Praying Mantis Hatchlings

So my sister gave me some praying mantis eggs for my birthday that you can order from a seller. They are a way to prevent pesky insects from bothering your garden without using chemicals. We don't really have a garden but praying mantises are my favorite bug and they're cool to see regardless!

I had this little plastic cup with the mantis egg in it. I looked up how they laid their eggs since I was curious how there was a bunch of eggs inside one mass. Apparently they lay their eggs in a "frothy mass" and when this mass solidifies it becomes a solid ball with a texture similar to a wasp nest.

I woke up one day about 2 weeks later and there they were. I did not expect them to be so big, and there were so many! They were all scrambling around, and I'm really glad I didn't try to put it in my spare fish tank because they easily climbed up the side walls and were chilling on the roof of the cup, where my fish tank would have had holes that would be big enough to climb through.

I let them go the same day. If you keep them too long they'll get hungry and start to eat eachother. I put them in a few places in the yard, which proved to be difficult sometimes since they're so light the wind blew some away, poor things. Hopefully I will see some adult praying mantises in my yard this summer. ^_^

I didn't take this picture, but this is pretty similar to what they looked like: