One Quick Praying Mantis
I was quite upset this past month when I opened my November issue of my National Geographic magazine and found this image.
It was taken by Sharon Fullingim who could not believe what she was seeing.
She mentions that the discarded hummingbird was dropped under the feeder when the praying mantis had finished with it, and the next day that bug was back on her feeder, waiting for another hummer to come along.
Now, I feed the hummingbirds, and I have never seen one of these guys on my feeder.
I always thought them to be a helpful bug - one that ate many times its weight in troublesome bugs.
And farmers order them by the hundreds for pest control for their crops.
If I ever see one on my humming bird feeder, he is going to be quite unhappy - no entrapment deals coming from me when it comes to these birds.
I will move him immediately to a new home way down the road.
I will say though, hummingbirds are such high powered, fast little machines, and for this praying mantis to catch one is really quite an accomplishment.
And I can only thank Mother Nature that they are the size they are - could you imagine one of them eating us for lunch?
And we could certainly never outrun them!
This is certainly very sad and I find it a little sad. Hummingbird, to me, has always seemed so graceful. It is always good to see it feeding at the feeder. But I have never thought that praying mantis can be so aggressive. If they are bigger, we certainly can end up being their lunch.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:19 pmI never knew!! Nature is something else indeed
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 pmOh my word! I had no idea they could get so big or that they would kill at hummingbird! I would have been devastated. Afraid I probably would have squashed the mantis.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:54 amThat is amazing.I never realized that they did that.I thought they ate only bugs.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:09 pmow gosh! I’ve never heard of it before. This is unbelievable! It never occurred to me that mantis have that capability.
thanks for the info.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:07 amThank you all for stopping by. I was as shocked as you were to find the mantis eating the hummingbird. Nature is truly amazing.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:06 pm