The Martians Have Landed

...and one of them got ensnared in a spider web in our garden this morning.  Hubs, who was out watering some new shrubs dutifully came in to let me know there was an "enormous" praying mantis out there.  I grabbed my 850 with macro lens and zipped out to find a huge mantis chewing its (I'm going to go with her, based on size) way out of the web.  I tried to assist.  She tried to bite me.  Then she got on the lens of my camera which caused me a moment of unease  panic as I suspected she was coming for me!  In case you are wondering, mantids are not venomous but they do have mouthparts that can draw blood on a human finger.  Anyway, I finally got her onto a shrub and then used a tiny stick to pull some of the web off of her.  She appeared to be eating the web and here you can see her antenna with some web stuck to it, along with a bit of water.  I decided to go in for a close up on this because I think their faces are very otherworldly looking.  I will put a full body shot in Extra. She was tracking me as you can see from the head angle. Keeping in mind she was between 3-4 inches long.  

I have a love/hate relationship with these big insects because the species we have here are non-native and prey on ... everything.  They always end up getting some of the monarchs who stop for food and I've heard of them camping out on hummingbird feeders to snag a hummer.  They are voracious and lightening fast.  But they are also fascinating.  So this one lives to do whatever she is destined to do.  But I will be watching the butterfly bush in case she decides to set up shot there...

I've got a quick follow up this afternoon with the pain management doc who is doing my neck injection during which we will schedule the next round.  I'm feeling optimistic that this treatment will help the arthritis in my cervical spine (which is just regular arthritis, not rheumatoid arthritis).

I've released 7 monarchs in the last two days.  Yesterday's went for my MIL, her eldest son, husband and sister along with one for Jimmy Buffet.  Today's went for two special blippers who both lost someone.  I like that I can do this.  This late in the season, all of the monarchs are emerging big and strong, ready to make their epic migration of the mountains outside of Mexico City.  

I think dark with ginger today.

xo
Debbi