I have babies! I have babies!

[pamnock]

The bad news is that we were very upset when our Vietnamese Stick insect died a few days ago.

The good news: You can imagine how thrilled I was when Matthew went tomist the stick's habitat and yelled, "Mom! A baby walkingstick!"

These are our first babies - so far, over a dozen of them. They are very tiny (about as long as my pinkie nail).

I had both a female Vietnamese and still have a female Indian Stick, soI'm not sure which species the babies are. (Females lay hundreds offertile eggs that hatch into more females - males are very rare).



I love my bugs :inlove:

Pam

 

[Snuggys Mom]

Cool! What do the babies eat?

 

[Krissa]

Awesome! I have been looking into getting somestick insect pets for this summer, and some mandids. Where did you buyyours from, I have seen some internet sites but if you have one you canreccomend it would be great!

I love the bugs! I finally talked my father into letting me use hiswoodshop to make some cages, thats why I have to wait until summer -gotta build!

Oh and during the winter, what do you feed them, I read they eatrasberry/blackberry leaves, or do you use something else. It would begreat if I could grow the plant indoors in the winter.

 

[pamnock]

Snuggys Mom wrote:

Cool! What do the babies eat?

Most sticks eat brambles, but they should do fine on romaine untilspring (I hope).I believe theIndians arefed romaine in the labs. My son did find a few rose brambles,but the winter weather has pretty much killed everything off.

Pam

 

[pamnock]

Krissa wrote:

Awesome! I have been looking into getting some stick insectpets for this summer, and some mandids. Where did you buy yours from, Ihave seen some internet sites but if you have one you can reccomend itwould be great!

I love the bugs! I finally talked my father into letting me use hiswoodshop to make some cages, thats why I have to wait until summer -gotta build!

Oh and during the winter, what do you feed them, I read they eatrasberry/blackberry leaves, or do you use something else. It would begreat if I could grow the plant indoors in the winter.

It's illegal to sell non-native sticks in the US. You canhook up with an entomologist (that's where I got mine from).If these babies live, I'll give you some.

I love the mandids. We were crushed when our large onedied. I couldn't believe that it ate everything in sight(including our little frogs)!

My little boy, Matthew, raised over a dozen Monarch butterflies overthe summer. We also have a tarantula and a hissing cockroach.

Pam

 

[Krissa]

pamnock wrote:

It's illegal to sell non-native sticks in the US.

Thanks for that info! I'll get to building cages, and I'll also go tothe entomology professor at University of Cincinnati, maybe he hassomething - I graduated from Biology there so maybe I can get some coolbugs.

I've always wanted a tarrantula, but the hubby is very much againstlarge spiders When I was in middle school I always hadmonarch caterpillers, because they kept eating my mother's butterflyweed! I loved wating them change, they are so beautiful - not just thebutterfly, but the caterpiller too with the cute stripes.

 

[JAK Rabbitry]

bugs? BUGS!! EEEEEE

Bugs for pets? Not unheard of....aren't stick bugs kinda rare? I didn't know people kept them as....dare I say...pets.

When I worked at pet store, Dave made me transfer all teh hissing roaches to a new aquarium. They were so neat and I kept squealing and making odd sounds back at them because I'd never seen sucha thing and I didn't know what to do. I would pick them up and they'd be all like "HSHSHSHSHSSSHSHSHSHSSHSHH!!!!"

 

[Starlight Rabbitry]

Pam, do you have any pictures of your sticks and the babies? Would love to see them.

Sharon

 

[TinysMom]

This is so awesome. Where we used to live when we moved here...I'd often see a walking stick on our sliding glass door. I always thought they were fascinating...

....btw - so did Tiny as he'd watch it.

Peg

 

[cheryl]

Starlight Rabbitry wrote:

Pam, do you have any pictures of your sticks and the babies? Would love to see them.

Yes Pam,i would love to see those little babies also

cheryl

 

[pamnock]

Starlight Rabbitry wrote:

Pam, do you have any pictures of your sticks and the babies? Would love to see them.

Sharon

I'll get some photos if Stephanie remembers to bring her camera back from her boyfriends house. My cheap digitalcan't get enough detail. I'll take some with my 35mm, but it'll be a while before I get them developed.

They are so tiny!!!! They march around with their little tails curled up like scorpions. They also exhibit the same "swaying" behavior like the adults, who mimic sticks in a breeze.

So far, a few are hatching a day. They can get through the fine mesh, so we try to catch them right away to put them in a little "nursery" that they can't escape from.

Pam

 

[naturestee]

That's so cool! I want to see your babies! Insects are so neat. I considered getting some as pets but they seem like a lot of work. You can get some really cool praying mantises imported from Africa though.

Pam, do you watch Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel? One of the last episodes I saw was where he goes to a breeding facility for what will be an insect version of a public aquarium. They had so many cool insects!

 

[Michaela]

Oh how cool!!:colors:

We have a breeding population of Vietnamese stick insects in our school, I think they're amazing.

Normally I'm sooo afraid of any insects, but there's just something about stick insects that I like!

And yes Pam, we definitely need some pictures!!!:nod:camera

 

[pamnock]

JAK Rabbitry wrote:

bugs? BUGS!! EEEEEE

Bugs for pets? Not unheard of....aren't stick bugs kinda rare? I didn't know people kept them as....dare I say...pets.

I've never seen a large stick insect in the wild (they have excellent camouflage, live high in the trees or bushes, and are nocturnal).

Here's a site with a photo of a native stick in PA . . .

http://www.wpconline.org<WBR>/dailyphotos/wpc-d-3-13.asp<WBR>]http://www.wpconline.org<WBR>/dailyphotos/wpc-d-3-13.asp[<WBR>/url]



Pam

 

[JAK Rabbitry]

We&#39;ve seen one stick bug here our entire lives. I was very young and mum , I have no idea how...found a walkin&#39; shtick. And she had it sitting on her arm and she&#39;s like &#39;&#39; look look!" We all gthered round and were...less than impressed with &#39;&#39;a stick&#39;&#39;. Then it started crawling over my mother and I about flipped out. IT was so neat.

Also in 5th grade our science teacher said the one tiem someone brought in a praying mantis for all to see. Iguess it escaped and left......an egg sack. And they were like &#39;&#39; what&#39;s this thingy....no idea&#39;&#39;. Then they had some kind of assembly inthe gym...and when they came back....the room was all dark and they were like wtf the room is dark....OH SNAP THE WINDOWS ARE BLACK WITH BABY MANTISES!!

I think that would have creeped me out...just a little bit.


And one time we all went up to the mall and my friend is like &#39;&#39;you ever go BEHIND the mall? In the woods and shtuff?&#39;&#39; we said no. And ended up going for a walk up this monstrous hill...and you could see like...the entire county up there.... and on our way back I looked down and BAM there was a praying mantis there. a brown one. I made everyone come look. They&#39;re so rare, that was only like the second time in my life I&#39;d seen one.

Erron&#39;s obsessedw ith bugs. And blobs.

 

[pamnock]

The weather&#39;s bad - Steph didn&#39;t stop to pick up her camera. I&#39;ll keep reminding her.

Pam

 

[pamnock]

I took a bunch of photos of my bugs this morning (including baby sticks)- hope to have time later to upload them all . . .

Pam

 

[naturestee]

I can&#39;t wait! :jumpforjoy:

 

[pamnock]

I have to get busy with school stuff this morning, but here&#39;s a preview . . .

 

[binkies]

Oh how cute!