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Posted: 8/14/2007 11:22:59 PM EDT
Well, do they?
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:23:45 PM EDT
[#1]
I have fucked with them many times and never got bit
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:26:16 PM EDT
[#2]


I had a biology teacher in high school that swore they didn't.

We were out on a nature hike thing, and we saw one. A girl in my class cringed when he picked it up and said, "they don't bite"

About that time "Ahh fuck! it bit me" {Exact words}



lesson of the story, anything with a mouth can bite,
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:27:43 PM EDT
[#3]
Get a biggun and stick your finger up to the old mandible. Tease it a little, go ahead, poke it a little. Let us know what happens. Better yet, act like a courting male.
Ordinarily, I don't think anything will happen, I have handled a few in my time, but they are carnivorous, so if your finger looks like food, I think they'd bite ya.
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:34:03 PM EDT
[#4]
I had one take up residence in a Jalapeno I was growing in my garden. Whenever I would go out to water it he would climb up and wave his legs threateningly at me.
They're pretty harmless if you're not an insect but they are aggressive.

Colonel Hurtz
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:34:13 PM EDT
[#5]
They eat mice.
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:34:26 PM EDT
[#6]
they are probably the most awesome bug ever.
Link Posted: 8/14/2007 11:35:39 PM EDT
[#7]
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 12:13:03 AM EDT
[#8]
I bought pods of them from the local nursery. it was cool when they hatched i has hundreds of baby praying mantisis running around. none of them ever bit me or the kids
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 12:50:27 AM EDT
[#9]
I'm just happy they don't have stingers.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 12:58:06 AM EDT
[#10]
+1 for most awesome bug ever.

I used to catch them and place them into an old aquarium with grasshoppers.  It was fun to watch the praying mantis tear the grasshoppers to shreds.

ETA: never did get bit by one though.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 1:05:29 AM EDT
[#11]
Who cares about biting people when they can engulf the world in terror???!!!
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 1:17:56 AM EDT
[#12]
Praying mantises have very strong but small and dull mouths. They are designed to be able to chew and grind up the tough exoskeletons of insects. These strong jaws could chew off your fingers easily, given the time, but any individual bites incurred would be "very" tiny. You might get a nip, but as there is no poison or anything, like many biting bugs have to compliment their  "sharp" jaws (i.e spiders, centipedes, ants, etc), it would barely hurt if at all.

You are more likely to get a nice little poke through your skin from the very sharp grabbing needles attached to their forarms for holding prey.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 1:19:11 AM EDT
[#13]
I've never heard of one biting anyone but I've heard they will spit some kind of liquid enzyme at you.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 1:49:17 AM EDT
[#14]

Quoted:
They eat mice.


And each other!
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 1:52:00 AM EDT
[#15]

Quoted:
I've never heard of one biting anyone but I've heard they will spit some kind of liquid enzyme at you.

Spitting Mantis?
Mantis
edited for link
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 2:50:26 AM EDT
[#16]
They stab you with those spines on their forearms.  I'm sure if that killed you they would proceed to eat you in small bites.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 3:37:00 AM EDT
[#17]

Quoted:
They stab you with those spines on their forearms.  I'm sure if that killed you they would proceed to eat you in small bites.


My wife must have some Prayer Mantis in her blood line
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:02:09 AM EDT
[#18]

Quoted:
I had one take up residence in a Jalapeno I was growing in my garden. Whenever I would go out to water it he would climb up and wave his legs threateningly at me.
They're pretty harmless if you're not an insect but they are aggressive.

Colonel Hurtz


this makes me laugh every time i read it...
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:23:34 AM EDT
[#19]
Yes!!!
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:30:15 AM EDT
[#20]


Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:32:50 AM EDT
[#21]
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:34:33 AM EDT
[#22]
Never been bitten but I did watch one fly a short distance last week.  I'd never seen that before.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:43:19 AM EDT
[#23]

Quoted:
they are probably the most awesome bug ever.
+1

I was amazed at how big they get. At Camp Pendleton(home of the 60 pound racoon) I saw one at the barracks that was as long as my forearm.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 4:52:29 AM EDT
[#24]

Quoted:

Quoted:
they are probably the most awesome bug ever.
+1

I was amazed at how big they get. At Camp Pendleton(home of the 60 pound racoon) I saw one at the barracks that was as long as my forearm.


Link Posted: 8/15/2007 5:04:22 AM EDT
[#25]
One of my teachers was showing one to our class and it bit her. It brought blood. Of course we thought it was funny as hell.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 5:07:08 AM EDT
[#26]
My dad caught a mantis for me when I was a kid, but I never tried to hold it. Every time I stuck my hand in the terrarium it would lock its eyes on my hand, and as I moved closer, she would raise her arms up in a strike motion.

