Is the praying mantis injured in a Palo Alto yard suffering pain?

DEAR JOAN: I was saddened to notice that I accidentally injured a praying mantis while raking leaves yesterday. He was alert and walking, but his tail was tucked under slightly.

He would not fly and had trouble climbing the fence. Torn, I decided to wait and see if he would recover from the shock of it all.

Could you please advise me, if I see the mantis again, would it be kinder to catch it and kill it? Maybe he could survive fine even if injured. We have a mostly safe (except for me)
wild yard with a lot of pesticide-free plants and insects.

Kathy, Palo Alto

DEAR KATHY: You have such a tender heart.

Contrary to the long-held believe that insects don’t feel pain, they do. Researchers have confirmed that insects can experience different levels of pain, from mild to severe, and can become sensitive to their injured bodies.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you caused great physical harm to the creature. It might have just been a little stunned by the raking, or you might have uncovered one that is at the end of its life, moving slowly and winding down.

You might not want to read too much into the no-flying part, either. Male mantids can fly, but the female is too large for its wings to carry it.

There’s no way to know if the mantid is in severe pain or not, but if it seems to be surviving OK, then I’d let it be.

DEAR JOAN: Sometimes I see a large flock of pigeons feeding in the grass. What I find strange is that the whole flock takes off as one and lands at some distance again as one.

How do they do it with such military precision?

Deepak Varma, Antioch

DEAR DEEPAK: They might fly with military precision, but the pigeons are all civilians, and they are very good at playing follow the leader.

What looks like a flock taking off en masse is actually one or two pigeons spotting a danger and signaling to the other birds to fly. The rest of the flock sees the startled reaction and takes wing, but it happens so quickly, it looks like they are moving as one.

Flocks do have leaders, but any of the birds can assume that role. Whichever one is leading at the moment will decide to land, and the rest rapidly follow suit.

DEAR JOAN: My Jack Russell-corgi mix gets aggressive when men come near me. Is he trying to protect me?

Jean Ashley, Cheyenne, Wyoming

DEAR JEAN: He could be, or it might be that he doesn’t care for men in general.

My Chihuahua, Bailey, is particularly aggressive toward men. When my nephew was a boy, Bailey had no issue with him, but now that Brycen is 12 years old and almost as tall as I am, Bailey barks at him.

His dislike of men, we believe, is an indication he was mistreated by a man before he was rescued and came to live a charmed life with me, rather than a sign of protecting me.