Last spring, I bought a couple of praying mantis egg cases and, after they hatched, released carnivorous death on my garden pests. While doing yard work today, I discovered a handful of familiar looking egg cases on various stalks in the garden. So I harvested them and put them in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator. What’s the best way to keep the eggs alive and healthy over the winter? Is the refrigerator a good idea or should I just put them in the (fairly cool) cellar? Should I put in some wood shavings to keep the humidity up?
Is there anything that lays eggs cases that I might be confusing with those of the praying mantis? (Looks a bit like an oval piece of styrofoam on a stick.)
I used to raise praying mantises when I was a kid. You really should have left them where they were. For one thing, you do not want thousands of newly-hatched mantises swarming around inside your house, looking for food. Take it from me, you don’t.
The egg cases were mostly in my wildflower garden that gets mowed down to a couple of inches this time of year. Another one was in some morning glory vines that I was taking down after it got killed by frost. I'm also not completely sure how well mantis eggs handle subzero temperatures, so I'd like to maximize their survival.
The egg cases, as I said, are now in a zip lock bag, so swarms of tiny mantids shouldn’t happen.
I think they are perfectly adapted to your environment.
I would find a protected place outside and just leave them there. If you have them inside, they may hatch too early (in the middle of winter). Also, if you have them in an enclosed container, and you forget about them, the young mantids will perish.
