"Preying" Mantis - drastic

I had no clue that praying mantis did this.  I killed the mantis and tossed him, and buried the hummer in the flower bed.

The hummers are migrating from the North and I have so many that I'm filling the feeders every other day.  Have 6 feeders out, but they act if I only have 2.

Anyway, I can't get any good shots...these are so cruddy looking.

Right before I posted this I wanted to read about praying mantis and ran across this shot.  

Praying Mantis Catches a Hummingbird

National Geographic reader Sharon Fullingim took this fantastic photo of a praying mantis catching a hummingbird (and believe it or not, this isn’t the first time we’ve featured such a story). Moral of the story? Don’t ever mess with a praying mantis.

Well River I had no clue either  How do they kill them like this ? I will have to research this as I love hummingbirds ! You are right > you can have a dozen feeders and they seem attracted to maybe two !  Great pics > CD

Wow, who had thunk!  Your photo is fairly close to the Published photo, it indicates they use a standard "ambush" tactic!    Sure is nice seeing those hummers, I told you on chat the other day that they left this area, well, today I saw one!  So my Sep 22nd date for last seen is still possible.

Don

Oh My 1  I had no idea either I am calling my MIL she feeds hummers too!   

Well, regardless you learn something new everyday, but I don't want anything harming my feathered friends.  That mantis is history, and I will make sure if I see one again, I will haul it to another area of the yard.

  RR

It would be great to see hummingbirds in the UK...we are just too cold for them I suppose   Lovely pictures RR

Thanks, Unicorn!  I understand from my friend in Budapest that there's no hummers in Europe.  You may be lucky to see one that is in a bird sanctuary.  Thanks to the www, everyone now can see those beautiful little birds.

  RR

That's an amazing shot, River Rat!  I have noticed lots and lots of praying mantis' around my windows lately.  I took all my hummingbird feeders down about a week ago because the nights are getting cold and I figured the birds would be heading south for the winter. 
Last year we watched a hummingbird acting strangley--she landed on a tree branch right outside our window and looked like she was trying to sleep, the other little hummers kept trying to wake her up.  They would come in and nudge her and buzz her, and she'd perk up.  After about 45 minutes of this she just fell over and died.  I almost cried .  Those other little birds couldn't figure out what happened.  (I think one was her mate and the others were her babies. ) It was so sad!! 
~~sandcreek~~

Oh my gosh, Judie!  Who would'a thought a mantis could do that!?!  Sorry bout the bird, but such is nature I suppose.

       

"Such is nature" is exactly right Nana.  The Mantis has every bit as much right to feed as the hummer did.  Too bad you killed the poor guy just for trying to survive himself.  Bummer.   

I understand though how you would react with "revulsion" at that alien looking predator doing what he does best.  I get that.  I don't get killing him in return though.  Now you've wasted the life giving energy of the dead hummer too.... 

Think about this:  Spiders are disgusting.  Totally creepy, vile, fanged creatures.  I hate them.  But without spiders we would be over run with insects to the point of making the Earth uninhabitable for humans. 

So what do i do when I see a spider in my house?  Gently pick him up (let him crawl onto) a piece of tissue and rush him outside.  Screaming my head off the whole time.  But you get my point....

Wow thats amazing,when Don told me about this I had never seen nor heard of it before,Im seeing it and still it amazes me

I have known the mantis is a voracious predator but I never figured it to be a bird hunter!  I disagree with the let them alone theory.  Any noxious spider,  poisonous snake or especially squirrels around my house are history.  Survival of the fittest is my thing and I am fitter than they are!  I have small grandkids who play in the house and yard and I don't want them snakebit or spider bitten on my watch. I can't afford to budget a couple hundred bucks in my earnings every month to repair squirrel damage either. I don't feed the hummers so I probably wouldn't bother the mantis however.  I have picked them up and played with them as a child and never was harmed by them.  I once read that the most posionous spider in the USA was.....can you believe, the grandaddy longlegs!  Only their mouth is so small they can't bite a human. When you handle one and can smell that urin like odor,  that's probably them secreting posion to try to bite you I am guessing?  Monty

I told my MIL about this, she is a real bird person feeders all over her yard all kinds of birds and th hummers are so much fun for them to watch and she had never heard of such a thing either!

