Birthday Critters

My 13-year-old son just gave me one of my favorite birthday presents ever.

No fancy perfume for this mom.  I got…

Ever the practical kid, J ordered these because I’ve been lamenting the fact that bugs are eating my roses.  Not any more.  Within a few weeks, the literature says,  this egg case will hatch "about 100-200 tiny mantises, all at once."  I especially love the way Gardeners Supply Company describes the praying mantises’ promise to wreak havoc on garden pests. 

"Being strictly carnivorous, they’ll eat almost any insect of a size they can overcome.  Waiting in quiet ambush for hours at a time, when an insect comes wandering by, they suddenly jump out and attack — always biting the neck first."

How cool is that?

We attached the egg case to the rose bush this afternoon.

Watch out, aphids!  The Terminators of the insect world are on the way.