Dillard notices praying mantis egg cases everywhere. She carries several home and sets them around her garden. Mail-order firms sell the cases to gardeners. Each case produces over a hundred praying mantises, which are a natural means of controlling garden pests. In later summer, Dillard observes an adult mantis stalking insects around her porch light at night. The loud noise the mantis makes as it grabs an unsuspecting moth is startling, even when expected. Praying mantises will eat anything small enough for it to capture - even tiny garter snakes. The young mantises confine themselves mostly to tiny aphids and each other. When Dillard was in elementary school, her teacher brings in a nest of mantis eggs. When they hatch, the teacher does not have the nerve to reach in and.....
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