Enormous eyes and massive spiked forearms give them an ominous presence. If size didn’t matter, they’d easily be the scariest creatures in the neighborhood. And, they fly. But It’s hard to fathom anything a mere four-inches long as being badass. But the praying mantises that haunt our yard are just that. They have, to me, a T-Rex, Great White Shark, apex-predator, allure.

I saw my first mantis of the year last May. It couldn’t have been more than a half-inch long and had it sights set on some unsuspecting bug on the railing of our deck. I spotted another one, a male, on our front porch in mid-September, looking for a little love, no doubt. A few days ago in the carport, I saw something dangling off the brushed-brick wall. Turned out it was a dead female mantis that got hung up in texture of the bricks.

I’ve read mantises die shortly after laying the last of their eggs. So it would seem the one I found in the carport had come to its natural end. Another sign that’s summer’s over and winter’s coming.