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pests anyone use praying mantis to fight aphids?

I found one once and bet a buddy it would take out a tarantula he found and it was a total one sided fight! The Prey Mantis jumped on it's back and hung on for dear life while biting the legs. It was like a bull rider eating the bull. About 3-4 days of that the the tarantula eventually got to weak to shake him off and I cashed in...

Not sure if such a violent and aggressive insect would bother with aphids.
 
well i think its in their larva form that they eat them. I saw pic online of one eating a humming bird, lol
 
they are too flakey and easily distracted - especially if the get the whiff of another matis, plus they too get preyed upon by birds(except hummingbirds) and other mantis eaters. lady bugs are the only way to go and they are loyal - they usually hang around until all the aphids are gone, then leave you a present of future generations under a few leaves.
 
Burning Colon said:
they are too flakey and easily distracted - especially if the get the whiff of another matis, plus they too get preyed upon by birds(except hummingbirds) and other mantis eaters. lady bugs are the only way to go and they are loyal - they usually hang around until all the aphids are gone, then leave you a present of future generations under a few leaves.
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yeah i'm about to do a second round of lady bugs when I get them in the mail next week. 1st time went great I think they just wandered off into the yard.
 
I have not heard of anyone using this technique but I recently had a run in with the little bastards and the *BEST* thing was buying lady bugs! Ive used many methods and I have been most pleased with getting the lady bugs for many reasons, but the most important reason is that it worked the best without harming the plants at all. And when the food (aphids) was gone the lady bugs just flew away.

Nicole
 
misterbrownstone06 said:
are lady bugs convenient in pots? and where can i find some?
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I called around to local nurseries until I found one that carried them; others said I had to order them but I didnt want to... so I called until someone had them in stock!

The trick is that they fly and look for food during the day, so you want to put the lady bugs on the plants (and in pot) at night because they dont search at night. During the day most of them will fly away, but thats why you only put some in at a time! Good luck to both of you !!


xoxo Nicole
 
The last time I ordered lady bugs to put into the garden the shipment came with a sheet of paper with tips on how to get them to hang around and possibly establish a colony within the garden. One was to release them when it starts getting dark and the other was to mix 50% cola and 50% water and spray the lady bugs as they run around after putting them on the plants. As the paper stated it would not harm the lady bugs but would cause the wings to stick for a few days to reduce the chance of them flying away and hopefully would lay eggs within that time. I haven't tried it myself but I will with the next order.

-J
 
Torno said:
The last time I ordered lady bugs to put into the garden the shipment came with a sheet of paper with tips on how to get them to hang around and possibly establish a colony within the garden. One was to release them when it starts getting dark and the other was to mix 50% cola and 50% water and spray the lady bugs as they run around after putting them on the plants. As the paper stated it would not harm the lady bugs but would cause the wings to stick for a few days to reduce the chance of them flying away and hopefully would lay eggs within that time. I haven't tried it myself but I will with the next order.

-J
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yeah i've done this once. they cleaned up everything but theres so much folage in our yard i think they ventured off to find more food. got some lady bugs in the mail coming next week. i just wondered if anyone actually released a couple thousand preying mantis in their yard.
 
Aphids usually do not move enough to attract the attention of a mantid. Mantids also grow rather quickly and once they attain a certain size they are no longer attracted to tiny insects such as aphids, whether they are moving or not. They are still cool to have around though.
 
I've got a bunch of tiny little Mantis all over my plants right now. It wouldn't surprise me if there is at least one per chili plant. Simply everywhere in my garden right now. I've never seen one eat aphids though. For Aphids I just spray Neem and the problem is solved.
 
Wouldn't mind having praying mantis bugs guarding my plants. I do spot the odd dragonfly here and there in my garden. I dont see ladybugs around lately. I want more ladies in the garden. =( lol
 
I have used both mantids (last season) and ladybugs (this season) and the ladybugs win hands down. The mantids will only eat aphids for the first 2 weeks of their lifecycle, because they eventually get too big and need to eat larger prey. Also, the mantids will eat each other at every stage of their life cycle so their numbers constantly decrease. Also they only breed once per year. Ladybugs will eat aphids at any stage and reproduce quickly making them much more effective aphid killers. Now if I could find something to eat the ants that farm the aphids that also wont eat the ladybugs I would be set.
 
theghostpepperstore said:
I have used both mantids (last season) and ladybugs (this season) and the ladybugs win hands down. The mantids will only eat aphids for the first 2 weeks of their lifecycle, because they eventually get too big and need to eat larger prey. Also, the mantids will eat each other at every stage of their life cycle so their numbers constantly decrease. Also they only breed once per year. Ladybugs will eat aphids at any stage and reproduce quickly making them much more effective aphid killers. Now if I could find something to eat the ants that farm the aphids that also wont eat the ladybugs I would be set.
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ah shit I hope I don't end up with ants too. I'm in SC and we have the pleasure of having fireants and those are some mean bastards
 
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