Okay my Virginia gardening friends…or just anyone in the know…what will this cocoon turn into? I found three on my buddleia (Butterfly Bushes) in the butterfly garden I put into the perennial flower beds last year. They are each about two inches long, fat, and beautifully ridged shades of gray, taupe, and brown, with a bit of red cast to them. Am I hatching something wonderful, like a monarch or swallow tail butterfly, or Mothra?
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Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe
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Phil said immediately, ” It’s a praying mantis. They’ll have about 150 babies in each cocoon. Make sure they stay outside. It’s good to have alot of them around.They eat insects.” We have seen the babies right after hatching. They cling tenaciously to leaves and sway in the breeze. And always, they remind us to pray. 🙂 Annie
That would be wonderful! I’ve seen praying mantis egg cases in the woods, but they usually dangle under a branch, and these egg cases are firmly attached to the leaves. I go out every day and visit them. We left them and didn’t trim down the bushes….even if it was a moth, I’d have left it. I can’t wait until they hatch. And I love praying mantis. We had one on a window screen last fall that just stayed with us until the cold weather set in. We’d go and say hello to it every day.