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Hello. My
name is Professor Phasmid and I will be answering your questions about pet bugs
on this page. (Sorry, I can only answer queries on this page, I cannot e-mail
you personally.) Please e-mail your questions to me at: prof@small-life.co.uk This page contains questions and answers from past weeks. You will find the most recent questions and answers by clicking here. Be sure to look out for my "exploding myths" sections too! How long do Indian stick insects live for? Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus), and many other species of stick insect, live for about one year.
I have recently acquired some spiny stick insects but the pet shop did not know their proper name. One is a reddish colour and the other a beige/brown colour, they are relatively small and have spikes (which aren't sharp) on their backs. They are probably the Sabah stick insect (Aretaon asperrimus). These stick insects eat bramble (blackberry) leaves (misted daily) and do well in non-airy cage conditions . They do well in the Bug Studio, provided the Ventilation Control Panels are attached. The adult female Sabah stick insect has a pointed ovipositor at the end of her body and likes to bury her eggs in a pot of sand. When spraying the leaves of their food, do I take the Indian stick insects out of the cage or leave them in? You can leave the stick insects in the cage. If they are housed in the Bug Studio or Bug-Cage, the stick insects usually rest on the mesh sides anyway. However, even if they are on the foodplant they can tolerate some water landing on them, but avoid drenching them. I own a fully grown Indian stick insect and it has been laying dozens of eggs for a month. What type of conditions would make the best environment for the eggs and when should I expect the stick insect eggs to hatch? Indian stick insect eggs should be stored in the QBOX. We also supply pre-printed labels on which you write the date the eggs were laid. Just stick the labels on the QBOXES to help you predict when the stick insect eggs will hatch; this is usually four months later. I have a male and female praying mantis and they have just molted and received their wings. Does that mean they are ready to breed once they get their wings or is there one more molt for them to go to reach adulthood? Wings only appear at the adult stage of the insect's life. So once the wings appear, the insect will not moult again. Mantids usually mate a couple of weeks after they have their wings and the female should produce her first batch of eggs soon after.
I have had my Thailand stick bugs for a few days. How can you tell the difference between the droppings (there is so much of it) and the eggs? Debris should not be allowed to accumulate in the cage; stick insects need to be kept in clean conditions and so you should line the base of the cage with paper and replace it once a week. Thailand stick insects (Baculum thaii) produce long narrow droppings. If you have adult females, look out for the eggs; these are wider than the droppings, light brown and 4mm long. My son has four Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) which have been laying eggs for a few months. We are collecting them in a container. When they hatch how do we look after them and what will the stick insects look like? Newly hatched Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) are brown and look like miniature versions of the adults. They should be kept in the QBOX for the first month of their lives and given loose moist bramble or privet leaves to eat. When they have doubled in size they should be transferred to a more ventilated cage such as the Bug Studio. My Australian Macleays Spectre stick insects laid eggs but have now died. I was wondering if their eggs need to be heated? How warm do they have to be for them to hatch? I have 85 eggs with the two females. The male stick insect died about five weeks before the two females did. Adult Australian Macleays Spectre males (Extatosoma tiaratum) sometimes die before the females, particularly if they have been very active, for example flying frequently. Australian stick insect eggs do well if stored in a QBOX and kept in a warm place, around 20 degrees Celsius. The newly hatched Australian stick insects do best if fed on Eucalyptus gunnii. I have got Macleays Spectre stick insect nymphs. I have a blue Bug Studio - will this be suitable for four of these? Also can Pink Winged stick insects live happily with Macleays Spectres? Both Australian Macleays Spectre and Pink Winged (Sipyloidea sipylus) stick insects do best in an airy cage and so can be mixed together in the Bug Studio. There is ample room in the Bug Studio to accommodate your stick insects.
