Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Discussion thread: Mantodeology (PRAYING MANTISES) episode is live! (Patreon)

Published:
2024-05-22 19:51:24
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Oooooh, this one is close to my heart and soul. I've wanted to do a deep dive on these ferocious little babies for years, ever since I had a pet mantis named Mirabelle.

Lohit Garikipati is a total joy and has been keeping mantids since he was a wee boy, and now studies them getting his Masters Degree in entomology. He is so passionate and knowledgable and already an expert in his field.

So enjoy this one where we explore mantis vs. mantids, head biting, and whether eating hummingbirds is an internet hoax. Anyone had any good mantis encounters in their lives? Let's hear 'em.

Also this episode is long as hell because he is amazing and I was obsessed. Enjoy.

Preying you love it,

Podfather to Mirabelle (#RIPrayingmantis)

Files

Mantodeology (PRAYING MANTISES) with Lohitashwa Garikipati - alie ward

Pointy heads. Spiked arms. Tragic romance. It's a whole episode about praying mantises with a real life Mantodeologist, Lohit Garikipati. Do they really eat hummingbirds? Are they endangered? Invasive? Smart? Extraterrestrial? Get your fill of mantid mythology, evolutionary gossip, sexual cannibalis

Comments

Raja

Can't wait to listen! Mantises have my heart too! (Mantids? I'll soon find out!!)

Meghan Woods

Excited to listen! So glad you got to do this one 🥰

Alie Ward

Like, massive bucket list episode for old Dad here

Spencer Parks

Loved it! This episode reminded me of the time I was in the car while my first wife was filling it with gas. All of a sudden through the mirror or out of the corner of my eye it looked like something attacked her right at her chest. I thought maybe it was a small bird. She obviously freaked the fuck out. I would’ve too. I rushed out of the car to see what happened and help her. It turned out to be a decent sized Mantid/s! I don’t really remember what size it was but could’ve been about 8”!

Alie Ward

Oooooh, it's a way bigger deal than I thought!

Lexi Cable

I love praying mantises. We got a Christmas tree one year and small praying mantises started showing up all over the tree. It was so cool I loved them

Spicy Native

It was such a good episode!! And I got my name said by Dad Ward. Even better. Thanks Alie for such a great interview, I learned so much about these alien cockroaches 👽 🪲

Jacintha Jaa

Do praying mantis exist worldwide?

andy

so very excited for this conversation- thank you Alie!!!! We raise mantids at my little library in SF 😍

Mimz

Ooh so excited!!!

Alex Nelson

They are preying because they prey upon things, not because they look like they are praying, right?!

Alex Nelson

Are they ethical to keep as pets?! How easy are they to keep? Are they the coolest animals in entomology?

Maria Whamond

Omg my name was said 🙀 I have never felt so star struck in my whole life 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

Jennifer Huseman

Our family had a pet praying mantis too! Her name was Brooke. She laid her eggs on the back of a stack of National Geographic magazines. We put her egg pouch in the freezer and put it outside in the spring. We missed the hatch but she was SO awesome! I love when I get to meet a praying mantis now. What do they eat their mate? Why can’t they live longer? Why are some green and some brown? I’m so excited for this episode!

Alie Ward

Thank you for the questions and for being here!

Alie Ward

We answer all of these in the episode which is out now!

Alie Ward

We also cover this — episode is live and ready to listen to!

Alie Ward

I said your name! I hope you enjoy it, Madame!

Alie Ward

ITS SO CONFUSING! It’s not you — even experts don’t agree

Alie Ward

We do cover that in the episode! It’s live now so listen wherever you get your podcasts

Alie Ward

NO WAAAAAY! I bet they thought it was spring inside your warm house!

Alie Ward

NO WAY!! Where in the world was this? And did it eat her? They’re fierce, man

andy

over the past few years we’ve raised ghost mantids, giant rainforest mantids, unicorn mantids, a flower mantis, and an orchid mantis- they all eat fruit flies, blue bottle, and green bottle flies that we raise as well 😍 and sometimes at the adult stage they can eat our silkworms or dubia roaches or silk moths, but only if they’re at the end of their life cycle.

Spencer Parks

It ate her all up! That's why she was my FIRST wife! I'm a widower. ;) But seriously, it basically just landed on her and then fell to the ground. Not that interesting, but it was a few exciting few seconds! Haha! Oh, and this was in Iowa City. I should ask her if she remembers it. I'm sure she will. :)

Jennifer Huseman

Just one summer. She became very weak after laying her eggs. She lived well into the winter indoors and we fed her bugs, etc. She eventually died. She was a great friend.

Ree McPee

I became a patreon today after I listened to the new episode. I figured anything that gives me this much joy deserves my support! I literally squealed with excitement on my walk this morning when I saw it was mantodeology.

Ree McPee

Also, I walk the same trail every morning and I've been watching the ooooooothica along the way hoping to catch them hatching. No luck this season. I got pictures of the mating, the egg laying, and the oothica post-hatching, but no fresh little nymphy bois this time.

