fact: praying mantii are the cutest insects
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minxnim
meow
lizard
Member
I think if I had a praying mantis in my apt I would have to suck him up in the bug vacuum but not electricute him but release him into the wilds of Columbus.
i would let him grip my index finger with his pincers the same way you let a baby do it with a tiny fist!
goatschool
Member
i hate to say that i killed one as a dumb welp.
my grandfather had one resting on his arm. he offered it to me and i thought he meant to grab it, like, in my paws. the thing sort of gripped me back with it's pincers, and thus is stomped on it. what a bastard i was. that's illegal, too, i think.
my grandfather had one resting on his arm. he offered it to me and i thought he meant to grab it, like, in my paws. the thing sort of gripped me back with it's pincers, and thus is stomped on it. what a bastard i was. that's illegal, too, i think.
i remember one was found in the bushes of our playground in grade school and some fucking thug kids gleefully stomped it to death. urgh.
the urban legend of our school was that it was only illegal to kill one in CT, because it's CT's state insect, or something?
the urban legend of our school was that it was only illegal to kill one in CT, because it's CT's state insect, or something?
FuSoYa
Lunarian
minxnim
meow
goatschool
Member
dunno about josh, but i hate spiders. that pic is FUCKING SCARY.
i think the death of a PM is illegal everywhere?
i think the death of a PM is illegal everywhere?
FrostGiant
Mr. Pibb > Dr. Pepper
Thru some quick google research there is not a federal law prohibiting the death of the praying mantis. Check with you local or state offices for restrictions in your area.
Dear Straight Dope:
I was out with a group of people when someone mentioned praying mantises. He said that it was illegal to kill them. Several other people said that they had also heard this and thought it was true. I have never heard anything like this and can find no reference to it. What is up with this story? --Lindsay Luke, Silver Spring, MD
SDSTAFF Jill replies:
I heard this story all through my childhood too. My mother perpetrated the myth that it was illegal to kill them in New York. According to the Department of Agriculture, it is not illegal anywhere to kill a praying mantis, even in Connecticut, where it is the official state insect.
It is of course ill-advised to kill them, being the pest-consumers and all around neat insects that they are--those human-like swivelly necks, those eye pupils that dilate at night. (Actually, Doug the Straight Dope bug guy says mantises don't have pupils, and neither do any other insects. What appear to be pupils, and the apparent dilation thereof, are an optical illusions. Doug wants to be the boss of insects.) But among their own kind, spousal homicide (entomocide?)--specifically wives consuming their husbands (or lovers)--is not only legal but common, as one can read in this classic Straight Dope column: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/ a2_007.html. We had the good (?) fortune to actually witness this first hand last week, when my children and I introduced a mate to the female we keep in a tank at home. Actually we gave (or rather fed) her two of them. The first she ate right away from the abdomen up, holding him just like a hot dog. The second she allowed to mate with her, and that boy got his money's worth before his unfortunate demise. The mating took over six hours, then she turned around and plucked his head off and ate it like an apple. Hell of a way to teach your kids about the "birds and the bees."
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmantis.html
I was out with a group of people when someone mentioned praying mantises. He said that it was illegal to kill them. Several other people said that they had also heard this and thought it was true. I have never heard anything like this and can find no reference to it. What is up with this story? --Lindsay Luke, Silver Spring, MD
SDSTAFF Jill replies:
I heard this story all through my childhood too. My mother perpetrated the myth that it was illegal to kill them in New York. According to the Department of Agriculture, it is not illegal anywhere to kill a praying mantis, even in Connecticut, where it is the official state insect.
It is of course ill-advised to kill them, being the pest-consumers and all around neat insects that they are--those human-like swivelly necks, those eye pupils that dilate at night. (Actually, Doug the Straight Dope bug guy says mantises don't have pupils, and neither do any other insects. What appear to be pupils, and the apparent dilation thereof, are an optical illusions. Doug wants to be the boss of insects.) But among their own kind, spousal homicide (entomocide?)--specifically wives consuming their husbands (or lovers)--is not only legal but common, as one can read in this classic Straight Dope column: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/ a2_007.html. We had the good (?) fortune to actually witness this first hand last week, when my children and I introduced a mate to the female we keep in a tank at home. Actually we gave (or rather fed) her two of them. The first she ate right away from the abdomen up, holding him just like a hot dog. The second she allowed to mate with her, and that boy got his money's worth before his unfortunate demise. The mating took over six hours, then she turned around and plucked his head off and ate it like an apple. Hell of a way to teach your kids about the "birds and the bees."
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmantis.html
goatschool
Member
i demand a law enacting capital punishment against those who would rob the life and soul of a mantis.
goatschool
Member
xfer!
i left you the perfect opp for a statute of limitations/old age joke.
you could have been the board hero for the day!
i left you the perfect opp for a statute of limitations/old age joke.
you could have been the board hero for the day!
Yasser Arafat
Not a terrorist. Really.
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