My dear friend, Dawn, called us up one day asking if we’d like a mantis egg sack. They had them at their local garden centre. Sounded like fun. As it turned out, the egg sacks we pretty pricy so we decided to split on one. As Dawn and her kids had already experienced the mantis eggs hatching, they opted for us to care for the egg sack and then take some of the wee little hunters home with them once they hatched.

The night before last, as I was getting ready to turn in, I thought I’d check on the egg sack. I almost dropped the jar they were in! I wasn’t prepared to see so many tiny mantids crawling around!  They lasted the night in their little new world until we were able to release them. Dawn came over with the kids and we let some of the mantids free in our yard and left some in the jar for them to take home.

Before we released the praying mantis babies L went to check on the ant larvae. Wow! Those ants sure were busy! Sorry this video is vertical – I don’t know what’s wrong with me! I went back later to check on the larvae and they were all moved underground. Guess overturning a rock will make ants move their babies in no time!

We totally geeked out on taking photos with this new macro lens that Dawn had found online. It’s super awesome for a smart phone. Stephen laughed saying we were taking photos for about 45 minutes and the kids had already lost interest and gone on to do other things together. What can I say, we like taking pics!

I wasn’t sure if these little hunters would find any food but I was amazed at their prowess! An aphid and an ant!

I managed to get a video of each: (sorry for the vertical one again!)

Along the way I happened upon one of many ladybug larvae that we have happily found in our yard.

I caught this ladybug larvae eating an aphid about a week ago. Man, aphids have it tough!

Why do I always take videos vertically? Haha!

If you want to learn more about the praying mantis visit Dawn and Annie’s awesome blog Mud Puddles to Meteors! You’ll find a ton of cool info about nature and a ton of pics (surprised?)! 😉