KCCI.com, IA
09-01-06
Praying Mantises Move Into Central Iowa
Weather Spurs Mantis Migration
AMES, Iowa -- An Iowa State University entomologist said on Thursday that
mantises are making their way into central Iowa because of a change in our
winter weather.
"It's our theory that because of the recent mild winter's that we're seeing,"
Donald Lewis said, "praying mantids survive a little farther north in the state than
they used to.
The mantis is normally found only in Iowa's southern tier of counties near the
Missouri border.
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They are not dangerous to humans -- eating mostly bugs and the occasional
hummingbird.
"They snatch living animals, living insects, out of mid-air, they grasp them with
these spiny front legs that amount to claws of death and, while the insect is still
squirming, the praying mantis eat that prey alive," said Lewis.
Mantises hatch in the spring, grow all summer and lay eggs in the fall before
dying. The average mantis is 4 to 5 inches long.
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