat, and watching their patient hunting technique and head-turning curiosity never gets old. When streaming high-bitrate 4K macro nature videos or backyard wildlife vlogs on mobile devices, unexpected video buffering can ruin those fine close-up details. Upgrading your playback setup with the xuper tv online helps keep video streams playing smoothly without random app crashes. Thanks for sharing this charming summer journal entry!
ReplyDeleteSpot-on feature on Minerva the mantis! Mantises truly act as the ultimate natural pest control team while adding so much personality to tomato plants and flower beds. Tracking down high-definition entomology breakdown streams, live macro photography walkthroughs, or nature documentary feeds online can get frustrating when dealing with unorganized directories and broken links. Utilizing structured options like the ixuper tv live stream directory makes discovering organized video content and live media so much easier for gardening fans. Great write-up!
ReplyDeleteSolid garden write-up! It's incredible how attached we can get to small garden critters over a single summer season, especially with an insect as expressive as a praying mantis. When streaming high-definition gardening guides or live macro photography tutorials onto larger laptop displays or secondary screens while working, maintaining correct aspect ratios is key. Setting up a reliable media environment via xuper tv for android official platform ensures the video player UI scales accurately across different display sizes without formatting glitches. Looking forward to your next garden post!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed reading about your summer with Minerva! Their incredible camouflage skills and deliberate movements make praying mantises one of the most fascinating beneficial insects to observe up close. Whether rewatching classic nature documentaries or tuning into live broadcast channels on the go, having a solid aggregated connection via xuper tv app gives viewers a clean feed during peak hours without sudden buffering drops. Thank you for posting these wonderful garden insights!
ReplyDeletePraying mantises are such unusual-looking insects that they can easily become the highlight of a garden observation. I like the idea of keeping a journal about one because their behavior can change noticeably as they grow and interact with their surroundings. Garden wildlife often goes unnoticed when we are busy with everyday routines, so posts like this encourage people to slow down and pay attention. It is always interesting to see how much life can be found in an ordinary garden when you actually take the time to look. Eespacio APK Games App
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely example of how an ordinary garden can provide plenty of interesting things to observe. Praying mantises have such distinctive movements and appearance that following one over time must be quite an experience. I especially like journal-style nature posts because they preserve small observations rather than only presenting a single moment. They also remind readers that wildlife does not always require a trip to a distant place; sometimes the most interesting encounters are happening right outside the house. Bus Simulator Indonesia
ReplyDeleteA praying mantis is definitely one of those garden visitors that makes you stop and take a closer look. Their appearance alone is fascinating, but watching their movements and behavior can be even more interesting. I appreciate the effort involved in documenting these encounters because small wildlife observations can teach us to be more aware of the natural world around us. A garden journal like this also gives readers a chance to experience the observation through someone else’s eyes. It was a pleasant nature-focused read. Magis TV
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