Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[CountryEscape]

While I was gathering grasshoppers to feed to my resident bullfrogs (soooo much fun watching them go after the grasshoppers ... and more often than not, the grasshopper escapes!), I noticed no less than a dozen Praying Mantises. So, I began to wonder if they were hunting the grasshoppers, too! Tonight I got my answer.

The other night I spotted a pair of them making more PM babies ...

And, tonight, in the same plants that I spotted the pair, the one eating the grasshopper was in the same plant, and this VERY pregnant one was close by. Wonder if after mating, the female swells up with eggs that fast, or were these likely different ones?

Check out the face on the pregnant PM. She looks like she's do the raspberry at me! LOL

 

[davepratt]

They eat the male

 

[CountryEscape]

That's what I've always heard, Dave, but I didn't stay around long enough to see if she did or didn't. Saw another mating couple this evening, female was lime green, male was brown. I also saw them stalking grasshoppers, so I've been stealing their food source, so need to quit feeding my lazy bullfrogs. :blueflower:

 

[j.w]

Oh no I thought you were joking Dave but I looked it up and found this:

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, glad I didn't stick around to wait for her to eat him, then! Said the mating can take minutes or hours, and the bugs were biting, so I didn't even want to watch for a few minutes! LOL Well, I guess a girl has to do what a girl has to do! Maybe if that male would come for mating with a big juicy grasshopper for her to eat when they were done, she wouldn't eat him! Wonder how long it will be before the males will figure that part out! LOL

 

[j.w]

It was gross when the thing didn't die and was still trying to get away from her. If he is anything like a human male at all he won't be thinking of anything except getting the job done. Only us females would think ahead of something useful to make the outcome safe for ourselves :biggrin:

 

[HARO]

I knew you'd come up with something like that! :cheerful:
John

 

[j.w]

And I knew you would be the first one to comment about it :biggrin:

 

[haver79]

Country, good to know that you may have figured out your issues with your fish. Being very much a newby it is good information you have shared.
I too have concerns about aerial spraying and may have to take precautions myself. Can you share the name of this particular fungicide?

 

[CountryEscape]

Keep in mind everyone, I'm not sure of anything, but they way I look at it, any precaution I can take to keep my ponds safe is all that matters. I don't blame the farmer or the sprayer, just want to know why they died. They used a fungicide for the corn. If you want to PM me, I will be happy to share the name of the chemical. I just don't want it out on the internet that I said this chemical caused my fish to die! The part that leads me to believe this was it, is that the koi are perfectly fine! And, last year they sprayed the beans, obviously with a different fungicide, and no deaths happened. So, I'm leaning toward this being the problem, since fields were sprayed 1 or 2 days before I got home from vacation and found dead fish, and no dead fish the day before I got home. Just seems everything IS pointing toward this sprayed fungicide. That being said, the easy cure is to have the farmer contact me prior to spraying each and every year. That will be my job, to remind him, and then I will cover my ponds with a very large tarp. Easy fix in my opinion!!! :blueflower:
But, the product that is used for sheep, and also for koi to cure flukes, is called Supaverm. Read about it, tons of posts on the internet about it being deadly to goldfish. Some people actually put it in koi ponds to get rid of all the goldfish, it's that deadly!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, Next time I say my wife bit my head off I'll think about the praying mantis really getting his head bitten off!

 

[CountryEscape]

Trying to see if my Boston and her puppies video will post here. Taken last weekend when they were 5 weeks old. Yippee, it did.

 

[j.w]

Awwwwwwwww, they are sooooooooooo cute but I wanted to see more :cheerful:

 

[sissy]

she is making them exercise all that puppy weight off :cheerful:

 

[mtpond]

So cute. Looks like two of them only think about eating.