Praying Mantis Eggs

Product Description

(Important: Our Mantis pods are packed in a breathable pouch. Note: At Bug Sales we guarantee them to hatch, If they do not arrive in a breathable pouch you may be getting a knock off of our product from the other sellers that are linked here and we will not guarantee them.) Mantids are territorial stalkers of insects. They will spend days waiting and tracking their prey. The praying mantis moves its head to keep its prey in sight. Its head stimulates special receptors that send out nerve impulses that instantly adjust the distance and angle of the mantis quick strike. It delivers a bite to the neck, killing the insect and then savors the meal. That's how they work. The praying mantis is an awesome, showy creature and can help to control garden insect pests the organic way. They are also very interesting to have around. Product information: Mantis egg cases are contained in either paper cups or pouches each egg case will hatch out 50-200 mantids. When hatching, the young crawl from between tiny flaps in the egg case and hang from silken threads about 2 inches below the case. After drying out, the young will disperse. This happens within an hour or two. It is very difficult to know if hatching has occurred, unless the elusive and well camouflaged young are found. Release Rates: Attach the egg cases to a twig or plant. 2 egg cases per 3,000 sq. ft. To monitor hatching of the egg case place the egg cases in a paper bag and fold the top. Place the bag in a warm spot windowsill etc. in direct sun light. Periodically open the bag and check to see if hatching has occurred. If hatching has occurred take out and release the young. Sometimes hatching can take up to eight weeks. Strategic Considerations: Pesticides and even wetting agents and spreader-stickers may adversely affect mantids survival. Broad spectrum and systemic insecticides are toxic to praying mantids. Including a hatching habitat.

Features

• 2 Praying Mantis Egg Cases - Live Praying Mantis
• Each Mantis Egg Case has approx 50 to 200 baby live praying mantis
• This product comes with a unique hatching habitat
• We Guarantee the Praying Mantis Pods to hatch!
• Hatching habitat has a custom window for easy monitoring.

Top Reviews

and were easy enough to transfer from the packaging into the "Mantis ...
by Johnny6Toes (5 out of 5 stars)
June 21, 2016

We purchased these for my son at Christmas who wants to be an entomologist. They arrived about 5 days after we ordered them, and were easy enough to transfer from the packaging into the "Mantis Mansion" we also got him.

For a while, we were unsure as to whether or not we did something wrong, as a good month went by with nothing happening. But we kept at it, and he kept checking multiple times per day. Then suddenly one night right before bed, my son came excitedly running down stairs exclaiming that they had finally hatched. And sure enough, there were dozens of tiny little praying mantis scattered about the enclosure when I peaked in. We dumped in some fruit flies as soon as we could (they begin cannibalizing each other if they go too long without food). And watched them grow for a few months before deciding to let them venture off into the world on their own. Overall very positive learning experience for all of us!
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4 out of 5 pods hatched bountiful broods
by Kreativart (5 out of 5 stars)
May 27, 2019

4 out of 5 pods hatched bountiful broods (approximately 50 - 80 mantids each). One pod was a bit of a dud but it did hatch 6 mantids. I received the pods on April 24th, 2019

I taped pods in breathable plastic containers. CAUTION - EXPOSED STICKY TAPE AREAS NO GOOD - KILLS MANTIDS. I then put all 5 containers (with pods) inside of a plastic 5 gallon animal tank for better containment. Most hatchlings stayed inside the smaller containers, but 3 - 8 feisty mantids each time got out into the 5 gallon tank and were still contained.

The reason I like them to hatch inside is because I prefer sprinkling the mantids around the yard in more places rather than having all mantids start from one place. Also, it's good to know that the pods hatched. When releasing them, be carful not to drop them near spider webs.

A tip for healthy, energetic hatchlings..... pour some water on the pods 1 week after receiving them, then more water every week to hydrate the babies.

