Why are praying mantis so friendly?

I found one of these beautiful things outside with the stub of it's legs gnawed off, I guess it got affected by pesticides in the grass. I walked up to it and it didn't even try to run away, instead I was suprised when it lifed its front legs in a manner that didn't seem threatening so i put out my finger and it climbed onto my hand. It was very friendly, I took it inside my apartment, put my cat in another room and set it on the desk. It just sat there with its front legs out again (I think this is a relaxed non hunting position) like it wanted to get back on my hand.

I figured the poor thing was hungry so I cut a small flake of chicken from my sandwhich and put it on my finger. It very gently grabbed it with one of it's front legs and began to eat. After eating, i let it climb on my hand while i read ATS and it started cleaning itself off, heres the weird part.. It started grooming my finger! I could tell it wasn't trying to eat my finger cause i would have felt the mandibles. It was an odd feeling! I set up a nice little habitat for it using my old aquarium with a flourecent light to keep it warm. I've had alot of experiences with mantis, and they always seem to be so friendly and attracted to humans. Do any of you have similar experiences with these wonderful creatures?

reply to post by LeTan


Make sure there arnt any dragonflies around.
Those things are agents of the government!!!!!

reply to post by LeTan


I find those bugs fascinating. I dunno why. I consider it a charmed day when I find one.

Maybe this one found you. Maybe it is your totem animal, or spirit guide. I have heard(correct me if I am wrong) that the animals you attract tend to be the type of your spirit guide.

But you must live further south because there certainly are not any out around here, .

If he is missing a leg it could of been by bird, or a woman. Female mantises can cannibilize the males after mating, maybe he had a leg up on her.



I will be here all night folks.

reply to post by LeTan


Well, I always thought they were pretty cool. I had one in my back yard that I watched grow from being a very small mantis to becoming very large. Eventually, it moved out of the yard I suppose for better hunting because my yard is fairly small.

One time before it went away, I held a twig up to it and I was very amazed with the amount of speed and strength it grabbed the twig.

reply to post by LeTan


When I was younger, I helped to open a new grocery store in an area that would be considered very "country". Had a large Amish customer base, and all hehe

Anyhow, i worked overnights quite frequently, and would spend a lot of time outside in the warm summer nights. The parking lot there was HUGE, and we had a lot of lights set up. This attracted, as you can imagine, a massive amount of insects. And with those insects came a HUGE number of mantis' to partake of some easy meals.

I had a lot of opportunity to study them up close and personal, and became so enamored by their habits and means of hunting, etc, that I ended up taking martial arts in praying mantis style

In my experience they were completely unafraid of humans, and would interact with me and others in a great amount of fascinating ways. I remember one night I encountered a mantis that must have been a mega-grandmommy.. She was enormous. I'd never seen one so huge, and have yet to since.

She was sitting on top of a car when i passed it by, and I noticed her right away... She turned to face me and made some boxing-type movements, I took it as a bit of a warning to keep away... which I did at first I kid you not she was as long as my forearm, and very formidable looking. I stood and watched her for a bit, and whenever I would move, she would follow my movements. If i raised my arm, she would raise hers; wherever i turned my head, she did as well, totally mimicking my movements.

Finally, I got a little braver, and stepped forward, and she did the same. We got very close to each other, within 6 inches or so. Suddenly... she STRUCK.... but not me... she ended up grabbing a bug that had landed on my shoulder!

She killed it pretty quickly, and i watched it all, so fascinated. She dropped it onto the car, and stepped forward to me again, and this time she started to climb onto my shoulder. I was quite a bit paranoid! But i wanted to see what she would do. She got all the way onto my shoulder, and started to comb through my hair, and wow that was a weird feeling! I think she was looking to see if i had any more bugs on me lol. After a couple moments, she crawled back off of me, grabbed the big bug that she had killed, and took off fast.

I heard a voice behind me say, "that was the coolest thing I have ever seen!" Turns out my manager had come outside to see what was taking me so long, and found me encountering this massive, yet pretty friendly, insect.

