Stick Insects

The boys and I have welcomed some new family members this week; actually we welcomed 8 of them!

The boys for some while, with their mum, have owned these guys but sadly they were running out of room in the tank they had.

About 2 weeks ago I was at a church charity auction and one of the lots was a fully working vivarium which had previously housed a chameleon. I was expecting it to go for a lot of money knowing that they can be quite costly but at £5 and no other offers I thought I would take advantage of it.

The cage for stick insects should be at least 3 times the body length of the insect in height and 2 times the body length in width. If keeping more than one stick insect, then you have to add some space for each one of them, preferably in width of the tank.

Stick insects really need 3 times their body length in height to survive, because they need this space whilst shedding. When they shed their skin, they hang upside down on the old skin. This means they require a large vertical space to moult. When moulting goes wrong or the space they have is limited, the stick insect will die or be severely deformed; the vivarium seemed perfect for all 8 of them. So once their mum told me about their circumstances I thought that I would adopt them so the boys could still keep them.

I thought I would tell you a little about them.

I am not to sure which exact species they are. They are either Thorny stick insect or the Annam stick insect.

The thorny insects have a very spikey look when adult. Especially the males who have huge spikes. The young stick insects are much more smooth and have shorter spikes. The spikes are not used to fight or sting, but in nature they do serve to make it harder to eat the stick insect. So ours could be either young or female.

If they are the Annam insects then they can be large and thin but interestingly the males and females look different too. An adult female has a long and thin body without any appendages. The body is brown and looks like it has a rough structure, similar to wood where as the male is a lot thinner and smooth looking legs.

Either way I don't think we can properly tell until they are a bit older but after a few months we should really know as they don't live very long. Once they are adults, females can live for up to 1 year and in this time they will lay a lot of eggs whilst the males usually don't live as long and will probably survive for up to 3 months; I am sure female longevity will please many of you!

Looking after them is really straightforward. We just need to cover the floor with a moisture-absorbing substrate like potting earth, small pebbles or tissue paper and spray the vivarium to keep the moisture and humidity right.

For feeding they tend to eat either bramble or privet; we have both locally so this is easy to find.

What I really love is how easy they are to handle especially for the boys where you just need to grab them from the middle with a small pinch and move them. The best part, whilst young, is if a stick insect loses a leg and  is therefore still growing, the lost leg will grow back although it will usually be a bit shorter than the other ones! 

Anyway, here are some photos of them; that is if you can see them!

The boys definitely love them and I have to admit that I do too. I have spent a fair bit of time handling them and watching their behaviour as they really fascinate me.

What do you guys think? Or have all these photos given you the heebie-jeebies?