The presence of praying mantis in the garden is quite obvious because they naturally live in rainforests and inhabit trees or plant vegetation. They frequently visit fruiting plants or flowers and target tiny insects.
Will Praying Mantis Stay in My Garden? Praying mantis will stay in your garden if they find suitable hiding spots, pests, floral nectar, egg mass, birdbaths, and bird feeders. They can also show stillness for several hours but change location if there is no food or water source. They prefer to stay in warm and humid places and commonly live in tropical climates.
Garden provides a suitable habitat for a wide range of insects as there are many shady places and hiding spots to live. Moreover, the temperature is slightly lower around plants than in the external environment, which helps prevent the drying of bodies. So, praying mantis live around plants and sneak in the small gaps of tree trunks to hide or protect themselves.
Why do praying mantis stay in the garden?
Praying mantis commonly live in gardens and stay there for long due to favorable conditions. They mate and reproduce in dense vegetation and spend most of their lifespan within plants.
Presence of garden pests
They get attracted to gardens due to the presence of various insects on plants and trees. They can access a wide range of small invertebrates and other creatures within the roots of plants.
They have to make less effort to find food because there are multiple options of abundantly available insects for praying mantis. Moreover, they can eat spiders, ticks, beetles, butterflies, moths, etc.
Other garden pests include grasshoppers, crickets, mealybugs, ants, fleas, mosquitoes, slugs, and other smaller invertebrates and arthropods.
They will remain in the backyard until they have food to eat and change location when the population of pests reduces to a minimum.
Able to show stillness
Praying mantis show stillness and commonly live a sedentary lifestyle by staying in one place. They do not show any movement for many hours after seeing a prey and become motionless.
In addition, they also show no movement if a predator is present in their habitat, as this state of stillness helps avoid the predation risks.
Accordingly, they do not find it challenging to stay in the garden for long because they can naturally remain in one place for a long time.
Suitable hiding spots
They can live in the garden if some suitable hiding spots are present there. They prefer to live in the dense vegetation, shrubs, and bushes that are present close to the ground.
The tall grasses and a large number of flowering or fruiting plants provide a suitable spot to hide from the predator’s attacks. They can easily hide behind the green leaves, twigs, and tree branches.
Moreover, they can also hide under the leaf litter and hang upside down on tree branches while sleeping. They feel safe in the garden and spend most of their lifespan hiding in tree trunks and other plant parts.
Availability of floral nectar
Another attraction is the availability of floral nectar in the garden that can potentially grab the attention of the praying mantis. They are carnivores, but a few species like to feed on floral nectar.
Blooming flowers attract these backyard guests and allow them to suck the nutritious secretion of the flower. Once, I saw a mantis hanging to the flower while sucking its nectar.
All of them do not feed on nectar, but a few find it highly nutritious for themselves. Moreover, they will remain in the garden until floral nectar is available, as they do not eat fruits and vegetables.
Presence of egg mass
Female praying mantis produce an egg mass on the tree branches or leave them in the vegetation. An ootheca covers the egg mass and protects them from physical and environmental stress.
In addition, female mantis also prefers to stay close to their eggs to protect them from external stress-causing agents. They will stay in the garden for their egg mass until they hatch.
They usually die after laying eggs due to the stress of cold weather, but they do not leave the egg mass alone until they are alive.
Easier camouflage
They can efficiently camouflage in the garden as colorful flowering plants allow them to blend with the background environment according to their color.
The yellow-colored mantis species can easily hide behind the yellow roses, orchids, and tulips. The green mantis feels safe by blending with the tall grass and shrubby plants.
In the same way, the brown mantis species can hide behind twigs and sleep inside the hollow tree trunks. It becomes difficult for their predator and prey to differentiate and identify them.
So, they are common garden guests who prefer to live around plants, trees, shrubs, and other bushy plants.
Birdbaths and feeders
They get attracted to places providing food and water, so the presence of a birdbath in the garden makes it an attractive place for them.
They like to live in a humid environment to keep themselves hydrated so that they will stay in the backyard for a long time.
One Chinese mantis frequently visits my garden because I used to hang a bird feeder in my yard to feed the birds. I saw it around the hummingbird feeder many times while feeding on nectar.
In addition, one of my friends also told me that a small green mantis comes to his yard often and drinks water from the birdbath or a bowl of water.
How long do praying mantis stay in the garden?
It is challenging to determine the time for which a praying mantis stays at a place because it depends on the reasons for their presence.
They can live within trees and bushes for an entire lifespan if they have enough food and the ideal moisture content in their environment.
Moreover, they quickly change location and move to a new place when they do not find enough pests in the garden due to excessive use of chemical pesticides.
Similarly, they also live in the garden until there is enough moisture content to hydrate their bodies. The dry conditions do not support survival, so they look for humid places and leave the garden.
Sometimes, they visit for food and water and leave this environment after fulfilling their needs. They will move away after drinking water and capturing a few insects to eat.
So, this time duration for staying in the garden can be several minutes to a few hours if they only come to get food.
Where do praying mantis like to stay?
Praying mantis usually like to stay in warm or humid environments and change their habitat if they do not get suitable moisture content and temperature.
The wild species inhabit tropical climates and find it suitable to live in rainforests, grasslands, and meadowlands.
They feel safe and comfortable in the garden because they do not have to make much effort to look for their food and hunt pests. Some species adapt to live in deserts after behavioral changes.
They are considered good for plants, as they hunt insects and other pests, ultimately benefiting gardeners and farmers.
Moreover, it is better not to rely on them to control the insect population because they can leave an unfavorable environment when you release them.
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