Didn't get into trouble at all lol he was talking about what he had seen her do for days


Anyhow, yes, I've had quite a number of fascinating encounters with these amazing creatures, and am still endlessly drawn to them. Lots of stories like that regarding them in my life hehe

reply to post by nixie_nox


That's essentially true. According to the traditions of my own ancestors, a person will see an animal before a major event in their life, and it's meant as a warning, can anticipate the type of event depending on what you see.

You will also tend to see the same types of animals in your life; if you do, they will probably be your totem trying to show you something important. If you pay attention, you'll find something you're seeking nearby.


Mantis does tend to be a very powerful totem, and considered very lucky with my ancestors. Some other tribes consider them powerful, yet unlucky. Depends on where your background is I guess

It probably associates you with food and protection, because of that it is doing what it feels is a beneficial act to keep on your good side. Kind of like how the Egyptian Plover (a bird) feeds on food and parasites stuck in a Nile Crocodile's mouth. The croc gets hygiene treatment from the bird, the bird gets food and for a little while protection from other stuff by being near to the crocs.

Wow it actually ate chicken you fed it? Now that is something else. I wonder if I were to keep one I could feed it little meat chunks.

I find it very weird the way they stare at you by twisting their head as they do.

I for one do not like most insects because they are just strange having more than 4 limbs. I have always been partial to Spiders and Mantises though.

Where as Spiders look like they go on instinct, Mantises seem to be actual thinking creatures and your story of the large Mantis just reaffirms my suspicions.

When I was in Middle school we used to play rugby (before it was considered too dangerous) out need the back of the baseball diamond. Our school was pretty deep in the brush. It actually had a Wild life reserve/sanctuary behind it. There were always interesting bugs back there and I remember capturing one mantis and letting it crawl all over me once. Boy those creatures are a sight to see up close. Pure power and a beast of the insect world.

Praying mantises are always in a constant state of elevated meditation, and are ultimately confident in their kung-fu style.

don't mess with them.


-

reply to post by Jomina


Thats amazing! I had similar experiences, these insects seem so wise!

Originally posted by Tentickles
I for one do not like most insects because they are just strange having more than 4 limbs. I have always been partial to Spiders and Mantises though.

Where as Spiders look like they go on instinct, Mantises seem to be actual thinking creatures and your story of the large Mantis just reaffirms my suspicions.

Make that only for Mantis then. Because spiders are no insects.

Very interesting story. I think we underestimate the value and abilities of animals. We think we are so smart, but i think that kind of arrogance blinds us from the real truth.

reply to post by Jomina


That was a great story.. I was be completely freaked out if that happened to me. I have noticed that they're unafraid of humans so I usually keep my distance.

I remember about 4 years back, I was at a house with lots, and I mean LOTS of blue belly lizards running a muck, and the occasional snake and alligator lizard.

The blue bellys clearly owned the area, the insects around we're just right for their consumption. So I made it a habit of going outside with a lawn chair, drinking a beer and watching them for a good 30 minutes to an hour, watching their social activity and just enjoying the fact that they indeed show consciousness, and some intelligence, more so than just instinct. There had to be about 30-50 of them, and they typically lived in the 2x4 pile of wood.

So after a few days of watching them, I had went to go inside and play a video game, however, you can hear these guys skitter across the ground, and I heard one skittering behind me. I look to my 6, and there is the one I've always liked, he was smaller, younger, but always very energetic and presented himself as a young alpha to the rest of his pack. As soon as I look at him he starts doing his push ups, which are very amusing. so I keep walking, and he skitters along behind me. I get to the door of my house and he's just at the edge of the shade where the entrance to my door is. I figure, maybe he thinks i'll get him some food. I figured out earlier on they don't care much for dead food. So I go to the other side, find a small potato bug, and toss it his way, immediatly he attacks it, backs off, continues until he kills it and consumes as much of it as he good, then he kind of just sat there for a few hours.

