Mantis Signs

While this is certainly not my best picture ever, I'm ridiculously excited about the content. While rambling around the yard today my mother spotted this and asked what it might be. It's an egg case, from the preying mantids I released last year. I stuck a milk crate over it so I don't manage to crunch it in my spring garden cleaning. I'm ecstatic. I was considering driving an hour to the butterfly place I go the egg case last year just so I'd gt more mantids. Looks like I won't have go (too bad there's a cheese-making store near by I want to visit, they do have other butterflies available however so maybe I'll go anyway). They should be Mantis religiosa, the European mantis. I'd rather the Carolina mantis, but I haven't seen any available.

I also mixed up 5 different lettuce seed types today and planted them under the plastic sheet hoop house that managed to survive the winter. I'll be trying to plant more in about two weeks if these ones come up.

Now all I need to figure out is how to get native grasshoppers back in the yard. We had plenty when I was a kid, but they've dwindled and I haven't seen any in several years. We'll be tilling the dirt this year and trying more seriously to get some grass. I would love to have back the mix of green and tan grasshoppers we had before.