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My Wasp 'Skep'- Smart Mantis

3K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  JRG13 
#1 ·
I'm not partial to wasps but I don't mind them. Seems like the European variety has taken over though, I haven't seen the native one in years like I used to when I was a kid. Anyways, I used to breed cichlids so I used small ceramic pots for the egg laying sites, this one found it's way onto my porch and some wasps moved in. It's been knocked off a couple times but I just piece it back together and the wasps go back to doing what they do.



I've saved it a couple times as the ants around start raiding all the wasps nests when it gets hot and dry, but came out the other morning and this young female mantis had found the honey hole.



I relocated her to the bush and a few wasps returned later, but there weren't any there when the mantis was finishing up one of the girls. She was on the outside sitting next to the opening but moved in because my kid wanted to pick her up.
 
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#5 ·
I don't keep them around... they're just around. Lots of hives around my housing area. I don't believe in the need to have the pest control guys come out and douse my house and yard in chemicals and see no insects flying around. I enjoy feeding the spiders time to time and watching wasps chew on the wooden supports for the trees and realize that's how they gather pulp. The leaf cutter bees love the wooden shingle siding on the house too, all those little cracks and crevices to build in. I dunno, to me life is pretty boring to step outside and not see anything flying around your flowers or crawling around because I might get stung or bit. I've never been bitten by a spider and I took two stings in the 8 years I've been there, both times in a fruit tree where a nest was.
 
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