Towards dawn he had migrated back to his home.

I walk outside the next morning to check on my friends, and I look down the way and there is a lizard doing his pushups, with a few more running about behind him. so I move closer to the blue belly at a moderate pace, and sure enough it's him. I lean down and extend my hand, and he's not to sure of what to do, so he runs off.

I put my chair down in the usual spot, and it seems they all get very active and aggressive when I am sitting there which is kind of funny.

The same little guy, runs up to where I am, and some of the bigger lizards run after him trying to coax him to come back to the pack, and he doesnt listen, and rolls around biting them for a little whiles. He then runs up as close as I've seen him before, crawls onto my shoe and up my pantleg and looks directly at my eyes, i extend my hand and he jumps off with the flying lizard posture and runs back to the pack. I figure ok, well, I'll go get him some food, so I did so, found a few sal bugs which I do not believe are their favorites, but he did indeed come over, i had them in my hand he ate them off of my hand.

After a few days of showing I was not a threat to him, or his pack, he had finally crawled into my hand, and would stay there for a few minutes, sometimes letting me pet him.

Every morning that exact lizard would be at my front door. The other lizards eventually tried, but he was very territorial over me.

I love animals of all different types. XD I use to have spider wars, i'd catch flies and throw them into spiders webs and watch them fight over it.

[edit on 26-2-2009 by Revolution-2012]

Yes, I have had a similar experience with a mantis. I work outside with plants all day and had one land on me and crawled around and around me until he decided to rest on my crotch. He seemed very comfortable and let me pet him. I had to work, so I gathered him up on a stick and set him down. I never found insects cute, but this one was.

Cool story.

I'd love to see one of these creatures. I think i owe nature a great deal because as a youngster i used to think it was 'cool' to kill insects (mainly due to being in the wrong crowd and easily infuential), but now i think i owe nature my karmic debt and will always try and peacefully remove an insect from a room or bath or sink.

Lately, i've truly began to understand the nature of life and wouldn't dream of hurting an animal, insect or bird.

But to be groomed by a mantis would be an honour. What cool creatures they are

I like to think everything has meaning. This talks about a PM totem/power animal:

The Power of Stillness


The Praying Mantis teaches how to still the outer mind and go within ourselves.
Through this, we can draw upon greater power --
physical, emotional, mental or spiritual.
That stillness can be simple contemplation or meditation or even dreaming.

Healers often have Praying Mantis totems -- for they use
their inner stillness to focus their healing power.

The greatest lesson this totem teaches is patience.
Learning to wait for the right moment before striking.

I love mantids.

We had one here at my det for a while - she was HUGE. We used to catch these leaf shaped grasshoppers and things for her to eat.

In my life, I have never felt as close to a BUG as I did to that Mantis. lol That sounds weird to say - but they have this eerie quality about them as if they have a deeper understanding of what's going on around them than you would think.

Nice thread!

Haha you fed it chicken? I didnt know they ate chicken , i thought it was mostly green stuff. Nice peaceful post anyway Well done.

great stories people!

i've had several encounters lately, with them. growing up, they seemed to be everywhere. maybe because i was young and looking more.

anyway, last year at my shop, i was buzzed by something big one night. grazed my hair! caught a flash of it and didn't give it too much thought, since the shop is on the beach.
then one day there were all these little "bugs" seemingly all over the place, i looked more closely and they were baby mantis. really cool. so we left them alone.
long story short, one night, one flew into the kitchen and dissappeared behind some boxes. ok, that seems like good luck, no prob.
a month later we had to vacate, lease was up and i found what i assumed was the one that flew in that night and most probably the mom of the babies.
i put her outside and she/it turned and looked at me, lol. weird but nice.
we leased again after some renovations and i hope they show up again.

this guy was one of a pair that scared my wife coz they wanted to come in the house! lol. she called me at work. alas after a few days i found their bodies, natural causes i'm sure. the colors were very different, the shop mantis was the bright green and as you can see this one is not.