My pest-eating army: praying mantids hatch!

I love coming home to my garden after a week away. Especially when that week away was a sunny one and the previous three were wet. That means the tomatoes had grown up to my shoulders - and I'm not a short woman.






and the zucchini leaves were bigger than my head!


The best part though was my three praying mantid egg cases hatched sometime while I was gone. I ordered these back in early June along with 4,500 ladybugs, their job was to eat the
aphids infesting my "Monsanto sucks, Michelle Obama Rocks Organic Garden". Well, the lady bugs mostly took off after a few days, but the praying mantids are still hanging out nearly a week after being released. This is one of my little mantid soldiers a few days after hatching:


I opened the jar they hatched in, placed it under the bean plants and they crawled out on their own. I bet there were at least one hundred in there!

They can jump surprisingly far and they really do hunt in that jerky style you see on the nature shows. And, the best part is, when they see prey they turn their head very slowly and deliberately then move those little saw-like arms so fast you barely even notice until you see them devouring their prey. I shall try to catch it on video.

It will be fun seeing them grow to full size. I admit though, that when harvesting my first crop of organic green beans last night in the near-darkness I was really afraid of squishing one. I seem to have evolved an attachment to these alien-like creatures in a way that I didn't with the ladybugs. Perhaps because they've stuck around and didn't take off. Perhaps because they seem to have personality (can an insect have personality?) They accepted their marching orders and really are doing their jobs.

Next spring I'll order them a month sooner!

A new addition to my "Monsanto sucks, Michelle Obama rocks!" organic garden - LADYBUGS!

My little "Monsanto sucks, Michelle Obama rocks!" organic veggie patch is doing quite well. The green beans, carrots, zucchini, salad mix, and cilantro are all up and growing fast. However, this year I purchased my tomato seedlings from the organic Green Meadows Farm instead of the conventional garden center where I usually purchase my annual flowers. And, like is typical with organic farms, the seedlings had some unwanted hitchhikers. These aphids and grasshoppers quickly moved on to the tasty new leaf-growth of the green beans and the munching commenced.



Instead of spraying even with an organic cod liver oil or soap I decided to buy ladybugs. Yes, you can mail-order lady bugs. There's nothing better than a ladybug to eat an aphid. I ordered 4,500. Seems like a lot, but the info on arbico.com said that was for a "small garden" of about 2,500 square feet, which is about the size of my tiny back yard. So I clicked "add to cart" and they were on the way!

Upon arriving at home this evening there they were, literally sitting a top my mail box, Yay!


Notice the "KEEP OUT OF SUN/HEAT" on the box. My mail man is a nice guy but he's lucky it was a cloudy day since my mail box faces west. I would have had fried ladybugs. When I opened the box they were just fine, hanging out in their little cloth sack:


I also ordered three praying mantid egg cases which I put straight into a mason jar to watch the hatching action. They're for targeting the larger grasshoppers, but don't worry, they generally don't eat lady bugs. Once out I'll release them into the garden too, but they're safer inside, warm and dry for now and freaking my husband out (which I find hilarious!):


The lady bug info sheet said to release them in the cool of the evening and over a few days, so I went to work, sprinkling them on my carrot seedlings:


My green beans:


And around the base of my brandywine heirloom tomato seedlings waiting to be planted in the back row since we have one more coat of paint to put on the garage and I fear them getting stepped on:



And then I sprinkled some on the flower garden for good luck:


Hopefully the little guys are enjoying their first night in my organic patch of earth and eating their fill! Looking forward to releasing the rest tomorrow!