Tag: praying mantis

Categories
Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Garden friends spotted in my garden

I love walking through my garden, but when I stop and bend down, I see so much more! I have so many active friends that work and play in my garden. Let me introduce some of them to you.

My sunbirds are back and enjoying the Pineapple Sage bush – they frequent this bush, so my next photograph shoot will hopefully catch the splendid male.

Lots of Praying Mantis, I am happy to say.

This is an unusually looking one!

My bees are always welcome – we need to be kind to the bees!

My favourite of all – the chameleon!! Fat and happy – I think she is pregnant! What do you think?

This sign keeps reminding me of my best friend who shares my garden with me and cares when I least feel like it and always gives me an encouraging word. AND the happy trips to the nursery – thanks my buddy!

Happy Gardening xxxx

Categories
Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Bug-a-boo Zoo

I have had such weird and wonderful bugs coming into my garden lately that I had to do a special post on all the bugs I have met so far. Every time I step onto my back deck, I have to run and get my camera. It is as if they wait for me and pose. Thanks to a lot of our friends, we were able to identify all of them. Here are a few of them, from the most recent visitors ……

A cheeky grasshopper is sitting in one of my sunflowers and chomping away on the petals – yum!

[one_half]Not a bug, but a common visitor and friend[/one_half]

[one_half_last]This female hopper is hanging by 2 claws[/one_half_last]

Voracious fruit beetles all clambering for a taste of the sticky, yummy figs! The annoying Starlings wake us up in the mornings with their squealing as they tear open the figs. They eat some but they just destroy a whole lot of them. These broken figs are what the fruit beetles are devouring!

[one_half]Remember this little guy? Longicorn beetle[/one_half]

[one_half_last]And this strange beauty? The Devil Horse Mantis[/one_half_last]

[one_half]This Rhinoceros beetle I found in the manure, remember?[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Some kind of horned caterpillar…. forget the name![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Colourful little beetle, isn’t he? A Harlequin bug[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Another Harlequin Bug[/one_half_last]

[one_half]En masse the locust can destroy, but this one is ok on his own[/one_half]

[one_half_last]This Haarskeeder is the ugliest insect of the bunch![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Remember this mommy Praying Mantis who left her basket of children at my front door?[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Ladybugs are always welcome in my garden!![/one_half_last]

Well, I hope you enjoyed visiting my Bug-a-boo Zoo. I will keep you updated with any new additions.

Happy gardening xxxxx

Categories
Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Praying Mantis babies have hatched

Can you remember the post I did on the Praying Mantis laying her egg sac? Well, I nearly stepped on the new-born mantis babies today!! I have taken these close up shots of the egg sac (see how the marauder insects are tackling it!) and the baby manti-do’s! So cute! I could not tell how many have hatched but there were quite a few scurrying around!

[one_half]Hi, I’m Daryll….[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Here’s my other brother Daryll![/one_half_last]

They are literally the size of two ants – thats all. They actually look like ants if you are not careful. Here (above) this one’s on my thumb.

“Run, Forest, run!”…..  Shame – he was in a great hurry to get outside! I don’t blame him. The other insects (the ants are the most vicious!) were grabbing hold of the babies. Spiders ready with webs, I tell you! I had a major rescuing mission set out for these little guys – he was the cutest!

Here you can see the individual egg pouches broken open and inside the foamy bread-looking sac there are compartments. Very clever of nature to design this “incubator”. It was foamy when mommy-mantis laid the eggs and is as hard as stale bread now! It is still cemented to the floor (argh! Don’t look at the dust on the tiled floor!) Great design! It was 1 month to the day (6th of December when she laid the egg sac!)

Well I hope you enjoyed the photos and I’ll keep you posted on them if I catch them in my roses!

Happy Gardening xxxxx

PS: Please join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter – we’ll be so happy if you do!

Categories
Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Mantis mommy laying eggs

It was by pure chance I saw this praying mantis mommy laying her eggs in our front doorway! I was on my way out to water the garden and I glanced down. Gee! I nearly stepped on her. She looked up at me and must have called out – “Watch out!” Had I not been mindful, I would have not gone down on my knees to take a closer look.

What a magic sight! Have you ever seen this before? Its like a foamy sponge that goes hard. The eggs must be inside!

I remember when we first moved to this house, we had a praying mantis and watched her laying her egg sac on a pot plant. My hubby fed her flies and she ate until she nearly popped! We monitored the egg sac and then one day, out popped baby mantises! WOW! What a sight to behold! I’ll have to keep you posted on this hatch!

Today is day one … and counting!

 

Categories
Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Praying Mantis in my garden

Praying Mantis

[one_half]Praying MantisPraying Mantis[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Praying MantisPraying Mantis[/one_half_last]

So I don’t only have nasty aphids, ants and cutworm in my garden, today I was ecstatic to find a baby Praying Mantis! Happy Days! What these photos do prove though is that I desperately need a Macro Lens for for the Canon EOS 550D I am using.

I found this little guy whilst watering and loving my Gardenias early this evening (hence the darkness of the photographs). My Gardenias are looking about 100% better than they did last week which I attribute to the spraying with Epsom Salts and coffee grounds fertilising I did last Sunday. Its pretty amazing how well they have responded to the extra TLC. I’ve wondered for a while why this particular bed is virtually pest-free. I’ve never seen an aphid on any of the plants in this bed … could it be the Praying Mantises? This one is a baby, he is tiny, but if there is a baby there must be a Mom somewhere … and maybe a few brothers and sisters?

Praying mantises eat insects and other invertebrates such as other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, grasshoppers and even spiders. If they could leave the spiders and butterflies, that would be nice, but I welcome this little family to my garden.