This is kinda a weird story...

About 10 days ago, my friend and his girl friend noticed a Praying Mantis near thier apartment... My friend, being the bully he is, started to mess with the insect...

Poking it with sticks, dangling a chain in front ot it... getting it to Freak out...
All in good fun...

Then something happen...
The Insect CHARGED him... and him and his girlfreind ran up the staires...

The Praying Mantis then made its way up the stair case... Clinging on the wall...
And then parked itself outside of her doorway...

So now, my firends G/F was stuck in her apartment... The Mantis also camped out thier neighbors door too... as he was partaking in the fun messing with the insect...

The Mantis Held onto the wall, and staked out the doorway all night...

The next day, my firends G/F calls us up, and says the Mantis is still outside her door, and she is too scared to move...

So me and my friend go across town and check it out... The Mantis had gone on 18 hours of slaking now... going back and forth between the 2 doorways...

So, my friend and i decided to catch the bug... so his g/f wouldnt have to be scared anymore... That alone would have made it a scary story.. a bug holding a grudge...

So we had the Mantis at MY apartment for a night, and then releasied it into a tree the next day... that was the end... so we thought...

6 days later, we notice the mantis on our balcony... he has turned from a Bright green, into a light tan brown to match out balcony...

He has been camping on our balcony for days...

We move closely... at first, our minds are blown that this little guy was still here... his outer shell now brown... and we assumed he was dead... my friend and i moved VERY close to it... with a camera... We were mere inches from the bug... Ready to snap a picture of the bug we thought was dead...

We were right next to it, and IT MOVED... AHHH... ever heard 2 grown men scream like little girls... well, thats what we did... we screemed and RAN like little girls...

The Mantis was STILL ALIVE...

The Mantis then moved to my sliding glass door, and has been sitting there for the last day or so... I can't go onto the balcony, for fear of this little bug...



I am blown away by this bugs intelegence...
It LITERLY is stalking me... Camping out, waiting to strike...
First it camped out at my firends G/F's place, now, on my balcony...

I think it is too smart to just kill...
im blown away by this thing...

I think im going to catch it and set it free across town...


I hate my stalker...

Iam so sorry, but I'm laughing my ass off right now. You wrote that in such a way that it comes across as hilarious. I guess I had to be there to really feel the fear huh?
So..my first question is..
Doesn't anyone have a big shoe?
SQUISH

well, while you're all trapped indoors with fear, face your fears and take the opporunity for a learning experience. do some google research on the praying mantis and whether or not it's a danger to people.
so far as i've ever known, that answer is a resounding NOPE!
and calm down. teasing it probably just triggered it's predatory behavior. it probably saw the chains and sticks as potential food moving about in the air, or it just took a temporarily defensive mode in charging your friends. everything after that is possibly some supesrtitious guilt over teasing it. besides, humans - with all their sweat and breath odors - tend to attract all the yummy little bugs the mantis likes to eat. the mantis learns this and sticks around your "habitat" it is pretty smart, isn't it?
this is also the reason that dragonflies buzz your head, and spiders hang around your porch light. people create prime hunting grounds.
as creepy as they appear, they're very beneficial, and killing them is counterproductive. personally, i think they're way too cool to kill.
if any mantis googling doesn't help you relax in the presence of this insect, just capture it again, find a nice wooded area, and release it.

funny story, though. thanks for the laugh.

No problem Tkain. Meet Guidohitmankillerkoala. He wants $2,000 up front and $2,000 when the job is done....and it WILL be done!



Rush

I hate to say this.. but i think you should know what you are dealing with so that you can take the proper precautions. Grass-dwelling praying mantids tend to be green, and tree-dwellers are often mottled brown.

That's right, I am inferring that there is more than one . This means the word is already out on the street ( and in the grass, trees and apartment hallways) about you and your friends . You don't have one stalker. You have a species. The mantids are everywhere. Be careful out there

I do not think it's stalking you man, it's just hanging around, looking for prey, making a home or whatever.

Apparently you guys have not heard of the dreaded...

...Mexican Staring Mantis of Southern Sri Lanka

I'd like to say more but I dare not...

Sounds like he is sending his boys after you now. You really messed up.


I would sleep with one eye open for the next week or two

---THIS THREAD IS SUPPORTED BY THE UNION OF WACK POSTERS---


A Praying Mantis can not stalk you. Do no panic. Here is 2 easy solutions.


1. Find A Shoe (your own if necessary)
2. Stomp It.

Following Steps are optional.

3. Grab a Tissue (non specific)
4. Clean mess by swirling tissue anti clock wise over splattered remains of insect.


Repeat step 2 repeatedly if paranoid insect will haunt you. For repeat offending insect repeat steps 1-5.


Problem X Solution = Outcome.

HAVE MORE QUESTIONS? ASK THE DEAN OF THE BTS/ATS UNIVERSITY ---

Brought to you by the UNION OF WACK POSTERS



image source: http://www.maniacworld.com/girl-vs-praying-mantis.jpg

You mess with The Mantis, you get put on the list.
Don't you people realise these guys, you do not mess with the Mantis Mafia!!!

Well...

After i posted this, the Mantis never came back...

Someone mentioned that it could have been a diffrent mantis, since it was not the same color...

When my friend and i saw it, and thought it was dead, most of it was brown, but its legs were still green... then several days latter, the legs were green too...

Mantis CAN change thier color...


This was some unsual behavior, something that i didnt see online...


It was cool. This thing WAS stalking us for weeks, and gave me a GREAT story...


OH, and to those that wanted me to just kill it...
That was my first response, but one of my roommates is a vegan... and... well... he just wouldnt go for that...

In fact... there was a spider on our floor, and i was going to chrush it, then he freaked out.... so i just put a tubaware containier on it... and a show on the container...

SO no there is a spider, in a container on our floor with a shoe on top of it... He is waiting until the spider is on the tubaware, then he wants to take it outside...

[edit on 10/10/2008 by TKainZero]

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Umm.. i hate to point this out..but have you noticed the new member of ats lurking the boards??? name ~ preying TKainZero mantis ~ you have a problem....a grey none other..new colour to blend in i thinks to self..TK..buy a nice big red coat..just for fun