About a week has passed since the third (yes, third!) ootheca hatched! When I bought these oothecae on Amazon I was under the impression that they provided three because there was an apparently significant chance of one, or even two of the three oothecae being infertile – I guess I’m just really lucky (and so are you) because I must have about 200 baby Chinese Mantes and I’m thrilled. I can’t wait to release them and have them populate my neighborhood in Milford. According to a Milford resident employee at Petco in Milford praying “Mantes are endangered in here.” Whether or not that’s the case for the rest of Massachusetts and the surrounding area, I’m not sure.
<----[Picture of the three oothecae in the box tent]
As for my older Chinese mantis (I had gotten impatient waiting for the oothecae to hatch a while back and bought a young nymph-adult Chinese mantis), he molted the other night and nearly doubled in size! And, unfortunately, Biggy died, so Marlin the Mantis (that’s what I’ve named him) has taken up residence in Biggy’s former humble abode.
[picture of Marlin the Mantis in my hand]
---^
[Picture of Marlin the Mantis chilling in Biggy’s home]--->
In other related news, I broke ground yesterday on my small little garden (for my mantis army to protect!) and transplanted the small tomato plant I started indoors into said garden plot! Next up are squash and watermelon! All I have to do is wait for the seeds to germinate and then throw them their respective pots, let them build up a root system and bury them in their respective plots! Then, after I’ve built the wooden mini-fence around the garden plot, I’ll release some little ones to protect all of my plants!
<----[Picture of garden plot]