Pods received on April 24th, 2019

Hatching dates:
5/18/19 - 1st pod (a dud, only 6 lethargic mantids)
5/23/19 - 2nd and 3rd pod
5/25/19 - 4th pod
5/27/19 - 5th pod

All and all, I'm very satisfied with this company. 5 out of 5 pods hatched (even though one was a dud).
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Not Recommended
by L. Zak (1 out of 5 stars)
August 20, 2018

We were very disappointed in our praying Mantis egg cases. The first one hatched with at least 100, and we had the recommended flightless flies on hand to feed the tiny mantis'. Within days, every mantis was dead. Several days later the 2nd egg case hatched with maybe 25 mantises. Again, all died within days. My granddaughters were broken hearted.
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2nd order and still no Mantis.
by MajikDoggie (1 out of 5 stars)
March 9, 2018

This is my second order. First one came already hatched and dead in bottom of cup. This order came with one sac looking burnt and dead. The other sac looked healthy. I put both out to hatch just in case. As of 03/09/18 nothing has hatched at all. I have kept them as instructed for hatching. But I fear that both of these sac's are dud's.
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DUDS replaced
by Maloy (4 out of 5 stars)
April 26, 2018

Both cases were duds. I live in Florida and I got these in March. They never hatched and now it's too late to return. I waited per the instructions. So disappointing... This was for my garden.
**UPDATE**

After some back and forth with the seller, I was finally sent replacements that did hatch. I only ever saw a couple of them after they were released, but I also had no issues with the dreaded stink bugs this year, so I'm thrilled! I did see a few adolescents earlier in the season, but they never made it to adulthood. Stuff happens. This is a natural product, so I get that there might be occasional duds. But the company should stand behind their product and replace those. My money certainly isn't a dud. They did that, and I appreciate it, but only after repeated back and forth, which shouldn't have been necessary. That's why they don't get five stars after replacing, like they would've gotten. Hopefully the next time this happens to a customer, they will provide proper customer service right away.
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These are amazing. But let me tell you
by Ross Kimball (5 out of 5 stars)
June 19, 2018

Oh boy. These are amazing. But let me tell you, don't let the dog get them!

Four weeks ago I thought it would be cool to buy one of those habitats that has multiple praying mantis egg sacks and watch them hatch with my kids. The plan was to release them in the front and back yard. So the package comes and one of my kids (4 year old) is perplexed and the other (11 years) is like F-you, gross. We check them every day for the first week or two and nothing happened. The excitement died off but we still checked it every 2-3 days. My 11 year old has a Girl Scout trip to Hershey, PA this last weekend so we spent Friday and Sat night and drove home Sunday, getting home late afternoon. I cannot find this habitat anywhere.. I was like WTF. We do have a cleaning lady that is known to put stuff away and we have to look for it so it was nothing out of the ordinary, it will turn up.

Some come today I am sitting in a meeting and my wife texts me at noon and says "OMG praying mantis are all over the couch."... I drove home (only 10 mins away) and sure as heck I see 10 or so baby mantis crawling all over my couch. I start to take apart my sectional so I can find where they are coming from. Finally I find one egg stack, pick it up and take it outside. As I am walking outside with it mantis are crawling out of it and jumping. I then find out my dog chewed the habitat, the dog watcher cleaned up the mess and did not tell us. Problem is.... that habitat had 3 egg sacks, I found one. So ether the dog watcher cleaned up and threw away some or I potentially have 1-2 more egg sacks in my living room. Each egg sack has 50-200 praying mantis.

Will buy again but not let the dog get them!
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GET THESE!! You will thank me later!!
by simms (5 out of 5 stars)
May 31, 2016

THESE WERE AHHHHHH-MAZING!!!!!! I think there were about 500 praying mantises per pod case. When they hatched it was the neatest thing. Literally, they spilled out of the pod case and into the cage. I want MORE!!!!! The kids were so excited- and they happened to hatch on the day that we had our nature group over for a lesson, so 50 kids got to enjoy them!! They hatched almost two weeks apart.

The problem: be prepared to deal with them once they hatch. Have a plan. The day after they hatched (the day we were supposed to put them outside) there was a cold snap and we couldn't put them out. After another day I went to the pet store and got flightless fruit flies to feed them. No biggie, but I just wasn't prepared to have them inside for a week. (I'm glad I did though!!! They were the most interesting bug I've ever entertained for a week!)

