@kkott When the kids were younger, I bought the kit with Mantis eggs in the net that hatches all of them. I wonder if I was raising the Chinese mantids.

@hooky haven't heard of that, but I think their egg cases are pretty different if I recall, so it should be easy to research and tell. Yes, the Chinese appears more round/oblong sort of like a hornet nest and about the size of a marshmallow, while the Carolina is flatter and elongated (looks like a leech to me!). It probably would be a good conservation thing to try and get folks to raise the natives and eliminate the non-natives, but it might be too late to deal with. I just don't think there's enough awareness/concern to make an impact. They're having a similar issue in the Keys/Florida with lion fish and there is awareness there and a decent incentive if you're a spearfisherman/diver/lobster harvester. I think for every 10 lionfish you catch/kill they allow you to harvest 1 additional lobster. 

Have you ever been down there and caught lobsters? That is fun and also wild that I think you can get an annual lobster license for like $5 that allows you to catch 6 lobster per day in season. 

Update: quick scan on Amazon and almost all of them for sale were Chinese. I did see 1 Carolina and it was labeled that way, but it looked like 20:1. 

@kkott Yeah, this was 15-20 years ago. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

I've never done lobsters in the Keys. I did go with a buddy who lived in San Diego, but I was too worried about white sharks in the kelp to enjoy it after he told me to keep my eyes open.  Ignorance is bliss, and that one time was more than enough. 😆 

@hooky that would give one pause! This one anyway! Keys lobstering is nice because the waters relatively warm and you don't have to go terribly deep to find them (<15'). Finding legal ones is the challenge.

Back to hummers: my season is dwindling in Rock Hill SC outside Charlotte. I seem to still have a local or 2 visiting, but visits are getting sparse. Plus, I can usually only see them after work, or weekends. I still had a visitor yesterday and hope to see them this weekend, but the weather looks like crap. Maybe getting some outer bands from the hurricane, but right now the forecast is 100% rain all weekend. 

I did notice strange behavior in the last couple of months on rainy days. a group of about 5-8 hummers would just hang out right around the feeders and weren't as aggressive, but seemed like they were doing little courtship "dances" in the air around the feeders. Be interesting to see if it happens this weekend.