Okay, this is really cool. Today one of the four-legged garden staff found a new visitor to the garden. I noticed him hopping around and pawing at something on the ground. I put aside my garden snippers and walked over to see what he had found. Here it is.

As soon as I saw it was a praying mantis, I quickly snatched up my garden helper so the insect wouldn’t be harmed. This scared the mantis, who flew up out of the grass. That in turn freaked both myself and the feline-help out, with the cat leaping one direction and me shrieking like a little girl. After it was confirmed everyone was okay, I snuck over to the black-eyed susan where the insect had perched. Isn’t it gorgeous? This is the first time I’ve witnessed one of these visit The Lot.

The praying mantis is great, natural pest control for the garden. They make a buffet out such troublemakers as aphids, mites, and whiteflies. When I searched The Googles, I found our particular visitor was a Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis). According to the National Geographic profile, these insects can also turn their heads from 180 to 360 degrees. Bizarre.

While snapping a whole series of pictures, I crept closer and closer to the mantis. Then it ever-so-slowly turned it’s head, without moving any other part of it’s body, to look at me. That’s when I shot the above picture and backed away to give it some privacy. I didn’t want to upset it. After all, it may know this guy.