# Gardener and Entomologist types - ID this cocoon (?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238 "2007-03-31T20:53:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/1 "2007-03-31T20:53:03Z")
My wife was out the back gardening today, and she plucked what looked like a couple of cocoons from a small azalea bush. I was wondering if anyone could identify them? [Here’s a picture](https://jshare.johnshopkins.edu/mhender4/public_html/gen_images/cocoon.jpg) Also, now that she’s removed them from the plant, will they still be OK? Can they be replaced on the bush? Will they “hatch” if we leave them in a jar? I ask because, if they’re not something that’s likely to destroy the garden, i see no reason to prevent them from hatching. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/2 "2007-03-31T21:28:30Z")
I’m not sure that it’s a cocoon, like for a moth. It may be some other insect. It’s not a chrysalis that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/3 "2007-03-31T23:34:17Z")
Looks like a [Praying Mantis egg case](http://www.ppdl.org/dd/images/praying_mantis_imm_case.jpeg). ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/4 "2007-03-31T23:39:58Z")
My first thought was [galls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall_wasp) , but **Oury** l’s picture sure seems like a match. Praying mantis eggcases… eww. Do they hatch all at once? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/5 "2007-04-01T00:10:55Z")
I think ouryL has it right. It looked like a egg mass laid as a foam that hardened. They’ll all hatch at about the same time. You should be able to attach it to something outside. Maybe on a pruned branch stuck in the same general area. Make a sticky loop of ducttape and put it on the brach and stick the former branch spot of the egg case against thr tape. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/6 "2007-04-01T00:47:18Z")
Yes, definitely a praying mantis egg case. You do want to put it back in the garden, as those little mantids will devour a lot of bad bugs that cause damage. People buy those egg cases mail-order as beneficial insect control. Try to watch for when they hatch, as the babies are cute little translucent miniatures of the adults. They all emerge in a day or so, and amazing to watch. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/7 "2007-04-01T00:58:52Z")
No, no…Those are croutons. Try them with some romaine and dressing of your choice. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/8 "2007-04-01T03:10:09Z")
Definitely praying mantis egg cases. DO NOT bring them inside the house to hatch, like I did when I was a kid. Unless you want thousands of baby mantises looking for food throughout your house. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/9 "2007-04-01T03:44:56Z")
Cool! Thanks everyone. We’ll replace them outside tomorrow, and keep an eye on them for the hatching. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/10 "2007-04-01T11:52:57Z")
I used to bring in cecropia moth cocoons, and one year I had 3 that hatched out in the night. One was a male so they mated and the two females laid eggs all over the wood paneling. Hundreds of eggs I would guess. Ma didn’t mind them in the house, so she didn’t have much to say, except look what the moths did. I would have removed the preying mantise eggs last night. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/11 "2007-04-01T16:01:19Z")
I want to ask a related question. When I was a kid (living in the Dallas/FtWorth area in Texas) during the Spring (I think it was) there would be these weird cocoon-like objects laying all over the place. All over our car, for example. They appeared to me to consist, not in any kind of silk, but rather, tiny bits of leaves packed together and covering up a gooey inner mass. When I was a kid I decided these were some kind of cocoon, though I had no real evidence for this. I never saw anything emerge from one. And the things were (at least sometimes) alive, in the sense that they were literally, wriggling around. So I now think they were not cocoons. Rather, some bug or worm or something had a strategy for encasing itself in plant matter, at least temporarily. Except the really strange thing is, when I opened one up once (I was just really curious, okay?! 🙂 ) there was nothing inside that I could discern as constituting an organ, or even tissue. It was just gloop all the way through. But the damn gloop had been _moving_ before I (:() killed it. I dunno, maybe some cocoons remain semi-mobile at least part of the time or something? Well anyway, my question is, what the heck were these things? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gardener-and-entomologist-types-id-this-cocoon/398238/12 "2007-04-02T00:06:49Z")
**Frylock** , Sounds like those were overwintering [bagworm](http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/bagworm/bagworm.htm) egg cases. Lots of info and photos on that link, including[this](http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/bagworm/photo4.htm) photo of the eggs inside.They don’t hatch until May/June, so still would be in the gloopy stage you describe. As to why they’d be all over the cars, perhaps spring rainstorms knock them down. Or, as I recall, the Yellow-billed cuckoo likes to eat bagworms, and it’s [migration](http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail_migration.asp?recnum=BD0033&viewType=migration) would put it in Texas in April. Just a guess on my part, but hungry cuckoos might feast on an infested tree, and knock some down in the process.