Do praying mantises eat Swallowtail cats?

11 years ago

I have almost no swallowtail cats this year, even though my garden is brimful of fennel, dill and parsley. I noticed a big mantis the other day in the dill. It stared at me like it was thinking, "I could take you, lady." So I wonder -- are he & his friends snacking on my swallowtail cats? Or is it just because we are in a terrible drought out here in Nebraska? (But I do water my beds every day no matter what.) So my question is -- do mantises eat swallowtail caterpillars?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

wifey2mikey
11 years ago
I have seen them eat Monarchs. I have actually photographed it so no doubt they would eat swallowtails too.

~Laura
imabirdnut
11 years ago
I have heard they even will eat hummingbirds so I would think they would eat any BF or cat that is around!!!
I love having them but I don't like seeing them near my BF host plants & will move them if I do!!!
Related Professionals
Signal Hill Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Milford Landscape Contractors · Alamo Landscape Contractors · Cordele Landscape Contractors · Fort Payne Landscape Contractors · Holland Landscape Contractors · Live Oak Landscape Contractors · Mission Landscape Contractors · Rochester Landscape Contractors · Ansonia Landscape Contractors · San Pablo Landscape Contractors · New Haven Fence Contractors · Plainfield Fence Contractors · San Juan Capistrano Window Contractors · Snoqualmie Window Contractors
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
11 years ago
The only way that these insects won't eat your caterpllars and butterflies is if you cart them far away from your garden. I used to carry the ones I found over to my neighbor....but the darned things would end up back on my flowers! They grabbed bees and butterflies. Look for little piles of wings in your flower beds.
butterflyaddict
11 years ago
Mantis not a problem in our garden. The culprit here in our yard is the Brown Anoles(lizard). If you have an abundance of them beware! In earlier post I mentioned the wrens were eating mine. But after further surveilence I figured out it was the Brown Anoles who was wiping out my BST and GF cats. I found them living in a pile of firewood next to my Fennel and passionvine. I've since built a cage to house a few caterpilars and I moved the wood pile. Nature will win out everytime but I like the challanges.
rosefenn
Original Author
11 years ago
Holy smokes! Thanks for the tips. I will move those bad boys out today!
hagar3
11 years ago
I have seen a movie of a mantis catching a hummingbird on youtube. I couldn't believe it.
runmede
11 years ago
I had this lovely planting of Purple Coneflower. I started noticing wings of all types of butterflies. I finally found a prey mantis that was using my Coneflower as a dinner table. And, yes, noxious or not, they eat Monarchs, too.

I cart the mantises down the block to my neighbor's house. I hope they don't come back. I hate killing them, but I hate even more them killing my Monarchs and other butterflies.