Did you know that one praying mantis can have a clutch size of up to 100-300 eggs in one egg sac?! While that is a crazy fact to think about, another is these insects love to adhere their egg sacs to the grasses in our fields at Avalon and we usually find over 100 of them each year. However like most animals that lay large amounts of eggs, very few of the young will make it to adulthood and most won’t even hatch.

Each spring, we mow the meadows to maintain them. We need to intervene and do our part by removing these nests prior to mowing. This is the ultimate conservation project! We will have an enclosed large wooden box to place the egg cases in. Are you up for the challenge? These nests are greatly camouflaged and the collection often becomes a competition. Let’s see how many we can get this year- whoever collects the most nests will receive a prize! Following the spring mow, we return to the fields of Avalon and set the egg cases back for hatching.

We need 8 volunteers.

What you’ll need:

• Long sleeves, long pants and high socks with hiking boots/sneakers (ticks are a concern when we go off trail)
• Water bottle/snack

Register:

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