It was the longest lived insect I had ever had. It lived almost 2 years and died shortly after making an egg case.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 5:13:39 AM EDT
[#27]
DO NOT MESS WITH> < !
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 5:35:48 AM EDT
[#28]

Quoted:

Quoted:
they are probably the most awesome bug ever.
+1

I was amazed at how big they get. At Camp Pendleton(home of the 60 pound racoon) I saw one at the barracks that was as long as my forearm.


Pendleton needs to send some to Ft. Leonard Wood to take down the two inch long horseflies.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 5:56:07 AM EDT
[#29]
-1 for coolest bug.  Just a green, lanky, overgrown cockroach.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:04:37 AM EDT
[#30]
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:05:52 AM EDT
[#31]
nope.....but they can give you a fatal case of the willies!!!
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:07:37 AM EDT
[#32]
It is the only insect I know of that will actually turn it's head
independant of it's body to look at you.

Freaked my college room mate out.  Called it the bug from hell.

I kept an 8" specimen in an aquareum and fed it crickets.

Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:08:32 AM EDT
[#33]
BTDT.

Bit my finger.  Of course it didn't hurt, but surprised me.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:08:47 AM EDT
[#34]
I was bitten by one when I was a kid
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:08:56 AM EDT
[#35]
dont mess with a mantis man...

there's a reason the chinese used them to learn kung-fu..

a mantis will bite your head off and shit down your neck.. i kid you not!

meaner than a pitbull and twice as deadly...
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:13:06 AM EDT
[#36]
I caught literally hundreds (possibly thousands) as a kid and never had one try to bite.  Out of all those that I picked up I remember two getting defensive and pinching.  There were so many in a field near my house you could find one hanging in almost every small bush.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 6:27:42 AM EDT
[#37]
I love to catch them, I'll put them into the bushes around the house.  It helps keep the bugs down, and they are also the coolest insect EVER!
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 7:56:52 AM EDT
[#38]
I was hoping somebody had a link to the humming bird slaughter.
Never been bitten by a mantis, but always figured they could.

Was working in the garage one day, and a large grasshopper was flying around, apparently couldn't find the way out through the entire open side of the garage that it came in through.

I go out later, and the grasshopper is hung in a spiderweb by the door.
For some reason I decide to take pity on the bug.
I walked over and grabbed it by the back of it's wings and plucked it out of the web.

Little sucker rotated it's head around and bit a chunk out of my finger!

So I squished it.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 8:08:03 AM EDT
[#39]
Never seen one bite

don't doubt that they could

One of my daughter's at about age 5 was playing in the woods at the edge of the yard.

She came wandering back up to the deck where her mother and I were sitting

She said look at the cool bug I found.

I looked and she had a praying mantis sitting on her right arm.

It's head and forearms were even with the back of her hand and it's butt was back around her elbow.

I had to restrain the wife from killing it  
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 8:09:37 AM EDT
[#40]
Anybody ever seen the praying mantis ensnare a humming bird?

Guess I should have at least read the entire first page.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 8:40:29 AM EDT
[#41]
I've got a spider problem around my house, particularly black widows. You guys think obtaining some prey mantises might help?
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:19:54 AM EDT
[#42]

Quoted:
I've got a spider problem around my house, particularly black widows. You guys think obtaining some prey mantises might help?
Carb cleaner works really good on black widows.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:26:03 AM EDT
[#43]
Not that I would ever kill one cause I think they are damn cool but who the fuck started the urban legend about it being illegal to kill a preying mantis?
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:27:08 AM EDT
[#44]
The female mantis kills the male after mating by biting it's head off.

I'm just saying.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:28:00 AM EDT
[#45]
When I worked in a petshop someone got bit by a mantis shrimp
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:28:55 AM EDT
[#46]
I had a grasshopper and a mole cricket bite me before.  Not massively painful but sure as hell surprised me.  If it could get bigger it would kill and eat you.  I have no doubt they can bite pretty good if they want to.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:31:47 AM EDT
[#47]

Quoted:
When I worked in a petshop someone got bit by a mantis shrimp


Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:36:46 AM EDT
[#48]

Quoted:
they are probably the most awesome bug ever.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:39:27 AM EDT
[#49]
had one for a pet for a while ----- wnever got bit and was one of the coolest pets I have ever had----you can buy the egg sacs and hatch them on your own.
Link Posted: 8/15/2007 9:40:46 AM EDT
[#50]

Quoted:
had one for a pet for a while ----- wnever got bit and was one of the coolest pets I have ever had----you can buy the egg sacs and hatch them on your own.


They're apparently quite good for garden pest control.
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