Pest Control Uses
Organic gardeners who avoid pesticides may encourage mantises as a form of biological pest control. Tens of thousands of mantis egg cases are sold each year in some garden stores for this purpose.
During fall, praying mantis females deposit an ootheca on the underside of a leaf or on a twig. If the egg case survives winter, the offspring, called nymphs, emerge in late spring or early summer. The nymphs have voracious appetites and typically cannibalize each other if they cannot find an adequate supply of aphids and other small insects. Egg cases are commercially available for placement in landscaping.
However, mantises prey on neutral and beneficial insects as well, basically eating anything they can successfully capture and devour.
Read more about this topic: Mantodea
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