Nature

September 28: Nature happened on my doorstep today. This little lady dropped her egg sack on my door frame. Thought it'd be a good place, I guess. I watched some of the process as I came back in from hanging laundry out to dry. Interesting to watch the contractions in her abdomen.

I have read so much about praying mantises in these two weeks! Mantids mate in the fall when the weather starts to cool off. The egg sack is called an ootheca. The mother, when laying her eggs, produces a foam to coat them. The foam then hardens, and the female takes off. Some species stick around to protect the ootheca from such predators as wasps and grasshoppers, but I didn't get that kind. She's either a Praying Mantis, or a Carolina Mantis. Those are the two species that we have here in Kansas. I'm really not sure when to expect the eggs to hatch. Some sites said 4-8 weeks, depending on the temperature; others said hatching occurs in spring. Perhaps the difference in information is regarding whether the hatching is occurring in nature, or captivity. Either way, I've been keeping my door latched shut to try to prevent a household takeover. Oh, and about the said wasp and grasshopper predators--no joke! They have been all over! The wasps hang out on my porch, while the grasshoppers have filled my yard and we constantly see pairs of them mating. Someone is gearing up for a feast!