Subletting

We have a new tenant...

Last month, I found a baby praying mantis in my herb farm.  An eensy, weensy little thing, I simply thought "Oh how cool" and moved on with life.  It didn't even dawn on me that this little stinker could be responsible for my then eroding basil.  (Fear not, the basil is fine now.)

Yesterday afternoon, I had tea with a very dear friend of mine.  While discussing the upcoming Olympics, the proper way to point your foot (we were both ballerinas) and back sweat -you know, the finer things in life usually mentioned during afternoon tea- we noticed a HUGE praying mantis on the window.  So cool.  I mentioned to her that I had seen a mini one in my herbs earlier in the summer, and we continued our conversation about romance and American Ninja Warrior.

In the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that my poor window box is just getting annihilated.  For the most part, I've blamed the scorching summer heat for that, but I couldn't help but notice the little holes in the foliage of my marigolds, geraniums and zinnias.  (Shut up.  I am fully aware that I sound like an old granny).  

I submit:

Can heat zap and wilt?  Yes.  Can it poke holes?  No.  But this can:

Any guesses who might be responsible for that?  Can anyone tell me what it is?  I'll give you a hint:  it starts with a  "p" and ends in "raying mantis shit."

This morning, as I was out on the patio, watering the plants, I came across this:

He's back!  And he's bigger!  Still a tiny, spindly little thing, but nevertheless he has grown.  Initially, he startled me, but then I saw his mouth working.  Have you ever seen a praying mantis eat?  It's fascinating.  At that moment, I started to notice some baby wasps lingering around my flowers.  As if following my gaze, baby mantis did a back flip onto the next flower and it occurred to me that, perhaps, he has been keeping the wasps at bay.  Is he ninja-ing them, chowing down and then defecating on my flowers?  Disgusting, I know, but if he is responsible for minimizing the wasp population, then he can stay.

He'd better just keep out of the herb farm.