The Hodgepodger

Snapshots In My Time, Of My Time.....Hauntings.

College-freshman year. 1979

I was minding my own business on the way to class. I had my book sack on my back and was walking under a tree at the door of one of the campus buildings. All of a sudden I felt a slight tap on my left shoulder. I thought it may have been a leaf falling from the tree, but then I felt motion. I looked over and saw a very large, triangular, green, alien head spinning on top of a long slender body. I was under attack. It was a Praying Mantis attack.

I have never liked the mantis but after that day absolute terror of them set in 10 fold. I tried to shake it off my shoulder and nothing happened. In fact, it seemed to grip my sweater tighter to hold its position. Somehow I got the book bag off and began to jump around to try to shake it off. It still would not detach. It began to crawl closer to my neck all the while with that triangular head spinning crazily. I began to scream for someone to help me. There were other students also entering and leaving the building. Noone really stopped. They were all trying to get to the next class.

Still the mantis kept coming. There was no way to get it off. I kept screaming and decided I was going to have to get out of that shirt right there to get that mantis off my body. I had on a button down sweater and jeans. I began to unbutton my sweater or rather rip the bottons off to get out of that shirt. I had my right arm out of the sweater and was about to get out of it all together, to be left standing in the middle of campus in jeans and a bra when a male student stopped and told me to keep still. I could not. I was still jumping around screaming for someone to get it off. He grabbed my left arm and told me not to undress anymore as he would get it off. He did.

He grabbed that mantis and pulled. It would not release. He pulled and pulled and finally he got it off. He threw it on the ground. Well, needless to say I missed class that day. I was too out of it with the mantis fear and horror of it all.

Since that time I have had limited contact with the praying mantis. I see them at times and keep a great distance. I came across this article where a praying mantis caught a humming bird and killed ate it! They are the evil of the insect world.

Last summer I found a manthis in my back garden perched on a trellis. Huge mantis-huge. Well, in the house I go. It is WAR! I get the spray pesticide and spray him down. He would not die. I spray him again and still he would not die. Finally he drops of the trellis and I spray him again. I enter the house to put the spray away and go back outside to check to make sure it is dead or dying. When I got back it was gone.

Spring is here. We must all be on our constant guard to prevent the evils of the praying mantis.