Little Praying Mantis

Few insects give me the creepy crawlies-- I can deal with spiders, beetles, ear wigs, dragonflies and grasshoppers. But put me in an area within 10 feet of a praying mantis and I start to freak out! I'm not sure why they have that effect on me-- maybe because they're big insects or maybe because they look like aliens. Perhaps its because the females rip the heads of the males and eat them. There are a lot of mantis that live on the farm (especially in the tall grass out in the field), and I'm always on the lookout for them.

Wednesday night marked the first mantis sighting of the season-- this little guy was crawling along the one of the soaker hoses. He was less than an inch long. Since they're insect predators and eat a lot of pests, he lived to see another day.