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Door gunner

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bigfish4me

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Those are very cool pics....that Wheel Bug is nutz! Just looked it up, considered a beneficial insect b/c it eats soft bodied ones.  Nice

 

Man, you can tell the fishing's slow...

Just b/c you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD....
(what you do DOES make a difference - be accountable)
BigWave Dave
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This year has been a dud for insects at the dock. Hatched about a thousand mantis but now can only find one adult. I think I figured out what I did wrong so won't make that mistake next year. Everything nature wise just seemed a little off center this year. I keep looking but just not much to see. 

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7 hours ago, bigfish4me said:

Also got quite a few of these creepy suckers..... called a wheel bug and probably an inch and a half long... member of the assasain bug family 

IMG_0585.JPG

Hell yeah. Those things are cold killers. Saw a huge one a few weeks back. Supposedly you don't want to get hit by their proboscis. 

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13 hours ago, DoorGunner said:

This year has been a dud for insects at the dock. Hatched about a thousand mantis but now can only find one adult. I think I figured out what I did wrong so won't make that mistake next year. Everything nature wise just seemed a little off center this year. I keep looking but just not much to see. 

what did you do? spray more this year? just curious...

From The Grand State of South Jersey

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10 hours ago, robtf said:

what did you do? spray more this year? just curious...

I have a small garden area at the dock and never seem to have problems with harmful insects other than grubs in the spring. These I find when I turn the soil and just pick them out and toss into the parking lot where the local birds do their best. Never spray and with the mantis I welcome insects to visit their hunting grounds. My mistake this year was a simple one that caused a slaughter of the baby mantis. 

 

I hunt my cocoons during the winter months then place them in and around the garden. My mistake was that where I placed them they received direct sunlight all day long. They hatched too early and became food for all the birds from sparrows on up. They had very few places to hide and when you are the T-Rex of the insect world but start out about a quarter of an inch long you don't usually make it to become the Terrible Mantis. All my plants were just sprouting and the baby mantis were left out in the open. I gave a few cocoons to a friend and she placed them in her garden where there were a few  shrubs and shade trees. Her cocoons hatched about a month later than mine and had plenty of hiding places. By the time her's hatched my garden was growing great and if mine hatched then there would have been a lot more that would have made it. So next year I'm keeping mine in the shady area until the plants begin to grow some cover and then I will place the cocoons into the direct sunlight. 

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I purchased 10 cocoons on line from a guy in PA.  I have no idea if any ever hatched or not.

 

I was moving a burning bush this past weekend and found one crawling around.

 

Door Gunner - how can you tell when looking at the cocoon if anything hatched from it?  Or it was a "dud"?

*

 

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On 9/5/2017 at 4:47 PM, Maine Guide said:

I purchased 10 cocoons on line from a guy in PA.  I have no idea if any ever hatched or not.

 

I was moving a burning bush this past weekend and found one crawling around.

 

Door Gunner - how can you tell when looking at the cocoon if anything hatched from it?  Or it was a "dud"?

Mantis cocoons are all built the same way. The eggs are all laid in sleeves in two rows on the side of the cocoon that is opposite where it is attached to a stick or branch. It's the most exposed part of the cocoon facing daylight. The sleeves are all sealed with a thin membrane that splits open when the eggs hatch. If you look at the cocoon after hatching you will notice little vent like openings where the mantis emerged. An unhatched cocoon will have a smooth outer finish.  Here is a shot of an older cocoon that has already hatched. Notice how rough the outer skin is.

 

dock102.jpg.453da827407af19f32093e294b84c991.jpg

 

Here is a shot of the eggs hatching and this will continue all the way up to the top of the cocoon.

043_zpsc6b20fa2.jpg.53bb0123e540ef05d1055da284663d6d.jpg

 

 

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