Does anyone else get "Buggies"??

[poka-bee]

I'm just about to order my praying Mantids from Planet Natural.  I get the egg cases every year & put the little predators on my roses when the aphids get going. We always keep a few in the house for pets.  By fall there is only one, always a female.  They are really cool pets, & fun to play with.  Her name is "Buggy" whatever #, I think 13 this year!  In between sizes I get crickets from the petstore.  It's fun to watch em hunt & catch stuff.  I know many of you probably have these all over, they are in Eastern Wa, I think they don't like the wet..magpies don't come this side either... :? Sean, do you want some?  I can add on.   Jody

[JP]

Jody, I never thought to order any but now you have me thinking. Would you send me a link to your supplier?

Love praying mantids, we used to have a bunch here before we became too cityfied. They are prob my favorite insect. I was def enamored with them as a kid.


...JP

[Cindi]

Oh Jody, my kingdom to be able to have crickets here.  They don't live, it is too wet I guess.  But on Vancouver Island (that is the only place that I have witnessed crickets in, at my Auntie's house when we were little children visiting) I know they live.  It is much drier there than here.  Oh, I love the sound of crickets.....I really do.  I don't think that they mantis would live here either, you are so lucky.

About 20 years ago when my oldest gal had a very crazy boyfriend, some friends of his bought a bag of crickets and let them go inside his car for a joke.  When I saw all these crickets I gathered as many as I could and tried to "grow" them at my place.  So such luck, they must have all died and/or been eaten all up by the birds or something.  Ooooh, how can I get crickets to live here.....hee, hee.

We have ladybugs that do the trick with the aphids.  I have never in my life seen so many aphids and ladybugs as last year when I had the Fuller's Teasel growing.  Such a beautiful and most magnificent plant.  I am hoping that it will come up again this year, that is is a perennial, but I have some thoughts that it is a bienniel.  I should have sowed some seeds for it last year, so I will this year and next year it will bloom.  I would stand in awe at this plant, watching all the different breeds of ladybugs, it was something to behold.

The ladybug larvae are the biggest eaters of the aphids.  Apparently they consume 50 times as much as the adults.  The larvae are very cool, they look like orange and black little alligators.  When I first used to see them on my corn silks, I didn't know what they were, I thought that they were some kind of eater bug and were destroying the silks, I found out later that they are the eater bugs, but they are eaters of bad bugs, hee, hee.  Oh dear, I am ramblin', got lost in a few thoughts here.  I am going to see if I can find a picture of the ladybugs on the teasel, but I am still going to post a picture of the teasel, I am going to put the one with me weeding in the teasel to show the height of this plant.  This plant probably grew about 4 or 5 feet more, the bombus were absolutely nuts on it, the honeybees ignored it, too busy in the borage, anise and phacelia.  Have that beautiful and wonderful day, what a great post you have started, hee, hee.  Cindi

[JP]

Very cool pic Cindi of you and the teasel!


...JP

[SgtMaj]

I'll second the request for the supplier contact info.  We always get one around here, but a couple more would be nice.

[poka-bee]

They don't live here either, too wet.  They do live in Eastern Wa, a totally different climate & terrain.  I get mine at Planet Natural, www.planetnatural.com. They are sort of expensive but shipping of beneficials is free.  All sorts of "killer"bugs there!  I just enjoy hatching & watching em.  Keep 1 always as a pet, they have such personality...if bugs can have such a thing! Off to order mine, the aphids have shown up on the roses.  Jody

[Moonshae]

The problem with mantises is that they eat all bugs, both harmful and beneficial ones. Ladybugs are much better for aphid control. There are ways to introduce them that keep them from flying off right away...and once they find your aphid-packed bush, they'll have no incentive to go anywhere else!

[Shawn]

I occasionally see the mantis around here but only one or two a year. The lady bugs come and go. One year there were so many lady bugs that they actually stunk because there were so many gathered on the trees.

[_Brenda_]

Last year I planted 4 Endless Summer Hydrangeas and now I see a baby mantis on them almost every time I look at them. Makes me feel good.

[poka-bee]

The mantis are much more fun to watch than ladybugs..they turn their heads & everything!!  I get them for entertainment as much as the aphids..I can spray w soapy water for aphids but watching the tiny predators grab & gobble gives much more satisfaction!! + you can poke em & they puff all up & sometimes even make a hissing type noise if you are annoying enough!! :evil: :evil:

[Amanda]

My Aunt found a mantis egg-sack and didn't know what it was, so she put it in her purse to ask a friend.  Well, she forgot about it, and one day she opened her purse at the store and hundreds of baby mantises climbed out.  I wish I had been.  It must have been so funny!
~Amanda