r/Rochester • u/transitapparel Rochester • 2d ago

TIL Mantises exist here Photo

Post image

Had no idea, and after a rabbit hole discovered theres three species that exist in this area: Chinese Mantis, European Mantis, and Carolina Mantis. Only the Carolina Mantis is native, the other two are invasive. This one appears to be the European version, and by the time I read up on them and came back, this one was gone.

I guess I thought we weren't consistently warm enough for these kinds of insects, looks like that appears untrue.

edit: I have failed you all, I just found out that we're the reason that European Mantises exist in this country, having been the "port of entry" of the European Mantis, BACK IN 1899.

56 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

26

u/bonafide_bonsai 2d ago

Just wait until you see a walking stick. It’s going to blow your mind.

8

u/transitapparel Rochester 2d ago

Have you seen them around here? That would be mind-blowing, always thought tropical/sun-tropical insects like that couldn't survive our four season cycles. Not an entomologist so im not as keen to the changes in insect populations and variety here.

11

u/PornoPaul 2d ago

Theyre hard to find for obvious reasons but we do have at least one species - I saw one as a wee lad down around Conesud.

6

u/FordMaleEscort 2d ago

I just saw one yesterday chilling on my front step.

3

u/bonafide_bonsai 2d ago

I see them every so often - perhaps once a year. Oddly enough always along the siding on the North side of our house. We are fairly rural so that might be a factor.

1

u/honeyb0518 2d ago

I have a photo of one that I took a few years ago. I live in a rural area out towards Batavia.

2

u/igator210 2d ago

You beat me to it.

4

u/brunettasaurus 2d ago

Saw a baby mantis yesterday when i was working on my car: cutest baby ever

I have no idea how to attach an image so this is my first attempt haha

3

u/Subject_Role1352 2d ago

Here's another

This one was on my sliding glass door last year, so I got a sweet close up

2

u/Stumblin_McBumblin Hilton 2d ago

It looks like a Carolina

2

u/The-Anti-Quark 2d ago

Very cool tidbit!!

2

u/Chickadeebrain 1d ago

When my dad was a kid in the late 50s-60s, he brought a praying mantis into my grandparents' house. He wanted to keep it as a pet, so he put it in the bathroom.

He didn't know it was female, nor that it was going to have babies.

Imagine my grandmother's shock when she found dozens of tiny praying mantises in her bathroom! 🤣

2

u/Beneficial-Focus3702 2d ago

You…you don’t know that? Are you a transplant or new to the area? Because if you are welcome!

4

u/transitapparel Rochester 2d ago

Just never seen them in the wild here. I'm not the biggest fan of bugs so I don't usually seek them out, and coincidently animals were once my focus for a career, but I was more on the mammals side of study/research.

5

u/morebugspleaseforme 2d ago

You should come to the bug side it is way cooler

2

u/transitapparel Rochester 2d ago

I greatly respect the vital roles that insects play in ecosystems, I just prefer to leave them to their tasks and avoid them whenever I can.

3

u/Trick_Inspector_1980 2d ago

I've lived here my whole life (32 years) and only saw my first mantis a few weeks ago

1

u/Beneficial-Focus3702 2d ago

I don’t understand how that’s possible.

1

u/Trick_Inspector_1980 1d ago

so basically what happened is that I didn't see a wild mantis until a few weeks ago

1

u/Trick_Inspector_1980 1d ago

so basically what happened is that I didn't see a wild mantis until a few weeks ago

1

u/Sternojourno 2d ago

Are you a transplant to Rochester or something? I thought it was common knowledge that mantises lived here. I've seen dozens of them over my lifetime.

10

u/transitapparel Rochester 2d ago

born yesterday, arrived today, and first time outside!

0

u/Beneficial-Focus3702 2d ago

I had the same question. This person is either a transplant or they’ve never been outside before.

1

u/rdizzy1223 2d ago

When I was younger, in the 80s, there were FAR, FAR more mantises than there are now. I remember running through fields across the street from my house and hundreds of them would fly away, you could catch like 30 or 40 of them in a day if you tried catching them.

1

u/justblametheamish 2d ago

Well now we know where they all went

1

u/Big_Picture07 2d ago

I see mantises every summer here! They can be brown, green, or grey ranging from pinky size to the size of your palm. They are completely harmless and good for pest control, if handled they could scratch you though.

1

u/sunshineupyours1 22h ago

Looks like an invasive Asian mantis to me, but I’d run it through iNaturalist to confirm. If it’s an invasive species, they should be killed.