Here in Georgia it was rainy, rainy, rainy for a while and now the temperature is hovering around 100 all this week. In other words: My garden is going bananas and it’s HOOOOOOOOOT (um, very hot, not hoot) out and I’m getting a little loopy.
Yesterday I went out first thing in the morning to water, and discovered that as soon as the soil was soft, several of my tomato plants wanted to fall over. (They have cages! and stakes! and twine! and yes, I spend more time/energy on those damn tomatoes than my children, but the tomatoes never tell me I’m ruining their lives.) There’s really nothing like wrestling plants into submission at 6:30 in the morning when it’s already 80 degrees and 5 billion percent humidity out, lemme tell you. While I was doing that, I discovered that one of my basil plants was about ready to take over Atlanta, so I cut it down and made a delicious pesto that afternoon.
Of course, while I was prepping the basil, we discovered several stowaways. Ants and weird beetles get smushed, sorry. But it turned out that we had two baby praying mantises (discovered at different times) and those required careful study and filming and transportation back out to nature. Maybe this is only funny to us (we have watched it at least a dozen times and it’s only getting funnier), but first I “ruined” Chickadee’s film, then the mantis did. Bear in mind that this fella is about half an inch long. Enjoy!
Baby Praying Mantis! from woulda on Vimeo.
Ha! I will be showing my girls later – can’t wait to see their reaction.
We regularly had mantises as “pets” when we were kids, and when I saw the mantis in your video turn its head just so to look at Chickadee filming, I knew what was coming next, and when it started walking, I was hard-pressed not to laugh (I’m at work) at the impending outcome (been there, done that–and it got me. Every. Time.). I was not disappointed. :-)
Love it. We found a really big one in our yard a few weeks ago and both kids were terrified of it (12 and 3). They would not let me bring it near them even though I was letting it walk all over my hands. It was probably about 3 inches long total and the largest one I had ever found.
That was fun!
Hee!
Fun-nee! Have to tell you my praying mantis story. About a month or so ago, I saw what looked like a leaf on the hood of my car. Upon closer inspection, I decided it was an insect. I had never seen a praying mantis make like a leaf before. Anyway, I thought he (it just seemed like a he) would fly off when I started driving. That bug stayed on the car for about six miles of freeway with me driving about 70 mph; then he stayed on while I drove 45 mph another couple miles to my destination. I could not believe it. So I pull into a parking space and see about five or six birds show an interest in my car. They managed to chase the praying mantis into some landscaping and I fear that they ate him! After all the mileage with him staying on my hood! What a terrible ending for that poor guy.
It’s an attack mantis!
My husband and I just watched it several times in a row and just laughed our heads off each time. Praying mantises are pretty predictable in that way, but the reactions were the best.
*mantis minding her own business, cleaning her face*
“Wait, what is that…?”
“Are they…are they spying on me?”
Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Dundun-dundun-dundun!
“I’m going to eat your faaaaaace!”
*jump*
How can a bug be so adorable and cute? Never mind. It just is. Good luck with the tomatoes.