mantis eats hornets & wasps
Laurel Godley
godley at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 29 13:28:53 EST 1998
I discovered quite by accident that mantis will readily catch and eat
yellowjackets. My friend received an adult female as a gift. She was
quite entertaining, a lovely pet really. We were want to eat dinner on
the patio that summer along with it's myriad of guests. I for one am
generally tolerant of our uninvited winged guests, after all they don't
eat much. It just so happened that Leafy, the mantis, had joined us for
dinner one evening. She seemed quite delighted for the change in diet
and eagerly relished the inbound. She happily sat atop the mound of
ribs and picked them off as they flew by. Quite entertaining really. I
would recommend this method for anyone desiring a nice quiet picnic.
endnotes:
1) Bear in mind that mantis are rather indiscriminate. They will eat
your leps too!
2) Mantis will NOT eat squash bugs, or if I may extrapolate, members of
the bug family. This was quite disappointing really but after several
bites Leafy just stopped. She looked rather ill for a day or so and
refused any future attempts on my part to feed her either the black/red
or the green type munching my zucchini
3) I did try a similar experiment the following summer with a younger
mantis and a hornet. This didn't work. The mantis looked none to
healthy to begin with and later perished. The hornet alas is one the
lose, last seen in Carson City.
4) On a finally and happy note, Leafy, the original mantis, after
ingesting several weeks worth of yellow jackets went on to become the
mother of several nice eggs sacs and innumerable young.
best wishes... Laurel
>
>I have both Yellowjackets AND Bald-faced Hornets going after my moths
in the
>summer. While they are both in the family vespula, they are NOT the
same. They
>are different species and deal with the moths differently. And while
there is
>one species of Bald-faced Hornet(V. maculata) that I know of, there are
many
>species of Yellowjackets.
>
>The Yellowjackets land on the moth, sting it, and bring it to its
UNDERGROUND
>nest. The Bald-faced Hornets land on the moth, sting it, and then
alight on a
>nearby branch where it strips off the wings. Sometimes it strips off
the wings
>in flight or on the sheet where the moths are resting. Then it brings
the moth
>back to its nest, which is ABOVE ground. Last summer, I was actually
able to
>find a V. maculata nest by following the trail of discarded moth wings.
It was
>underneath the eave of my house. Once either species of hornet finds
your moth
>sheet, they will continue to utilize it until either they are removed,
or the
>sheet is moved.
>
>In Connecticut, it's been my experience that the hornets begin hunting
for the
>moths at dawn. In order to keep them from picking off the insects on
my sheet,
>I have to get up before they do, record what I need to, and shake them
free.
>It's a real pain in the ass. Of course, when I find the hornets'
nests, I
>dispatch them. My family has been severely stung too many times! If
anyone
>wants to know of an effective way to do this without pesticides, email
me.
>
>On a side note: Other sheet predators include Assassin Bugs, many
species of
>birds (an Eastern Phoebe actually built her nest right next to my
operation),
>Raccoons, amphibians (Eastern Toad, Woodfrog, Green Frog, Bull Frog,
Pickerel
>Frog - all have been recorded at the moth sheet!), and several species
of
>spiders.
>
>
>
><><><><><><><><><>
>John Himmelman
>Killingworth, CT USA
>jhimmel at connix.com
><><><><><><><><><>
>
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