Pothos / arrowhead plant combo has been happily growing in this pot on my front porch over the summer. It’s about to be under 50d at night so I’m bringing all my plants inside. I have been inspecting every plant for insects and found this growth on this pothos. It feels sort of like a bouncy ball. Really gross to look at! Any ideas?
by thecozyneedle
28 Comments
Kinda looks like a Praying Mantis ootheca
Oh there’s gotta be bugs in there…or an alien potentially.
Yeah – before you move that inside you might want to inspect for things you don’t want crawling inside your house… and maybe on your face at night…
Aliens
Looks like a mantis egg sac to me
Your best friend.
If you’re in the US, that is also a non-native mantis egg case. The native one is slender and more rectangular.
I’m a Master Gardener and we recommend people destroy the non native egg cases. Drop in rubbing alcohol.
Wow, that’s amazing!!
In temparate areas mantises normally overwinter as eggs and hatch when it warms up. They hatch in the winter though if it’s warm. I’ve heard of people waking up to hundreds of baby mantises in their house after the ootheca was brought in on a Christmas tree. So in any case don’t just leave it there.
You really shouldn’t be giving spoilers for Alien Earth Season 2!
Definitely a mantis egg case remove it ( just break off and remove that stem) and put the stem with egg sac outside in a bush…they’ll hatch in spring .
A praying mantis egg sack! If possible, I would leave it there and try not to get water on it. If you don’t want it on there, I would carefully remove the leaf its on as to not damage the sack, then place it somewhere covered outside to wait for next year!
Jealous. I ordered a couple of these off amazon as feeders for my chameleon. Only one hatched but he went absolutely wild
You are so lucky. I need many to help control the insects eating my plants.
if the author wanted to overwinter the sack and put it outside when it warms up, could she put it in a small aquarium with a covering that allows for air but doesn’t allow the babies to escape? How would one save them over the winter?
It’s a praying mantis egg sac
…something horrific
I don’t know but I’m scared
Cut and yeet that thing into a public park bush or something lol
https://preview.redd.it/uncm0a0b96wf1.jpeg?width=140&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba368126f5aa9d3b7d253365f51fb5f9c2aa4866
At first I thought it might be a cocoon of some sort. But it wouldn’t be squishy. Maybe some kinda slug, weird mushroom?All gross🤮. I’d be cutting that leaf off.
praying mantis ootheca!! cool find!
You removed the leaf and put it outside right? Mantis are awesome lil guys
Congratulations on your newly found parenthood 🍻. I had one on my lemon tree and a few weeks later they were everywhere. Super awesome watching them run all over my other plants eating every bug they can find 🤠
Keep it warm and you can raise some baby praying mantis you can actually sell them and they will eat all the bad bugs from your plants
If you want you can cut that branch off and send it to me I’ll pay you 20.00 dollars if you didn’t squeeze it to hard
That is a scrotum