When Ariel Matthews set out for a long walk around her neighborhood, she wasn’t planning to save a life. But 3 miles in, she spotted a large praying mantis lying on the sidewalk — and ants swarming all over her.
“My first reactions were shock and a little
bit of panic,” Matthews told The Dodo.
Rather than leave the praying mantis to her grim fate, Matthews decided to help.
Finding a couple of pieces of bark nearby, Matthews carefully scooped up the mantis.
“Then I kept transferring her onto different pieces of tree bark, because the ants would start to scatter,” Matthews said. “I kept doing that until most of the ants were off her. I gently picked off the really stubborn ones.”
After about 10 minutes, the mantis was ant-free. But Matthews didn’t stop there.
Concerned that the weakened praying mantis might face another attack, Matthews decided to bring her home to give her a safe place to live.
“I had my son place her in a small tank, and she’s still doing well,” Matthews said.
But it turns out Matthews didn’t just save a single life that day. After a few days at home with her, the mantis laid an ootheca — a foam-like case to protect her eggs.
The mantis was a mom-to-be, a role that, without Matthews’ intervention, she may never have gotten the chance to experience.
Praying mantises typically live between six months and a year, and many adults die later in the season after laying their eggs. Matthews suspects the mantis mom may be nearing the end of her life, but she plans to help her for as long as she can — and the generation to come, too.
“I’ll take care of her until then,” Matthews said. “I will take care of the egg case as well. [When it begins to hatch], I will release those babies.”
