Over the past week I've been getting hints and some not so subtle inquiries about the mantis egg casings. I had been dreading coming here and making the inevitable post that the egg casings were empty. I got brave on Monday and sliced one open and there wasn't anything inside. Yesterday morning in an attempt to create a better photo I tried cutting a second one directly in half so you all could see the interesting layered chambers inside. But praying mantis egg casings are very sturdily built and not easy to get apart even with implements of destruction. I managed to get a pretty substantial slice in before I gave up, placed the jar on our back porch and went inside.

Fast forward to yesterday evening. The Husband comes tearing inside with a big grin on his face whispering furiously, "Come here, come here!" complemented with frantic hurry-up gestures.

"Do I need my camera?" I said, because The Husband does not display this level of excitement unless something truly extraordinary is about to happen.

"YES." he hisses. So I grab the camera and go to the back door and follow his pointing finger to the jar on the window which is crawling with tiny baby praying mantises. I move forward to grab the jar and realize quickly that 1. the lid had been left off and 2. my back porch is now teeming with tiny baby praying mantises.

So I grab the jar and its contents and run out into the garden and snap a quick dozen pictures. NOTE: Baby Praying Mantises have no sympathy for you and your macro setting, they are busy.

I ran back inside just as my friend Kris was arriving for dinner. I tore open the door. "The Mantises are hatching!"

"Cool!" She exclaims and we ran back outside. We quickly determined that the bulk of the mantises have been trapped on my porch, even though there is no door they didn't seem to be heading that way. Fortunately, both of us were cheery at the prospect of a mantis relocation effort.

After dinner, armed with leftover cups from my son's 3rd birthday party and an envelope for nudging we started to collect the mantises off of the windows and walls and ledges. It took awhile to get the hang of it because mantises like to jump. So you have to kind of nudge them and get them to jump into the cup and then keep the envelope on top or everyone in there will jump out again. There's something adorable about a cup full of mantises. Though we didn't count them we easily moved 100 mantises into the garden. I caught one of the mantis releases on video. Here Kris is emptying her cup onto one of the leaves of Big Pumpkin.

So I'll be keeping an eye out in the garden for our new residents. And stepping carefully I might add. They are only about a half an inch long and very well camouflaged. I'm hoping in the fall I'll notice some native egg casings right in my own back yard!