Today while picking up some Common Milkweed that flopped over, I felt something spiky on my hand. It was a Chinese Mantis! I’m hoping she doesn’t grab a Monarch Butterfly, but I’m pretty much a “let nature do it’s thing” type of person.
This is the “invasive” Chinese Mantis on a Common Milkweed hunting for bugs! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is a “she” because I think I see an ovipositor.
However, when Carli got up I showed her the mantis and we decided to feed it a Spotted Lanternfly as an experiment. As I hoped, she chomped it right up!
The “invasive” Chinese Mantis is chowing down on an “invasive” Spotted Lanternfly.
Watch as the Chinese Mantis chomps the Spotted Lanternfly.
I’ve been wondering if the mantis could be the key to the Lanternfly overpopulation. This spring I even brought a Chinese mantis ootheca that I found on the job to my garden. I placed it on the Concord Grape vine where Spotted Lanternflies do the most damage. I hoped it would eat the Lanternflies. This may be a mantis from that ootheca. And now I have an answer to that experiment. The Chinese mantis will eat the Chinese lanternflies.
I found this Chinese Mantis ootheca (egg sack) this spring at Kendal at Oberlin. I knew they aren’t native, but they’re pretty common and excellent predators. I was hoping perhaps an invasive species could control another invasive species. It was an experiment.
I’ve never seen the native Carolina Mantis. I will definitely be on the lookout, or possibly even buy an ootheca for next year. That will be my next experiment. My coworker did find a Carolina mantis ootheca at a stream restoration site last week, so I know they are around here!
My coworker found this Carolina Mantis ootheca at a stream restoration site where we were doing vegetation management. This was my first and only encounter with the native mantis. I LOVE when you can see the ecosystem restoring itself!
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