I am sorta 'farming' Praying Mantis at a client's home where I found a few egg sacks. I pruned a few bushes last fall, and disturbed the egg sacks, so I moved them to other bushes and tied them to branches(they were still attached to the branch their mom attached them to).

Now when I am over there, I keep an eye on their progress as they grow, and see that they are spread out. They are doing that on their own! They are only about 3/4" to 1" long now, but they hatched a few weeks ago.

I saw a lot of ladybugs there last fall, so hopefully they will be back too. LOTS of spiders there too! I guess they can be considered beneficial....... They eat insects too. But I did have to spray sawfly larvae that were destroying the few new Hibiscus plants that came up a few weeks ago,

That's one of the prettiest of the ladybug species....even when not pink, which I've never seen. Also called the Twelve Spotted Ladybug, I've only seen them in a tomato red color, still really pretty!

Highlander, you are more than welcome to all my praying mantids, lol! I swear that they do more mischief in my gardens than help. Ladybugs are like popcorn to them. They won't stay in the veggie garden where they could do some good, but prefer the perennials and annuals, which stay buzzy with pollinators all day long.

I've tried moving them but that doesn't work. Robert transports them to the campus where he works.