# Praying mantises and bees...



## Sydney (Sep 26, 2010)

When spring comes along I plan on setting up a beehive. I was thinking of putting it behind the garden so that the bees would have to fly over the tall corn when they leave the hive.
Ive have read that people use praying mantises as effective pest controls in their gardens and I thought this sounded like an interesting idea. I was wondering, would it be safe to hatch a praying mantis egg case in my garden near the bee hive? Is their a certain amount of space you would recommend between the hive and the egg case?


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## BeeButler (Feb 1, 2011)

I wouldn't worry about the mantises and the bees. It will take several molts and mid-summer for the mantises to be large enough to take a bee, and they are probably more likely to go for crawling bugs in general. A good number of them will perish or move on by then. With 30,000+ bees the mantids won't do any harm.


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## stripstrike (Aug 29, 2009)

We did mantises one year by mailorder and I can't remember seeing more than one or two a month or more after the egg's hatched out. I think I saw more as a kid in the fields. They are a very interesting bug to have around. Not as interesting as bees though...

Sydney, get two colonies if you can swing it. The ability to compare between them is invaluable. Mine were very similar at first but as the year progressed they took on completely different personalities and had different actions. For example, one has been all over the mountain camp sugar in the top since it went on in November, the other hasn't sniffed it yet. Both are flying on the warmer days, but one will fly at much cooler temps and earlier than the other. Mite drops were different as well. The initial cost is worth the benefit of having a side by side comparison in the same yard, IMO.


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## Sydney (Sep 26, 2010)

Thanks, I didn't think the mantises would pose much of a threat 
stripstrike- You have convinced me I should get 2 . Ive been trying to decide wether I should start with one or two hives, but it sounds like the smartest decision would be to go with two.


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