beneficial garden insects

It begins as a moment of hesitation. You notice a hard, brown, foam-like mass attached to a fence post in your backyard. Rough-textured. Oblong. Slightly ridged. It looks unnatural — perhaps invasive, perhaps even threatening. Your first instinct may be to scrape it away. But pause. That small structure is likely an ootheca — the egg case of a praying mantis — and … [Read more...] about The Strange Foam-Like Structure on Your Fence: A Hidden Nursery of Nature’s Silent Hunter