While watering my garden this weekend, I came upon an old friend.

A couple months ago I had released a bunch of teeny tiny praying mantis‘ into my garden to help with an abundance of aphids. They stuck around for a few weeks, some disappearing into the wild of the apartment complex and others finding  a few more bugs in my garden to munch on. However, after about a month, I no longer saw any of them.

It’s been a little over three months now and while walking the dogs this past weekend, my husband and I came across a rather large green bug that our dog Charlotte was fascinated with catching. We realized what is was, yanked our determined frenchie away from it and I helped it out of the street and into a grassier, praying mantis friendlier area. It was neat to see one so large and I thought maybe it just might be one of my own mantis babies all grown up. The following day while watering my plants is when I was visited by this guy pictured above. They are fascinating little creatures. I do hope he stays for breakfast, lunch and dinner.