Now that we are getting settled in our house, we've both noticed an abundance of praying mantises. Yes, I just looked up the plural of praying mantis and apparently "Praying mantises" or "praying mantes" are the correct form. And get this, "praying mantids" is also acceptable, but only for a distinct species (the most common species). Who would have thought?

Anyway, back on topic, every time I water, I notice at least 2-3 praying mantises (which of course I love), and I can't help but wonder why we have so many because in the past I've only ever seen one at a time (and rarely ever even see them).

I got curious about if they have nests or something that would explain what seems like a big population, and after research, it turns out they do. Not sure if we have a nest, but man did I found out some cool things about praying mantises.

Bored yet? Not me!

I am pretty sure their nests are mostly just egg nests, and you can see what one looks like (with praying mantises being hatched) here:

Praying Mantis Hatching Out Of Egg Nest

I haven't seen anything the looks like an egg nest around our house yet, but I'll keep looking.

While I was taking pictures of the awesomeness (And Tessa being jealous of the awesomeness as you can see here...)

One of the praying mantises I was photographing made this crazy quick and scary head/eye movement to face me, and for the moment I thought, "Man, this thing is going to bite me." And then came the, "Oh silly, it's just a praying mantis."

Oh what little I knew.

Well..while researching the nests, I came across many interesting things.

First, check out these attacks. Eek!!

Praying Mantis Attacks Hummingbird

Praying Mantis Attacks Camera

And now for the

Praying Mantis Ambush

Man they are quick.

And how crazy is this, I didn't even know Praying Mantises could fly.

Am I the only one? Feeling a little left out here.

Pet Praying Mantis Flying

And who even has a praying mantis as a pet?