That is AWESOME !
Thanks,

daleshark

Wow Judie! I would have never guessed they could catch and kill a humming bird. That really bums me out, I really thought they were one of the neatest bugs around. Now? I really don't trust them anymore, if they can do that, what else can they do?

A couple years ago I actually rescued a praying mantis and brought him home. I have a picture of him eating a Monarch butterfly that had gotten run over in the driveway. I'll try to get you that picture later.

Really don't know what I would have done if I had witnessed it!

Thanks for sharing!

I always thought it was against the law to kill them? Urban legand? The eat a lot of unwanted insects as well.

I didn't know there might be a law about not killing  mantis!  I wonder if it is Urban or real I might ck Snoops and see later ?? It would be intresting to know for sure.

I always had respect for praying mantis...their benefit of eating insects.  I never in my life harmed one, but this one really cooked his goose.     It was a shock to see him munching on a bird...that's what did it for me.     my instant reaction was just do him in.  I have my respect of other insects too (beneficial ones), I tried to save a spider that was in the water trough, I just reached into the water with a opened palm to swoop him out, well the sucker bit me.  My instant reaction...I shook my hand and he was gone.  So much to trying to rescue it, won't do that again unless I using something else other than my bare hands.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/mantis2.asp

  RR

So what do i do when I see a spider in my house?  Gently pick him up (let him crawl onto) a piece of tissue and rush him outside.  Screaming my head off the whole time.  But you get my point....

hehehehe....I like the part about screaming my head off the whole time.   

its true about daddy longlegs having an odor. always remember that smell! we used to put preying mantis' in 10 gallon aquarium when we were kids, and throw every insect we could in there, especially big spiders. mantis always won!

I never imagined that or saw it before.  Cool pic.  I had a hummingbird land on my hand last summer while I was sitting outside reading.  Probably some sort of folk omen meaning I will go to prison and die young.  (No way I can die young now.)

I never knew that a mantis could kill a hummingbird. They must sneak up and go to a special spot so that the bird does not fly away. Great pics. Sorry about the little hummer. Glad that you killed the mantis.

Judie, that is an awesome picture of nature in action. I have to agree with CanadianTrout though, I wouldn't have killed the Mantis. It's just survival of the fittest. I love those bugs to no end. I buy the eggs sacs (ootheca's) to put in the bushes around here so I can have lots of praying mantises during the summer. They keep all the aphids off my plants. Praying mantises will even recognize you when you go outside. I fed one meal worms everyday a couple of years ago and it got to where she would make herself available at 4 in the afternoon, in the same spot everyday. The female dies about two weeks after she lays the sac. The whole experience was bitter sweet.

[Oldest Coin - 1841 Seated Half DimeOldest Relic - Silver plated 1700's Colonial Buckle]

That's pretty amazing!  Great photo you got of it, who knew they could capture a humming bird 

Hi Judie,   good to see you. I had no idea that kinda thing goes on. I'll have to watch out for that in future.
I do know that we used to get a lot of yellow jackets attacking the hummers, while they fed, due to the sweet feed obviously. Quite shocking..
Yep no hummers in Uk, due to the cold. They are my mothers fave birds, she would love to see one but, as to make do with my pics..

Molly..

Judie, that is an awesome picture of nature in action. I have to agree with CanadianTrout though, I wouldn't have killed the Mantis. It's just survival of the fittest. I love those bugs to no end. I buy the eggs sacs (ootheca's) to put in the bushes around here so I can have lots of praying mantises during the summer. They keep all the aphids off my plants. Praying mantises will even recognize you when you go outside. I fed one meal worms everyday a couple of years ago and it got to where she would make herself available at 4 in the afternoon, in the same spot everyday. The female dies about two weeks after she lays the sac. The whole experience was bitter sweet.

its amazing sometimes the "intelligence" that seems to come from the tiniest creatures.  We had a mantis on our front porch this past week and the way his head would follow our movements was neat.

A few years back we were in a garage putting gypsy moth caterpillars in a spider web.  The spider would run over and spin them up. 
After a few his web must have been getting too heavy and he started releasing the catapillars as we put them on!!