One day while watching tiny squash bugs crawling all over a squash leaf in our organic vegetable garden I thought how nice it would be to have a little army of praying mantises gobbling up all those nasty little bugs! Every time I saw a suspicious looking bug getting up close and personal with one of my veggies...a praying mantis came to mind...really more of a wish than a prayer.
A few days later while dragging the water hose past the vegetable garden to a backyard flower bed...a praying mantis jumped on my shoulder. It startled me so...I swatted it to the ground. As he fell to the grass I realized that I had just tried to get rid of the very thing I desperately wanted...a praying mantis!
I bent down and looked at the grass and there he was...a baby mantis. I picked him up gently and carried him to the garden and sat him on a squash plant and told him he could eat all the bugs he could find.
The next afternoon while weeding the labyrinth...I raised my head and found myself face to face with another praying mantis...this one bigger and more mature than the first one. I cupped my hands around him and gave him a free ride to one of the tomato plants.
A few days ago, Chuck notice a praying mantis sitting near a lavender plant by the driveway. He was the biggest one yet! I picked him up with my hands together. He stuck his head out to look at me but didn't make any attempt to get away.
When I got to the garden, I put him on the trionfo violetto beans growing up a big teepee. He sat there a few seconds just looking at me...sort of that "look of love" Pretty Kitty gives me. Then he jumped back toward me and I caught him in mid air on my hand. He turned his face up toward mine and just looked me in the eyes...I had the strange feeling that he liked me. And I knew I liked him!
We did the routine two more times...me putting him on the beans and him jumping on my hand...and then on my shoulder...each time making eye contact. Finally, I carried him to the cucumber vines and sat him down on the ground. He stayed this time, but he seem to watch as I walked away. I sure hope he enjoyed a delicious bug buffet!
Really cute!!! My kids love praying mantises..
Posted by: Christy | July 16, 2009 at 08:59 PM
There was something about that last one that reminded me a little of ET. I wish Ellie, Emma and Cara could have seen him!
Posted by: Debbie Warnock | July 16, 2009 at 09:53 PM