We have a fully grown Indian stick insect. Today we found one of its legs had fallen off and was lying at the bottom of the cage. What does this mean? An adult Indian stick insect (Carausius morosus) may lose legs if it is dehydrated and so you need to mist the leaves with water every day (twice a day in hot weather) so the stick insect can drink from the water droplets. Leg loss may also occur in stick insects dying from old age, but ensuring the stick insect has plenty of water seems to help prevent this. My stick insect has just laid an egg, but I was wondering, will this egg hatch into only one baby? Yes, each egg can hatch into a baby stick insect (called a nymph). My stick insects escaped and we have caught one but we cannot find the other. We have put two trays of fresh brambles out but it has not worked. What should I do? Most stick insects head upwards and then rest against vertical objects, such as the sides of paintings, mirrors, curtains etc. So this is where you need to look. You could also try putting a wet sprig of bramble leaves in these areas. About a year ago I purchased some Indian stick insects and they were a green colour. However the stick insects I have now are brown in colour. I keep my stick insects in a dark mesh type container and feed them mainly on a diet of privet. Is there any reason why they have gone a brown colour and how would I get them to be green again? If Indian stick insects are kept in dark conditions, brown individuals usually result. So if you want green stick insects, you need to transfer them to a light airy cage such as the Bug Studio. So it is the light, not the diet that is responsible for stick insects' colour change.
I've had Indian stick insects for a while now and would like something a bit different. What would you suggest? Many people start off by keeping Indian stick insects and as their interest develops, get other varieties of stick insect. The Pink Winged stick insect is another easy to keep type, and has large pretty pink wings. Or, for something completely different, try the New Guinea stick insect which is a very chunky armour-plated looking creature! All these stick insects can be mixed together in the same cage; the Bug-Cage or the Bug-XL-Cage are ideal housing. I found a small dark brown oval with a small yellow bubble like thing on. It was about 2mm by 1.5 mm and I was wondering, is this an Indian stick insect's egg? If so, is it possible for my stick insect to lay only one egg as I searched the Bug Studio several times and only found one egg? Yes, you have found an Indian stick insect's egg. A healthy adult Indian stick insect will usually lay several hundred eggs, the stick insect lays a few eggs every day for many months. However, sometimes under-sized adults occur and these individuals are only capable of laying a few eggs. I have a Giant African Land Snail about one year old. Does it need to mate with another Giant African land Snail to have eggs? I don't want eggs. A solitary snail can produce eggs but these are unlikely to hatch. Snails are hermaphrodite and need to mate to produce fertile eggs. Your snail would benefit from having another snail for company. Any surplus eggs can be posted to the Culture Club, telephone 01949 842446. I have two winged stick insects and one Indian stick insect. Suddenly yesterday afternoon all three began behaving strangely. Within a short space of time the Indian was flat on her back, flailing her little legs about and the two winged seemed to have become very disorientated. I sat up with them until the early hours; what is happening? Your stick insects have been poisoned, probably by airborne chemicals. Stick insects do not have a filtering system and so cannot stop airborne chemicals from entering their bodies, damaging their nervous system and killing them within a day or two. Possible causes are paint fumes, smoke from fires, aerosol and plug-in air-fresheners, cat and dog aerosol flea sprays, aromatherapy oils etc.
When can I put my baby Indian stick insects with my bigger ones? For the first three weeks of their lives, Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) do best in a non-ventilated container such as the QBOX and given wet bramble and privet leaves to eat. At about a month old, the stick insects will have recovered from their first skin-change and grown dramatically in size. They now need more ventilated surroundings and so should be transferred to the Bug Studio, Bug-Cage or Bug-XL-Cage, which are ideal to house the larger nymphs. I am looking for a large mantid as a pet. What would you recommend? A large easy to keep mantid is the Heirodula species. This is a conventional looking mantid, usually green but sometimes brown, and looking like a larger version of the popular Ghana mantid Sphodromantis lineola. Both these species do best in a well-ventilated cage such as the Bug Studio. I have twelve young Giant African Land Snails but am worried because their shells seem so delicate, sometimes breaking when I handle them. You need to give your snails extra calcium to eat so that their shells will become stronger. An effective way to do this is to put empty eggshells (from hen eggs used to make omelettes) in the cage. The snails will climb inside the eggshells and rasp at the insides, consuming calcium. I have some New Guinea stick insects in a Bug-XL-Cage and they're doing great. Can I add more species? Yes, New Guinea stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata) can be mixed with Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus), Thailand stick insects (Baculum thaii) and Pink Winged stick insects (Sipyloidea sipylus).
