I take care of the trash for a lady who lives in my neighborhood becasue she can't move the bins up and down her long, steep drive-way. Today, while I was taking it all down, I checked her green bin to see if the gardner had come by, and much to my delight, a large praying mantis (Mantis religiosa) was perched on a wall on the inside. I ran back home to fetch my digital camera, and he was still there when I returned. I shot at lest twenty photos, then managed to get him to jump onto a stick so that I could remove him from the trash. I set him on the ground and shot a few more photos before moving on. It was a good day, considering this was only the second mantis I've ever seen outside of captivity or on tv.