A bug's life: a praying mantis' journey

Reagan, Kennedy and Nixon are doing great, no one has molted yet but they are big eaters and very active. This evening we spent time with a 3 of Ella's friends, 2 of them boys who insisted on finding a mantis in one of my crepe myrtles to take home with them. Found them they did! And many others. They have promised me they will not come get more or mess with the ones left out there so nature can do its work. They were about the size of ours, one named his Michelle the other Godzilla bug. I told them how to care for them and made them promise if they got tired of them or they couldn't take care of them to come put them back in my trees.

Also found one beautiful brown one that was the same size as ours, but one boy injured it trying to catch it in haste, so we had to have a talk about how to handle them as well. Found another bigger brown one on the eve of the house, and I was going to catch it, really felt it was female just by the shape but she was too fast for me, found another female while looking for that one but she was also too fast. I like to gently coax them into a jar and not just grab at them when I catch them, seems nicer and less chance of injury like the one the boy hurt. 

Pictured is Alex, we tried to keep him/her originally but turned out she was too tiny for me to find a decent food source for without ordering fruit flies so we let her go to grow some more. You can see how big she is compared to Ella's fingers (who is almost 10 so good size hands) I have seen him/her several times in my chocolate mint plant where we released him/her and he/she comes to visit me when I am in the garden.So very sweet, haven't seen Alex in a few days hope things are ok.