Chinese mantis eggs marketed as "safe" pest control?
I'm from coastal South Carolina and see Chinese mantises hanging around my yard more often than our native Carolina mantis. Recently, I went to a popular local garden store in my area and noticed they were selling mantis egg cases at their checkout counter. I explicitly asked the store associate if these were Chinese mantis eggs and she said "no, we source these from a local farm and they're local mantis eggs, not Chinese." Great! I buy the eggs for $12 (in hindsight spending $12 on ambush predators that would contribute very little to garden pest management was a silly move but I love Carolina mantises). Lo and behold, I scan the QR code on the container on my way home, and discover not only is this "local" farm in CALIFORNIA, but these are indeed Chinese mantis eggs. Amazing. The distributor Organic Control advertises these as people, pet, and planet safe, and while I can agree that replacing pesticides with beneficial insects is a safe alternative, this seems a bit harmful IMO. I called the store to inform them of this, and they seemed surprised to discover these were not "local mantises," but I have no way to know if they actually gave a shit. I kind of spiraled a bit over being lied to, even if it wasn't done maliciously, because if I can do my due diligence in ensuring that I'm not spreading an invasive species around my yard, how are they selling these eggs without even confirming the species? All of that aside, I'm kind of stuck in a rabbit hole now on whether or not the Chinese mantis is actually considered a harmful invasive species or a neutral naturalized species. I've seen a lot of arguments that they were introduced over a century ago and haven't had a largely negative ecological impact during this time, but I've also seen people argue that they target too many beneficial native insects and their size makes them heavy competition to native mantises and a larger threat to hummingbirds.
I'm interested to hear other opinions or experiences regarding the impact of Chinese mantises as an introduced/invasive(?) species, because this whole thing has been in the back of my mind since the incident. Thanks and sorry for the ranty post!
P.S. is it chinese mantis or mantid, I can't find a clear answer on that either