Praying Mantis doing my hard work (hopefully)

October the 5th and spring is starting to kick in here in NZ. I have 2 greenhouses that I grow my chillis in and by planting out on the 29th of sep I knew that I was pushing the boundries.
 
I live in New Zealands largest wine producing area, and at 4:30am this morning I was woken by the sound of Helicopters, many, many Helicopters. The local vineyards employ them at this time of year when a frost is likely to hit, the blast from the rotors breaks up the layer of cold air sitting at ground level with warmer air from above.
 
Leaving for work at 5:30am I had a quick check of the temprature in my houses.........it was sitting steady at 0 degrees celcius, or 32 fahrenheit!
 
But that is the least of my worries.
 
This year I have;
 
Red, yellow and chocolate bhuts
 
Moruga scorps
 
Butch T's
 
Rocoto
 
Jalapeanos
 
Carolina Reapers
 
Several types of Habs
 
A dozen varieties of wierd tomatoes
 
A dozen types of rare and odd capsicums
 
And possibly a couple of more varieties of chilli that I can't remember at the moment.
 
But i digress....
 
Cold tempratures aside a week ago we had a huge outbreak of aphids start. They were mainly after the Morugas, the question of fighting them with fire was louding and aggressively spoken of, but myself and Mrs DD came to the conclusion that we will stick by our guns, no sprays whatsoever.
 
Not even a dish washing liquid, we'd do it as nature intended, which basicaly ment me spending several hours after working picking the little $%!@%$ off by hand, or squashing as gently as I can without causing collateral damage to our babies. (I did)
 
But having a nosey after work today, looks like nature has come to our aid!
 
One of my greenhouses is swarming with baby Praying Mantis, the newer greenhouse that is up for it's first season had just a few, so some transplanting of critters took place.
 
Fingers crossed a balance will soon be reached, my ravenous little allies finding an equilbrium with the invading hordes.
 
We also found a large Mantis from last year on one of our Gooseberry bushes, who was moved to the new house lest she begin eating her young kin.
 
There doesn't seem to be much frost damage either, I spent the trip to work convinced all was lost.
 
4resized.jpg
3resized.jpg
2resized.jpg
1resized.jpg
 
Very cool!  The wife and I both love mantids.  We had a number of them in our gardens this year (and hope to have more next year too).
 
Here are some pics I've taken over the season:
 
DSC04052_zps61724bf2.jpg

 
 
DSC04034_zpsbd7eeee2.jpg

 
 
DSC03985_zpse5fd9f58.jpg

 
 
DSC03978_zps7dd26868.jpg

 
 
 
They did a pretty good job, but we still had some pest issues.  Didn't matter though... we enjoyed spotting and watching them anyways :)
 
Hope they do a good job in your gardens  :)
 
Nice photos. I love those little guys. I few days back I saw one on the shopping cart of some lady at the grocery store. I asked her if she wouldn't mind stopping so I could do a quick catch and release. Well not so quick, the little bugger crawled on the underside of the cart, so there I was on my back on the store floor reaching under her cart. I'm sure everyone thought I was crazy, but I got him and walked him out to the bushes in front of the store. Made me happy.
 
dude i can't handle bugs.. but i just spotted one in my balcony on my reaper plant.  Seem like she caught on to the aphid invasion i recently found.  I don't know what to do... i hate bugs.. but i want her to do her thing with nature.. call my a scary cat but bugs freak me the eft out lol. 
 
Nice pics, but sadly I don't think a few praying mantis will be enough to stop an aphid invasion...I often have praying mantis, and almost always have aphids!
Where are you located? Marlborough? 
How long have you been growing for? 
 
Bummer about the new seed import laws aye!
 
Most of my plants have been outside for a few weeks now (but im in Auckland)
 
nzchili said:
Nice pics, but sadly I don't think a few praying mantis will be enough to stop an aphid invasion...I often have praying mantis, and almost always have aphids!
Where are you located? Marlborough? 
How long have you been growing for? 
 
Bummer about the new seed import laws aye!
 
Most of my plants have been outside for a few weeks now (but im in Auckland)
Yep, Marlborough. The choppers are buzzing again this morning so another light frost by the looks of it. I've been growing for the last 25 years (I'm a farmer)but usually only several chillis each year. The season just gone was my first ever real full on chilli growing year and this one coming touchwood will be insane.

As for the new import law, it's an abomination. A friend of mine this year had seeds stopped and destroyed that had the correct documentation, but received his ones that broke the rules. Go figure.

I might throw up some more pics after work tonight, both my houses are literally crawling with mantis now, I think they will consume all resources available and then maybe turn on each other.
 
Nice! That should give you 300 - 600 of the little dudes, a small battalion if you will.

My Reapers and chocolate Bhuts I sourced from nz, in fact I got everything from nz.

Hanging for Kashmiri, the seeds I got from a mate turned out to be duds, but it's probably to late to be sowing now.
 
A few pics I took tonight. The Mantis appear to have the tactical and strategic advantage for the time being but with all wars of attrition simple mathematics suggests the outcome, in this case........
 
I'm not much of a mathematician.
1.jpg

2.jpg

4.jpg
 
3.jpg
 
I dont have any big bugs on my plants at all.  there was what appeared to be a male Mantis on my light fixture on saturday but i have not seen it at all ( havent really looked in depth) since.  I figured it probably left because there is no significant food source except a few ants and a lot of aphids.  There were a few leaf miners but they seem to have left/been destroyed by hand.  I dont know what to do i sprayed some of "Jacks" organic bug killer for the aphids and hopefully the mantis wont come back either.. I rather have ladybugs than mantids.
 
Back
Top