COLLECTING MANTIS CASTINGS

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RELOCATE WITH CARE

When you discover one of the little nests, cut the twig or branch to which it's attached, leaving about three inches below the casting and one inch above. This stick handle can later be inserted in the ground or into a crack in a fencepost, or be tied to another twig. Be careful not to damage the egg mass when you cut it free ... and be sure it doesn't get crushed when you transport it to its new home.

To use your finds to best advantage, you'll want to position the castings near your garden. Roy pokes the sticks into the earth ... Darrell ties or tapes the eggholders to posts or branches at a height of about two feet above the ground. Either way, you should choose a place where there's some sort of cover nearby — such as leaves, straw, periwinkle, cornstalks, or other plant material — that the young bugs can hide in when they hatch. Otherwise, wild birds, chickens, and grown-up predatory insects are likely to find infant mantises delicious ... and you could lose most of your "litter" if you haven't afforded the newborns some protection.

The actual hatching date will vary from one location to another ... and even from one season to the next in a given place. In the southeastern United States, it will be early in April ... if the weather's warm.

In fact, because warmth triggers the process, you should never bring the castings indoors ... unless you want your home full of mantis babies with little to eat except each other! A greenhouse, however, can be a fine place to keep the egg cases, at least according to Darrell Dennis: He claims the little predators will emerge some two or three weeks before their relatives in the wild. After spending that "head start" time filling up on hothouse bugs, they'll be larger than their later-hatching country cousins (and have correspondingly larger appetites) when it's time to put them outside.

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