Do Indian stick insects breathe? If they do, do they have lungs? All stick insects breathe but they do not have lungs. Instead, air drifts into and out of their bodies through a series of small openings along each side of their body. These holes are called spiracles and lead to a network of hollow passages, called tracheae. The air travels down these tracheae, deeper into the body of the insect. My Indian stick insect died about a week ago and I'm not sure why. I usually fed it on variegated privet which grows in my garden and was wondering if it had anything to do with that. Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) should be fed dark green privet (Ligustrum) rather than the golden or variegated varieties. Indian stick insects also eat ivy leaves, but again this should be the dark green leaved variety rather than the lighter variegated type. Will stick insects eat any native plants, or do they prefer specific plants? In order for stick insects to thrive they must be fed with one or more specific plants. Most stick insects eat bramble (blackberry) leaves, some species eat eucalyptus and some eat wild rose. Indian stick insects also eat privet and ivy. Are stick bugs nocturnal? Stick insects have periods of activity both during the day and at night. They do best if kept in the light during the day and the dark at night.
I was thinking about getting a stick insect and I was wondering how often I need to replace the liner for the Bug Studio. It is important that stick insects are kept in clean conditions and so the Bug Studio Liner should be replaced once a week. We have some Australian stick insect eggs that were laid about six months ago, nothing seems to be happening, how long do they take to hatch? Australian Macleays Spectre (Extatosoma tiaratum) stick insect eggs take about six months to hatch. One way to stimulate hatching when the six months is up is to put some loose eucalyptus leaves in the same QBOX as the eggs. I found two snails that I notice usually stay near each other. How do I tell if one is a boy or a girl? Snails are hermaphrodite which means that they do not have boys and girls; instead they are all a mixture of both genders. Do adult Privet Hawk moths feed? Yes, each insect has a very long proboscis, designed to reach deep into flowers to the nectar.
I just heard you on the radio - is your showroom open to the general public? I'd like some stick insects but can't decide which ones to buy so I'd like a look first if that's possible! Small-Life Supplies is a mail-order business but we do have a showroom that is open at certain times for the general public (and also teachers) to visit, look round and collect items. The different creatures are on display together with the cages and accessories we supply. Please phone the office 01949 842446 for more details.
We have acquired four homeless Giant African Land Snails. How do we care for them? Giant African snails should be kept indoors, in a warm place. They need to be kept in clean conditions so choose a tank which is easy to clean. The floor should be lined with a soft liner and the food (vegetable peelings) should be put in a dish and replaced every few days. Calcium Pellets and a bowl of clean water should also be provided. I have just hatched about thirty baby mantids. Where can I get live fruit flies or aphids? Do they need water? Aphids can be found outside throughout the year on the undersides of bramble leaves from plants growing in sheltered areas. Fruit flies, usually referred to by their Latin name of Drosophila, can be bought from biological suppliers by mail-order. The young mantids obtain enough moisture from their prey and so do not need extra water. I have four adult Indian stick insects, three of them are healthy, they are doing well on privet, and I mist them every evening. However the fourth stick insect only has two whole legs! It will eat and drink while on my hand, will it manage to survive happily like this? It's in a state but it has become a favourite, will it lay eggs also? Yes, your injured Indian stick insect (Carausius morosus) will probably continue to survive and in due course will start laying eggs. I live in Australia and will be getting two pairs of Extatosoma tiaratum stick insects. Would I have to worry about inbreeding? We have lots of eucalypt trees around where I live, would any species do? Is ordinary tap water OK to give the stick insects? I have not found inbreeding to be a problem with Australian stick insects or any other species, providing of course that the original stick insects are nice and healthy and they are kept in good conditions. Australian stick insects will eat different types of eucalyptus, the variety used in the UK is the common Eucalyptus gunnii. Mist the leaves once or twice a day with cold tap water. My daughter would like some Indian stick insects and I am encouraging this to teach her responsibility. We have a redundant fish tank we were thinking of using. It's about 18 inches long and 12 inches high. Would it be suitable? Fish tanks are not ideal housing for stick insects. Tanks are not tall enough; stick insects need to be kept in a cage at least 18 inches high so they have room to grow properly (they grow by sliding vertically downwards out of their old skin). Fish tanks do not have through-draught ventilation which Indian stick insects prefer. And the sides of a tank are too smooth for the large stick insects to hook their claws around. The Bug-Cage is ideal housing for stick insects and has been specially designed for them. I have a small colony of Asian Walking Sticks, but they are rapidly losing legs! I hardly hold them and when I do I am always VERY careful. I found one the other day with only one leg! Why are they losing their legs? Stick insects lose legs when they are stressed. For example they could be short of water, space or food. They need sprigs of fresh bramble (blackberry) leaves, misted daily and replaced once a week. There is something very wrong if you have a stick insect with only one leg. I have four Indian stick insects and was wondering how long they have to be before they start to lay eggs and how many will they lay? Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) lay eggs when they are fully grown, this is when they have a total length of about 11cm. Several eggs are laid every day throughout the adult life of the stick insect which is about seven months. So do not keep all the eggs as you may be overrun with stick insects. I have several hissing cockroaches and I am concerned about mites. I have not seen any but my fear is that if I raise them to feed my scorpions, tarantulas or lizards the mites may harm them. Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches should certainly not have mites if they are being kept correctly. These cockroaches like a large well-ventilated cage with a paper lining on the floor, changed weekly to keep the cage clean. Mites occur if insects are kept in filthy conditions; these insects would then be unhealthy and not suitable as livefood.
