I totally believe there are aliens among us. She’s a big one! Hubby’s hand for reference.
Unusual that she’s hiding, they mostly watch my every move intently. 😳🫣👽 #ISeeAliens
@thereg001 and they watch you!! They feel like little spies from outer space. 😄
@NorCalCherylLyn
Yes they do! I’ll slowly stick out my hand to get them to walk into my said hand. Usually to move them to a safer spot.
@NorCalCherylLyn I remember learning as a child that the male praying mantis has the equivalent of a basic brain in his private parts just in case his girlfriend wants to bite his head off before he's finished having sex. Next time people talk about men having a brain in their dicks, there's one species where this is sort of correct. 🤣 They are cute though, like many bugs. 💗
@Cynanthrope they mostly just freak me out. Had many, many, of them over the years on a plant underneath my porch light. They loved the access to food there.
The way they watch you…head turning any way you do make them seem much more intelligent that most bugs.
And I found out the eat the cute little tree frogs, turn them into dried up frog chips. 😢 I have a photo somewhere of a huge female with 4-5 headless male corpses clinging to her. 😱
@NorCalCherylLyn if you still have that picture, my morbid curiosity would like to see this! 😁 They aren't found in the UK to my knowledge, so I have never found any in the garden. I'd be worried about the poor thing if I did, as someone has probably lost a pet.
@NorCalCherylLyn not surprised that they eat tree frogs. Praying mantises are pretty ruthless hunters and eat each other if need be, even if they are not mating. If they can catch it, they will eat it. I'm glad that they're not human sized given their nature - that would be horrific and they would cease to be cute bugs. For true nightmare fuel, look up the parasitic hookworms that they get. I don't know how they even fit in the host!
@Cynanthrope they get worms?!? I’ll look them up when I calm down from the idea. 🫣😄
@NorCalCherylLyn I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I know they will hunt caterpillars. They don't seem to be fussy from what I know of them.
@Cynanthrope they seem to eat whatever gets close enough to them.
@Cynanthrope if I can find it I will share it. They are fascinating creepies!
@NorCalCherylLyn that's about the size of one I rescued from a road while waiting for a pilot car one summer evening near Elgin, Oregon.
@joycereynoldsward 👍🏻👍🏻
They freak me out but I move them from harms way too.
@NorCalCherylLyn One of my absolute favourite insects. They look at me with an intelligent, jaundiced eye—not unlike all reptiles (a Class which I highly venerate).
@Shamanator they for sure do! My old house had both in numbers at my front door! It was life in all its stages underneath the porch light! Decades of generations lived there. #bugs #lizards
Couldn’t find the corpse photo but you can see why she bites their heads off in this one.
@NorCalCherylLyn
I LOVE mantis'! True if you look at their heads, they are shaped and look sooo much like that alien emoji.