Well morty had an amazing adventure this winter, he doubled in size and is still a very small snake. My cat was staring at him all day and getting pretty amped (Dive bombing the cage off the shelf ledge) and so one night after cleaning his cage my wife (luckily not me) left his top open and he made a daring escape in late january right before we were going to brumate him into my wall, since i have redone insulated and painted my wall i was really hoping i did not have to rip it out to get him and sure enough the first day i saw garter snakes in my backyard that night my wife found him in our house. We scooped him up and fed him up and started planning where to put him. My cat seems to have forgotten about him which took over a month with his empty cage (he may have some natural intelligence) and has so far kept her laser focus on mice rodents and rabbits and has not been abject murdering the many garter snakes that frequent my backyard. We feel that morty would trigger her however and we do not desire to find his carcass in the backyard or re ignite her snake obsession. We have been scouting for good spots for him and think we found a good one, we took a free coffee mug and put his favorite 2.5" plastic pot in there with some cotton paper towel blankets and buried it 6" in the ground. We found a spot thats only 9ā from the crik and only a few feet from a starter hole to it and he is protected by a tree grove from above. Its on a incline and the soil would wash down it not into it and i put a nice 12" branch barrier underneath the weed cover. We hope he does great he has definitely gotten my wife to stop screaming at snakes possibly and change her, her sisters and her mom and aunts feelings on them since he was so damn cute.
Cheers Morty!
Soā¦I thought this was a REALLY neat little experiment and it went great and has been so interesting and enjoyable (for some strange reason). Anyway, way back last december I spotted a Praying Mantis Egg case that had been built on a a little strip of wood on the side of my barn. I was certain my goats would end up eating it or at least tearing it up, and Iām a big, big fan of Praying Mantis. I wasnāt quite sure what to do with it, and on a whim I decided Iād put it in a little plastic container from store bought potato Salad. I was very curious to see what would happen! I thought it was fairly likely that if they hatched at all, they might do so in the middle of the winter because I left them in my warm house. I also thought it was likely the eggs just wouldnāt hatch, either from the months of warm temps or because the container might not have enough oxygen (I was afraid to poke air holes since I didnt know how big the babies would be if they did hatch). I sat the container on a shelf above my TV where Iām living, so all winter long I have been watching it and wondering if anything would come of it. Then it happened!!! Yesterday morning- nothing. I came in last night and WHALA!!! Just like magic!!! There are HUNDREDSā¦literally HUNDREDS of baby praying mantis everywhere in the little container!!! THe photos donāt begin to show how many there areā¦I couldnāt capture the whole container in a photo and you canāt see the huge number that are still on the egg case and blend in.
THe photo of the one on the quarter shows you how incredibly tiny they are!!! Sooo small, yet they look just like miniature adults.
Anyway, most of you probably find it creepy and/or strange, but I think its pretty neat for some reason. Go figure. ANd yes, Iāll be letting them go tomorrow in my orchard and hoping they stick around!!
UPDATE/EDIT : I was just googling my project and had no idea that there are dozens of places that sell Praying Mantis Egg Cases in plastic containers, so my little project isnāt nearly as original as I thought it was! haha. Oh wellā¦its still been fun.
How and what are you going to feed them and when to release them back to the wild?
very neat Kev.! when i was stationed in Korea they had huge mantises there. we would catch them and put them on the window sill in the guard shack to watch them catch the flies. the Koreans considered them sacred. seen some as big as 8in long.
Soā¦I was going to release them today but its pouring rain here. After a little internet research, I fed them tiny pieces of raw chicken meat . It workedā¦they absolutely devour itā¦amazing how much they eat. But Iāll let them go in a day or two, The sad thing is Iām sure out of the 150 or so babies, I bet only a very few will make it to adulthood- they are so tiny and helpless Iām sure all kinds of things eat them
@moose71 Iāve seen photos of some of those giant Asian mantisis and they are AMAZING!!! I love watching videos of them or even the American ones catching and eating other bugs. And as you probably know, the female often eats the head off the male after they mate!!! And yet Iām enamored with these guys! haha
@LarryGene hope you saw my photos above. I know you are something of an insect guru and certainly already know all about these guys, but I still thought you might get a kick out of my seemingly successful project!
Donāt you feel sorry for all the males who get eaten by the female after they ādo itā??
If I was a Praying Mantis I would skip that few seconds of fun and staying alive.LOL!!
during the mating season they would fly around looking for a mate. luckily they were slow enough to avoid when walking.
Would you really though! We all have weaknesses can you really blame the guys? and they gotta feed their kids!
There are so many funny things I could say in response to @BlueBerry and @tonyOmahaz5 ās comments about the males getting eaten after matingā¦but this is a family oriented web site so Iā'll resist most of them. But who knows, maybe some things are WORTH dying for. 
ha.
I just hope most of these little guys survive. Papa may have given his life for them, after all!
A few that frequent my back yard in Sebastopol, Ca
Downy Woodpecker
Peacock
Chestnut Backed Chickadee
Spotted Towhee
And Acorn Woodpeckers
I scared a ruffed grouse out of a cedar tree near my apples (one I need to eliminate at some point to help with cedar apple rust).
@Monardella, I have a little webcam. Iāve been trying to catch some beavers at work, near our house. And otters, a few months ago. No luck.
But I think Iāve found another use for the camera. I have 2 little dogs. And āsomebodyā is sneaking into my laundry room hall and leaving a puddle . . . every evening around dinner time. I canāt tell āwhoā . . . and they are both saying āNOT ME!ā
So . . . Iām gonna set up that webcam and solve the mystery! - PomGranny
Fabulous pics!
Haha yeah thatās a great use for a trail cam. In fact I have a mysterious superpooper visiting my front garden and I attempted to use the cam to find out who was the culprit. No luck unfortunately.
This lady Sherri Tippie has been saving beavers for 30 years she is incredibly selfless sweet and wonderful and did most all this research on how to make beaver dam bypasses. Beavers are amazing creatures she makeās dams that support wildlife but still let water flow through. We have done this all over colorado for the last 30 years. Did you know that if you pick up a beaver it will cuddle with you and that they are not naturally aggressive? If you have a creek and one moves in its worth building these.
A video explaining what they are doing
Thank you for this. We have looked up ābeaversā on the internet - to understand better, what they are doing. We live right on the edge of swampland and not far from the IntraCoastal Waterway. Lots of trees. Lots of water. - - - We have tried to see them active, in the evening . . . but when we walk toward their dam - we hear them out in the pond, slapping their tails! I suppose they are warning us to āgo awayā. Weāve glimpsed them swimming out in the pond - but itās very dark and they are hard to see. We enjoy all of the wildlife that live here with us. Some more than others. We have herons, otters, geese, hawks, and a bald eagle who stops by from time to time. Once, I spotted a bobcat. Other people, nearby, have seen little black bears. And coyotes. But beavers . . . this is a first.
Beavers are a incredibly important part of the ecosystem, They definitely need our help and are not a animal that is overpopulated, However its better when they do not make permanent dams for everyone down the line and this is the best solution! I will bet you could get some environmental studies college students to come build you one and it would probably help get them projects completed for schooling.
With coronavirus all over here I bet Sherri is really bored and she definitely will respond by email and you could chat with her if you want to learn more about beavers! and she definitely wants more people making these they are mainly in Colorado Wyoming California Oregon Idaho and Washington. We need to get people on your side of the sea board making these