When you are doing your autumn clean up in the herb garden, be on careful lookout for the egg cases of praying mantises on your shrubs and plants. They are about the size of a walnut and look like a hardened mass of brown froth. If you accidentally break off a twig that holds one of these, just tie the piece of twig with the case still attached onto the nearest shrub. Next spring if you're lucky, the egg case will hatch out a new generation of mantises to help control the pest population in your garden.

To read some fun facts about praying mantises and see good pictures of them and the egg cases too, click HERE.