praying mantis

[nathan]

I was just at my hives a few minutes ago, and I spotted a 3" praying mantis on top of one, eating a bee. Anybody know how much damage one of these can cause? Seems like it couldn't be much.

[mike haney]

a good queen lays 1000 plus eggs a day-yep, thats 1k+. a mantis is small potatoes. enjoy the show.
good luck,mike

[nathan]

Yessir, using my rudimentary hillbilly mathematical skills, I concluded that I had more bees than praying manti (isn't that the right pluralization?), and therefore didn't even take it off the top of my hive.

[Ethfol]

Cool sight to see though... get any pictures? My brother once raised pray mantises(is that the right pluralization?) from othaca's, with are those little semi-hard cocoon things you find attached to stuff.

[Hambone]

I see them on my hives alot. I always have an empty jar or 10 in the back of my truck. I try and catch them to bring them home and put in my garden.

[Tom G. Laury]

If you find an unopened egg case you can bring it in the house, put it in a windowsill, and watch the hatch. They come out and eat the flies in the window, fun to watch!

[conky]

I watch waves of dragonflies scoop up mine, once in a while one will try to grab one too large and it will get away. Never seen a mantis by the hives. I have a book from the 1920's called beekeeping in the south that list dragonflies as the largest danger to queens on mating flights in the state of Florida.

[acb's]

Caught this one under the entrance of the hive with a bee on video a few years ago. Not really entertaining to watch some bug eat one of your bees, but I'm with Mike on this one. I found it fascinating to watch how the mantis works. Best viewed at the higher resolution of 480p.
http://www.youtube.com/user/acbees#p/u/13/h7GSafRYY8w

Arvin

[StevenG]

amazing... and disturbingly fascinating. I wonder if there's a particular reason why this mantis started with the bee's thorax? You're right, it was rather gross. I love mantises, love bees more, hate it when they come together like this. But, such is life. Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Steven