No, it is not illegal to kill a Praying Mantis in the United States. So, let’s say you have accidentally killed one somehow, well, you don’t need to worry that police would show up at your place and arrest you for killing an insect. See, if you killed it on purpose, well, that’s just morally wrong, don’t you think? But why do they call it a “praying” mantis though? You see, that’s just because when it is posing normally, it looks like it is praying, and that’s where the name comes from.
Getting back to the main topic, well, why do you even think that killing a praying mantis would land you in some legal mess or something like that? In our opinion, it could very well be that somebody else told you that, and that could be because, in the 1950s, there was a story circulating around that if you kill a praying mantis, you’d have to pay about $50 as fine. But that right there was just a story with no laws behind it at all.
So What Are Federal And State Laws Regarding This?
We know we have said it already but just as a reminder once again, it is true that there is no law anywhere in the entirety of the United States that says like if you kill a praying mantis, you’ll go to jail. It just doesn’t work like that, you see, you cannot go to jail just because you killed an insect, and that too just accidentally, you know?
Sure, we get it, at the federal level in the country, you see, there is this law or act called the Endangered Species Act which is there to protect the animal species that are in danger or close to disappearing from the face of the planet Earth forever. But even in this law, there is nowhere stated that killing a praying mantis is illegal in any way.
And if you were to check out the list publicly available by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Praying Mantises aren’t on it too. Why? Well, that’s just because praying mantis isn’t a species that needs saving, they’re found in huge numbers right here in the United States.
Even at the state level, there are no laws anywhere about this, so you’re pretty much good to go. Don’t take that as a green light and go on a killing spree to wipe out all the praying mantis in your area, it is just that when you accidentally kill one, you don’t need to worry about anything. You can just go about your day and forget about it. No one is coming after you for that.
And What About Protected Areas And National Parks?
Alright, this one is an interesting question, like, what if you are out there exploring a protected area or a national park, and there you find a praying mantis but you killed it (maybe accidentally), so what then? Well, we can’t say much about it too because this depends upon which national park you’re in and what rules they have regarding such an act. Though, in most cases, yes, national parks and protected areas have rules to save wildlife from any harm, and that sometimes include insects too.
But still, you’d rarely find any rule in any of these national parks across the country where they specifically state that you’re not allowed to kill praying mantis. Or if you killed one, you’d be liable to a fine or something like that. So yes, this is kinda a far-fetched thing, but most likely, that ain’t going to happen with you, so you’re good.