Oh, also: the habitat I bought for them was awkward to deal with. There was no way to let them out safely. It was a pop up habitat with a zipper that went vertically up the back. I wouldn't purchase that type again.... BUT I WOULD BUY THE PODS A HUNDRED TIMES OVER-- they were seriously amazing and fun.
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Decent hatch rate. Seem to be pretty hardy as well
by Taco (4 out of 5 stars)
October 16, 2017

Purchased these late April and 4 out of the 5 eggs hatched around end of May. 3 out of the 4 had 100+ babies. The 4th one only had about ten or so. I let them loose in the yard to eat up those bugs and saw them around for a good couple weeks or so. It's been about three months since I last saw any, and at that point they were about an inch long. It was unusually warm yesterday so we opened up the front and rear doors to get some air flow. Last night walking up the stairs we see this big guy hanging out on our wall. Surprised the hell out of me how big it was. put it back outside to eat up more bugs. There was a noticable reduction in wasps and mosquitos during the warm months. I will be buying them again next year.

Environment is the Pacific Northwest.

EDIT: I bought these again in 2018. But I bought them a little earlier around early March. I bought twice as many and all but 3 eggs hatched. Most had around 50+ hatch-lings and I spread them throughout the yard. Unfortunately we had a pretty gnarly garden spider season and those little guys were hatching about the same time and their webs were killer for the baby mantis. I don't know how many mantis survived but I've only seen one about half the size as the one in the picture.
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Disappointing and frustrating experience, buyer beware
by The Murray Family (1 out of 5 stars)
June 9, 2019

Mine didn't hatch and the brand was incredibly rude when I reached out to them. After weeks of waiting my children and I are just left incredibly disappointed and angry. I found after the fact that this brand uses wild-caught egg cases and does not actually breed the mantises themselves which obviously raises many concerns. When it comes to products like this you have to trust in the honesty of the brand and seeing as said brand saw no problem with outright lying to me multiple times while I was trying to resolve the situation (by saying that praying mantis females cannot lay unfertilized eggs which is very much not true and saying that they checked every egg to make sure that they were unhatched and viable which is pretty much impossible, just as a few examples), it is clear that this is just a brand that you cannot trust. There are plenty of brands out there that actually breed the mantises themselves and as such can pretty much 100% guarantee the viability of each egg case they ship (as well as the actual kind of mantis contained in them- something that isn't really possible with eggs collected randomly in the wild), so I'd definitely recommend those brands. The fact that all of the egg cases are wild-caught means that any given egg could have already hatched, been damaged or been unfertilized by the time they were collected from the wild, so that does help explain why they fight so hard against upholding their live hatch guarantee.

I do see that some people actually did get their replacements after going back and forth with them repeatedly to get them to honor it, but they obviously do not honor it 100% of the time and that is kinda awful. The entire experience was infuriating, rude and disappointing. I didn't get a chance to teach my children about praying mantises like we'd hoped to, but I did get a chance to teach them about preying brands so at least there was something that we learned from this awful experience.

I would say that I would update my review if there was some sort of resolution, but it's pretty clear at this point that there won't be, and definitely not one that is honest or respectful. It's such a shame because this really could have been such an awesome experience for my family to share.
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Great for kids and garden
by TommyLI (5 out of 5 stars)
August 12, 2016

Fun for kids, good for garden (they prey on mosquitos too), just be patient, this is our 3rd year getting eggs and it can take a month to hatch. Also, don't let the kids convince you to put a bowl of water in 'cause they might get thirsty after they're born' they will climb in and drown. They are tiny when they hatch so get a good container or be prepared to find them loose in the house. Btw, we buy the pods each year so the kids can watch the hatching and be involved in dispersing them in the yard/garden but the ones we release have layed their own pods (I've found them in the shrubs) so they are great perrinial pest control (we live in NY and the recent winters have been near zero temps and they still seem to survive and hatch)

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