Praying Mantis

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 5, 2021


This is my favorite insect – it has for as far as I can remember back into my childhood. Probably doesn’t hurt that they are green (my favorite color) – though they can also be brown. And I am not sure what it says about me to have a favorite insect where the female is known to eat the smaller male.


But, I have fond recollections of praying mantis because of my Nana. When we were young, my parents built her an apartment over the garage at our house. She had a deck full of plants – always a pot of marigolds to attract the bees away from her since she was highly allergic and always a hanging basket of fuchsia which attracted the hummingbirds. That was where I saw my first hummingbird – on her deck. She would also buy praying mantis egg cases. We would run a thread and needle through the case and then go around the yard hanging the egg cases in potted plants and shrubs with the hopes that the praying mantis would do their job – eating the other insects that lived to devour our vegetables and flowering plants. And, the fun thing about the praying mantis is that when they hatch, they come out as tiny miniature versions of their adult selves. 


I have been buying and putting out the egg cases for years and I am happy now that I can share this with my seven-year-old son. This year, I ordered quite a few cases and we stitched a thread through and hung them around the yard. We decided to keep one egg case in a baby food jar (Yes, it’s a baby food jar that’s seven years old! I like to save and reuse) with a screen banded over the top so that we could see them hatch. The trick is you need to get them out quickly when they do hatch because in an enclosed space – or an area without the cases being spaced out – the babies will also resort to cannibalism. 


The egg has been in our house since April and I had started to lose hope of anything happening until, as we were leaving (or we can say RUSHING) out the door this morning for camp, we realized that the babies had hatched. But, the rubber band on the screen had rotted and the babies found an opening where the screen had popped up! Thus, we didn’t just have praying mantis babies in the jar, they were all over my orchids and antique jars inches from our dog’s bed!


Thus ensued a madcap, crazy, fast, but careful attempt to gather them up individually and get them back into the jar to release outside! Do you want to know what it’s like to wrangle a hopping (not yet flying) tiny insect when there are up to 100 of them?! When they hatch they are only about half an inch long and here we were trying to grab them from pots and orchid roots without crushing them!


I think we managed to get most of them – my return home this evening will tell the tale. Just hoping they didn’t decide to go snuggle with Zevna – our Siberian Husky sleeping on her bed!


JNLF

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Raise The Roof!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • April 6, 2026
Well, actually replace the roof! With funding from the Community Preservation Act and the work of Lydon and Sons, Inc. the Mitchell House is getting a new roof. The current one had come to the end of its useful life. A cedar roof can last a long time – longer than asphalt – and is more historically accurate. The roof we are removing was installed in about 1992 – replacing a roof from the 1930s that was not cedar but a combination of materials that actually yes, did last sixty years. The unfortunate issue has arisen that the roofwalk (walk) has to be replaced. This is NOT the original walk – nor that old of a walk. It’s likely from the 1970s or so and has been cobbled at over time. It’s not a functioning walk – no one is allowed on it – but the Mitchell House needs it none the less. Maria Mitchell and her father, William, likely used the walk for astronomical observations – in addition to the yard – but the walk is also protected as part of the preservation easement on the House. Walks – NOT and NEVER called widow’s walks – were used for preventing and putting out chimney fire and roof fires. In a place where wood was expensive and had to be brought from “the main” these were purely utilitarian. What good Quaker (or non-Quaker) would build a platform for his wife to stare out to the harbor to see if her husband was on his way home? The other issue is that the walk was completely resting on the ridge board – and actually was notched to accept the pitch and tip of the ridge board so they couldn’t work around it. I suspect this may have been the ways walks were once built – and also a crafty and smart thinking carpenter who came up with the idea. It makes the walk lower. But between that issue and the age of the walk and then the blizzard of February 2026 that packed gusts over 83 MPH (that’s Category 1 hurricane winds) the walk gave in. Balusters had been knocked out and the railings were loose and pulling away from the posts. So, we will also be working with Barber and Sons to create a new roofwalk – and they agreed to do this for us quickly which is also no small feat given how busy everyone is these days. So from the bottom of the Mitchell House’s heart (and mine) a big thank you to Chris Lydon and Lydon and Sons and crew, Barber and Sons / Beau and Nate Barber, the Community Preservation Committee, and Nantucket Preservation Trust (our easement holder)! JNLF

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Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Dr. Joshua Reding for “Dark and Quiet: Astronomy in the Age of Satellite Constellations” For April Science Speaker Series

April 1, 2026
NANTUCKET, MA—The Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) invites the community to “Dark and Quiet: Astronomy in the Age of Satellite Constellation” presented by Dr. Joshua Reding for its April Science Speaker Series. This free presentation will take place Wednesday, April 15 from 7 – 8pm on Zoom. In the past decade, the number of active satellites in Earth’s orbit has grown by a factor of 10. This breakneck growth in the commercial space industry has turned entrepreneur, investor, and policymaker eyes to the skies, but in the process has boxed out the historic stewards of the space domain: scientists. Explorers and pioneers across human history learned that uncharted territory hides unprecedented challenges, but the consequences of decisions made towards occupying the “final frontier” do not abide by international borders. Space operators therefore ignore the warnings and concerns of scientists not only at their own risk, but at the risk of everyone living under increasingly crowded skies. In this conversation, Dr. Josh Reding will explain how astronomers are trying to inform and guide policymaking for the rapidly changing space environment, both informally through volunteer action and advocacy and formally in domestic and international policy forums. Dr. Reding is an optical astronomer by training and now a radio spectrum manager by profession. He completed his B.A. with a double major in Astronomy-Physics and Philosophy at Colgate University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research investigated unusual white dwarf stars that likely formed in stellar mergers as “failed” supernovae and he has also designed astronomical instrument components and installed them at world-class observatories. Concurrent with the completion of his Ph.D., Reding began his professional science policy career as a North Carolina STEM Policy Fellow in the NC Department of Commerce’s Office of Science, Technology & Innovation. He was then selected for the American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy Fellowship, which places scientists in federal offices as expert contributors to ongoing agency missions. This event will be held via Zoom. Pre-registration is required. To register for the free, virtual event, use the registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5MoAybp5QHCasQ0QE5xmgQ#/registration The Science Speaker Series is generously sponsored by the Maria Mitchell Association’s lead sponsor, Bank of America. The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages. ###
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