I was quite lucky that in the fall, a mantis had placed an ootheca, an egg case on the rose bush directly outside of my dining room window!
I was even luckier to have my wife spot the dozens of baby mantises as they hatched out of it in the spring!
Freshly emerged they are still quite soft and weak as their exoskeletons haven't completely hardened. This makes them easy pickings for the ants that can also be seen on the branches. It is also one of the reasons that the mantises all hatch at the same time, the ants can't get them all!
Later the mantis babies took some time on the undersides of the leaves on the rose bush. After a few hours they moved off to find less crowded places to hunt and grow up.
Hopefully, I'll encounter them throughout the summer to be able to provide some updates on how this brood is doing!
Click on any photo too see real detail!