Do Praying Mantis' creep you out?

I have more of a fascination with them. They are good for the garden,

After reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, I find them fascinating:

“Adult mantises eat more or less anything that breathes and is small enough to capture. They eat honeybees and butterflies, including monarch butterflies. People have actually seem them seize and devour garter snakes, mice, and even humming-birds. Newly hatched mantises, on the other hand, eat small creatures like aphids and each other” (Dillard 58).

Oh yeah. Starship Troopers meets Psycho. If those suckers were any bigger…....well, just doesn’t bear thinking about!! :¬(

I think that they’re awesome looking things.

I like bugs.

Kind of,but it didn’t stop me from laying in the dirt to photograph one.:)

I think they are pretty cool but also kinda scary in how the females exhibit such a humanistic trait of biting off the heads of their mate! XD

They only creep me out when they find their way onto the back of my neck and crawl around.

True story.

Not at all. They fascinate me.

I had one in my kitchen this morning. I saw him last night on top of the fridge, and this morning he was on the glass of the back door. I caught him and put him out, as one of my dogs would eat him! They have an incredible flight for an insect that is such a streamlined killing machine- fluttery and gauzy, like Tinkerbelle :>)

I do not know why they want to kick my ass.

I see that look in theirs eyes. I know they want a peace of me.

@noelleptc Thanks for the heads up! XD

All bugs creep me out. These are near the top of the list of bugs that creep me out the most. Yuck.

Not sure I’ve ever been referred to as the “sane one” before. haha.

They don’t creep me out at all! I actually order a mantis egg case from a garden supply company each spring. Each egg case hatches 150–200 baby mantises. They are about the size of mosquitoes, and I put them in the garden to help control pests.

It’s fun to find one that’s all grown up later in the summer. They can bite though, so it’s best to be careful when handling them.

Sometimes the kids and I will keep one for a few days to observe it and see what it will eat. We even got to see one shed its skin once. Praying mantises are great!

@MissAusten I’m glad you are not my mom. xoxo.

It is understandable. They are pretty creepy looking. Once I learned more about them and had the opportunity to observe them, it took the scariness away.

You might enjoy this short film by Isabella Rossellini from her Green Porno collection. WARNING: it is indeed insect porn…sorta.

Fuck yeah. I think I have seen too many sci-fi movies. They look like miniature aliens.

@TheOnlyNeffie If you were my kid and the mantises freaked you out, I wouldn’t torture you with them. At least, not much.

That’s a relief. lol.

No, but Dobson flies do:
http://images.whatsthatbug.com/images/dobson_christopher.jpg

I had never seen a praying mantis before my birthday last year. I came home from a day out to see a mantis, probably about 4–5 inches long, just sitting on the railing of my steps, chillin’ out. I didn’t realize they were big like that; I’d only seen them on TV! It was a little creepy, but more cool than anything else.

They freak me out. They are very creepy. The first time I saw one, it really scared me. But I was also riding my bike when it collided with my face the fell in my shirt. Bad memories. I lost control of my bike and hit a parked car.
So I really don’t like them, and the way they move (shudders violently) don’t even want to think about it.

I love them- theyr’e so cool- I bought an egg case last year but it never hatched I was mad

Nope, i think they’re cute. Plus i don’t see them every day so it’s nice to see one in the garden now and again.

Oh no, not even a little bit! I think they’re fascinating creatures who’re adorable and so fun to watch. Plus they catch and eat the bugs I don’t like. =) Same as spiders. I love spiders.

Um, whoa. That short film was peonably the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.

The film was also slightly incorrect. Females don’t eat the males nearly as often as people think, and usually only if the female is already hungry or if the pair is confined to a tank or artificial environment. Males are smaller than females and can easily become prey if they are trapped together. If she’s been eating well, the male has a good chance to escape unharmed. He only becomes dinner 5–31% of the time. Some species are more cannibalistic than others, which seems to have given all female mantises a bad name. source

Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid creeped me out.

Sooo, you like Castlevania, don’t you?

Oh man how’d you know?

I think the insect is pretty neat though, despite that after sexual intercourse, the female goes all cannibal and devours the male. Fuck’s up widdat shite?

No, they are harmless. Did you know there are over 100 different species of them and they come in several types of colors? They are also related to cockroaches.

I think they are fascinating little creatures…and, I can’t understand why someone might call them ‘creepy’.

They take care of many garden pests and are welcome in my yard anytime.

Yeah, yeah, I know they are all a source of fascination and work in mysterious ways, but I am so petrified of them and things like locusts, that I don’t even want to be within 3 kilometers of those alien buddies. While I appreciate the wonders of nature and admit that the human is the scariest of all creation, I definitely don’t want those things around me. I could really and truly die of cardiac arrest if one of those things flew in. There was a locust sitting on the porch the a few days ago and since then I have avoided that side of the house. I know the mite has left and moved on, but I shudder to think that it may still be around somewhere. As for the MANTOID, put me in a morgue any day rather than within walking distance of one!!!!!!!!!

@ZEPHYRA

I’m so sorry that you are so fearful of them. I don’t know what to say…I guess we all have things we fear.

Good luck.