Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Hummers, bumblebees and preying mantis, 0 by WildcatThicket

WildcatThicket wrote:
I took this photo this past summer of this praying mantis hanging out by my hummer feeders. This mantis was on this fence post for about a week catching and eating bumblebees. The fence post is under 2 feeders within 2 feet. When a bee flew close he would attempt to snatch it rigth out of the air and was successful many times as the photo shows. The mantis also tried to catch the hummers. I didn't think he could catch a hummer but I have read here that they do. It was a very large mantis, larger than some of the hummers. The bees and the hummers seem to go to war every day. The bees try to chase the hummers away, some but not all of the hummers chase the bees just like chasing another hummer away from the feeder. Has anyone ever seen a praying mantis catch a hummer or is that an urban myth?

This message was edited Jan 21, 2009 9:14 AM