When I was little, we found a Praying Mantis egg case in a bush outside my bedroom window. My Dad made a little cage for it covered with screen, and we cut the branch that held the egg case out of the bush, put it in the cage with some leaves and a small dish of water, and waited. Sure enough, a few days later, little, miniature mantises were spewing out of the case and crawling around. Sadly, I think we put the wrong kind of leaf in the cage, because they ignored it and started to cannibalize each other. My Mom quickly let them free to fend for themselves, and to this day, I've never seen as many Praying Mantises as I did that summer.
Even now, I find them somehow regal and magical when I see them. I never expected them to act like a Great White Shark though.....
Oh man - they freak me out so much. I used to run screaming whenever I saw them. I think it's the way they sway back and forth, and hop from leg to leg. Ewwwwww.
My little brother used to find all the dead ones and line them up (pretending they were soldiers or something, I dunno), which used to freak me out further ("How can you stand to TOUCH them!" "They're DEAD!" "So?!").
Oh man - they freak me out so much. I used to run screaming whenever I saw them. I think it's the way they sway back and forth, and hop from leg to leg. Ewwwwww.
My little brother used to find all the dead ones and line them up (pretending they were soldiers or something, I dunno), which used to freak me out further ("How can you stand to TOUCH them!" "They're DEAD!" "So?!").
Yep. We were a normal family.