Sometimes Mother Nature just isn't very pretty. I'm happy to have a Preying Mantis, but I wish it would stick with spiders and leave the butterflies alone.
Carla
Monarch demise.
I agree, they rip the heads right off the butterflies. As I find the egg casings I now put them in the field away from my garden.
I kill them and the eggs I find now days.....hummers and butterflies are safer.
Yes, they can be quite aggressive.
He won't last much longer, as that Lantana bush is daily full of Mockingbirds and Robins.
Carla
Loonie---That is the most awesome picture!!! Proof how aggressive they are and i didn't realize it until your picture. We have so very few here on the Or. coast, but I have seen about one per season. I thought I wanted them, but not any more. Thanks for posting your great picture.
I know it sucks to see them killing BFs, but they are considered beneficial in the garden, right? Kind of the "balance of nature" thing?
There are still a lot that I don't see, plus loads of others that steal caterpillars and eggs. I do not spray my yard other than treating ant mounds and spraying wasp nest; so they live on somewhere.