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The praying mantis is an excellent general predator to keep pests to a minimum in your garden or yard. It eats aphids, beetles, flies, mosquitos, moths, caterpillars; basically any insect it can catch.
But did you know that you could buy praying mantis eggs and put them to work as a pesticide alternative? They might not be available everywhere, but a search on the internet should tell you if there are vendors in your area. One example of an online store that carries praying mantis eggs is Costco. The 'egg case' they advertise contains between 40 and 400 eggs!
Since praying mantis are territorial insects, where you put the egg case will likely be the place where most of them will stay when they hatch during summer, so pick a spot carefully.
The lesson here is that it is always better to try to create a natural equilibrium than to spray chemicals that will kill without distinction and might make their way up the food chain (to the birds that eat the insects, for example). Another good trick is to make non-toxic organic 'pesticides' from veggies.
Difficulty level: Easy
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