In the Egg Case

While egg cases may contain up to 400 eggs, only about 1/2 will hatch. You will usually get around 200 praying mantises!

Instructions

Dormancy

Praying mantises need to be refrigerated to stay dormant, until ready to hatch!

 

Hatching (Mid June)

Egg cases will take a few weeks to hatch once they are taken out of the cold, depending on temperature and light (between 2 and 8 weeks). Warm temperatures and bright light will help!

 

Indoors (Use a Hatching Chamber!)

To witness an egg case hatching, keep it indoors inside a hatching chamber (5 cm above the chamber floor). Mist gently as needed! You do not want your egg case to dry out. Place the container in a warm spot, not directly in the sun.

 

Outdoors (Place in a Tree!)

In mid-June, when the weather is hot enough (consistently above 15 °C) and the daylight hours are longer, you can place them outside, in a tree 1-3 feet above the ground to protect the insects. You can also use the netting the individual egg cases come in, to provide a bit more shelter — just stretch the netting open to help them disperse! If the egg case is not placed outside or the mantises are not released once they've hatched, the females will eat the males!

Hatch & Release...

When an egg case starts hatching, it takes only 1 or 2 hours! The mantises will quickly disperse as they are very cannibalistic and the egg case will appear unchanged after hatching.

 

Release

Once hatched, let the mantises go in you garden! Each mantis will set up its own territory where it will live for the summer. They are quite difficult to find in the garden because they are well camouflaged! Later in the summer they will fly to find a mate — this is often when they are seen. As the weather cools, they will also sit out in the sun to warm themselves.