I'd seen praying mantisses before but this one was a. in my home and b. large enough to be genuinely a little intimidating. The cats won, but it took a long time because they were being more cautious than usual.

[–] Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Aww! Praying mantises are totally harmless (to humans) and eat far more annoying bugs. I give the same pass to most spiders (for eating flies and mosquitoes), mud daubers (ironically for eating spiders), and house centipedes (for eating cockroach eggs).

Flies, mosquitoes, and bitey centipedes can fuck off and die though.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

I do the same, but they have to keep themselves away from my cats for it to work properly.