My daughter left her Primary classroom one recent day in an exuberant mood. "Guess what, mama?" she asked. "Guess what? We went out to the school garden and saw a praying mantis!" Their outdoor teacher had seen a mantis in the garden and had filed the little children out to take a gander at the large, elegant, predatory insect. By chance, we had a mantis in our garden at home a few days later. It's always a treat to see such an unusual creature. But it got me thinking — are they good or bad for an organic garden? According to entomologist Dan Digman, who wrote about mantids for Organic Gardening magazine, the answer is "both." Mantids are simple predators who eat nearly any bug they can catch. Which is very good for a garden with a pest problem; mantids will eat beetles, caterpillars and other insects who've been getting a free lunch on your pesticide-free veggies. But a mantis will also eat bugs that are beneficial in the garden, such as honeybees and ladybugs.
Have you ever seen one of these on a twig and wondered what it was? It's a mantis egg case. In the fall, mantids lay their eggs in a soft brown case attached to a twig or branch. It hardens and protects the eggs until spring. If you find one, you can put it in your garden, but when the young mantises hatch out, they probably won't stick around long unless you have lots and lots of bugs to eat!
My daughter left her Primary classroom one recent day in an exuberant mood. "Guess what, mama?" she asked. "Guess what? We went out to the school garden and saw a praying mantis!" Their outdoor teacher had seen a mantis in the garden and had filed the little children out to take a gander at the large, elegant, predatory insect. By chance, we had a mantis in our garden at home a few days later. It's always a treat to see such an unusual creature. But it got me thinking — are they good or bad for an organic garden? According to entomologist Dan Digman, who wrote about mantids for Organic Gardening magazine, the answer is "both." Mantids are simple predators who eat nearly any bug they can catch. Which is very good for a garden with a pest problem; mantids will eat beetles, caterpillars and other insects who've been getting a free lunch on your pesticide-free veggies. But a mantis will also eat bugs that are beneficial in the garden, such as honeybees and ladybugs. 
Have you ever seen one of these on a twig and wondered what it was? It's a mantis egg case. In the fall, mantids lay their eggs in a soft brown case attached to a twig or branch. It hardens and protects the eggs until spring. If you find one, you can put it in your garden, but when the young mantises hatch out, they probably won't stick around long unless you have lots and lots of bugs to eat!
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