Hannah Gorrie

This was such a fun episode, I learned so much!! Once I had my screen less window open, and an 8" gray speckled mantis marched right in. I am usually not cowed by bugs, but she was way too freaky for me, I scooped her up in a big bowl, tossed her outside and ran 😆

Nick Mikash

Got most of the episode in on my way to and from work today, I love extra long episodes! It's all the better that you're so enthusiastic about mantises! Next time you're randomly in NE Ohio come take a nature nerd field trip to the nature center I work at 🌳 Also, it's pronounced Ashta-būla.

Mouse Paxton

This was such a fun episode, love these funky lil guys!! Also I'm glad I'm not alone in hosting elaborate bug funerals. My friends and I attempted a viking funeral for a cockroach in our bathtub.

Shawn Hebrank

So awesome! Aggressive mimicry for the win!

Jaclyn and her cat Phil

I’m only halfway through the episode but I already love it so much! So fun!

Connie_cannot

when my family and i first moved to our house in 2019 there were ootheca everywhere in the "wild" part of our yard and my kids and i got to see some babies hatch and hang before scurrying off a couple of years in a row. it's quite a sight, if you can catch it. thank you for all the wonderful episodes!

Alie Ward

Ooooh, thank you for being here! And 'tis the season to see them emerge but yeah, it must be very much a right place right time situation! I hope you see some teeny tiny babies in the bushes though!

Alie Ward

You work at a nature center?! Dream job. and okay help me out: ash-ta-BYOOL-ah? Ash-TAB-yoo-lah?

Alie Ward

Mouse, that is the way to do it.

Alie Ward

Do mantises deserve an hour and forty minute tribute? In my world, YES.

Alie Ward

What a good omen for a home! Did you know right away what they were or did you have to google "what is this 3-D printed mini-calzone on my rosebush?"

Nick Mikash

I'm the natural resources manager at an independent nonprofit nature center living the dream doing habitat restoration and a fair bit of public programming/outreach. Come hang out 🙂. And your first option is correct, think Ferris Bueller as pronounced by someone from Maine or maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ashta-byoolah.

GhoulNextDoor

I haven’t gotten a chance to listen yet but this morning when I was sitting in my native flower bed I saw TWO little baby mantises!! I was so excited!! And even more pumped to listen to this episode!!

Alex Nelson

I misread the post and thought this was the question submission 😅 10/10 episode, thank you Dadward!!!!

Lauren Seibert

I forgot to ask this, but this episode reminded me that a Chinese mantis tried to fight me last summer. And by fight I mean it was trying to attack my foot for a solid minute in a parking lot. And even when I came by 10 mins later, it tried again. How did I come across the boldest mantis ever?

Jessica Rudd

This was such a great episode! Mantises are so cool. I’ve only ever encountered one once in the wild, and it was the best. I spotted him on-site at a smelter in Northern Ontario, of all places! Didn’t even know they could survive up here.

Amber McIntyre

Still so bewildered they are closer to cockroaches than grasshoppers! Thanks for asking my question!!!

Kellee Toler

I was listening on a late long drive home to help me stay awake, and then you asked my question and I was so geeked I screamed I'M AWAKE!

Ben Beardiac Fiore

When I heard Lohit Garikipati use the phrase "my niches" referring to fellows in his and related fields, my immediate thought was that this needs to be how scientists refer to each other. Like 'What up, my niches?'

Gene Phillips

Great episode, and I agree with Nick M. in his love for extra-long episodes. There can't be too much of Alie or her well-chosen ologists. By the way, the question about preferring to meet a bear or a bear-sized mantis made me wonder if the square-cube law had ever come up on Ologies. I have listened to every episode, most at least twice, but my memory is getting worse and worse.

Ted Vician

“Trust my hot neighbors.” LOL!

Emily Krieger

i like the idea of community mantis meetups---ad-hoc stroll and scans. let us make it so!

Alyssa Berg

Your office spiders in the secret made me smile! I also love a friendly house spider to whom I can outsource my pest control needs, and so does my mom. She'll go to great pains to make sure no one disturbs the spider pals in her kitchen windowsill, including putting post-its on the wall with an arrow that say "SPIDER HERE!" so no one accidentally squishes them. They keep her kitchen free of fruit flies, ants, and other annoying bugs and they never bother anyone. Win-win for the spiders and the humans imo.

Erica Flory

I was so excited that my question was read!

HeyBails

You were absolutely right, I already thought mantises were darlings but I've never loved them more than I do now

Hannah Gorrie

Yes! I was in Maryland at the time!

Alain Sirois

Just listened to the episode! Loved it. :) I thought you might have been interested to know that “ootheca” in French is « oothèque », wich as the same suffix as “discotheque” (discothèque, in français) or « bibliothèque » (librairie). I think « -thèque » or “theca”means something like : “that contains”. So, ootheca contains eggs, discotheque contains music and bibliothèque contains books. Isn’t that fun?!