Praying Mantis: Beneficial Garden Insect Facts & Folklore

The praying mantis is a beneficial insect that preys on troublesome garden pests. Explore mantis facts, folklore, and why you want them in your garden.

What Do Praying Mantises Eat?

• Primarily insects: flies, crickets, moths, mosquitoes.
• Voracious appetite makes them natural pest control—friends to farmers and gardeners.
• May eat other beneficials (occasionally each other), but prefer sucking/cutting insects that damage crops most.

Praying Mantis Facts

• Most can fly; some females cannot.
• Triangular heads with large compound eyes.
• Flexible necks turn 180° side-to-side, giving 300° vision. Spot movement from 60 feet away.
• The "praying" stance is an ambush position, not reverence.
• Powerful forelegs with overlapping spikes hold prey while sharp mandibles devour it.
• Masters of disguise: typically green/brown, but match habitat—mimicking leaves, twigs, grass, ants; tropical species resemble flowers.
• Females sometimes eat mates.
• Found on every continent except Antarctica. ~1,800 species; most 1–3 inches. Tropical species reach 8+ inches and occasionally eat hummingbirds.

Praying Mantis Folklore

• French believed a mantis would point a lost child home.
• In parts of Africa, one landing on you is good luck.
• Greek "mantis" means prophet/seer—their posture resembles prayer.

As with many predators, mantises become prey too. Natural enemies: birds, bats, spiders, snakes, lizards. With so many threats, perhaps they really are saying their prayers!

Discover other fascinating beneficial insects like fireflies and dragonflies.