I am thinking of buying Giant African land snails but I wanted to know what type of soil to put at the bottom of the tank and should I get a heat mat for them? Giant African snails need to be kept in clean conditions so rather than covering the floor of the tank with soil it is better to put it in a dish instead. This only needs to be provided when the snails are adult and ready to bury eggs. Soil can be dug up from the garden and sterilised or you can buy John Innes (J Arthur Bowers type) potting compost. A heat mat is not necessary; Giant African land snails should be fine in a room that is comfortably warm. My dad has recently bought a praying mantis and it is in small container just big enough for the mantis and a small twig. My dad wants to give it a larger more exotic home. It is important not to house young mantids in too large a home because they may struggle to find their prey if the cage is too large. A QBOX is suitable for a small mantid and the Mantid Tube is ideal for a medium-sized mantid. It is important to have mesh inside the container so the mantid can get a good foothold and so be able to run around quickly. How long do stick insect eggs take to hatch? This depends on the species of stick insect. Thailand stick insect eggs (Baculum thaii) hatch after about two months, but Malaysians (Heteropteryx dilatata) take one and a half years to hatch! Details on hatching times of the commonly kept species are in the book "Keeping Stick insects" by Dorothy Floyd. I'd like to buy ten Australian Macleays Spectre stick insects. Would it be best to get five pairs or more females than males? I'd like to try and breed from them! It's best to buy in pairs of one male and one female wherever possible. Australian Macleays Spectre (Extatosoma tiaratum) males grow faster than the females so ideally the males should be slightly smaller than the females when you buy them medium-sized.
I found a ladybird under my window ledge in my bedroom. It is freezing cold outside so I have bought him a bunch of flowers and he lives on these. I've given him banana to eat. He keeps trying to open his wings but one won't come out, why is that? Your ladybird may have difficulty opening its wings because something sticky is preventing this. So, put a drop of water on top of the ladybird and hopefully this will clear the problem. If it does not, your ladybird may have a damaged wing which means its chances of surviving outside are small. My ladybird is the common English type with two spots. Will he try to hibernate again? Will it get bigger and if so will more spots appear? Adult ladybirds hibernate over winter but do not sleep the whole time. During a sunny spell they will wake up and fly around before going back to sleep. A ladybird will be active throughout winter if kept indoors in a warm room. The best food for ladybirds are aphids; these can still be found in winter, clustered on the new shoots of bramble leaves (found in sheltered wooded areas). The 2 spotted ladybird does not grow any bigger and will not get more spots. I got some Indian stick insects from Small-Life Supplies and expected them not to move around much but actually they are very lively and can move quite fast! Do you have another type of stick insect that does not move so fast? My daughter is three and is fascinated! Healthy Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) should be quite active. It is when Indian stick insects are kept in cramped unventilated conditions that they become unhealthy and lethargic. Your daughter would probably like the New Guinea variety (Eurycantha calcarata). These stick insects like to walk, sometimes walking across an entire floor, but do so at a slower pace than Indian stick insects. I was thinking about buying Australian Macleays Spectre stick insects but am concerned about the male flying about. Does he fly out of the cage as soon as the door is opened? No, adult male Australian stick insects (Extatosoma tiaratum) do not usually fly out of the cage. However, they do like to fly and can easily fly across a room. With more flights they usually go higher, as if aiming for the ceiling. Can you please tell me are there any ivy plants poisonous to stick insects? I have an Indian stick insect which I have been feeding on privet and bramble leaves. But I want to see if it likes ivy. Indian stick insects can eat the variegated ivy which has leaves patterned cream and light green. Also the plainer dark green ivy. The important point is to gather the leaves from ivy growing naturally up walls and trees and NOT to buy a potted ivy plant (which may contain pesticides that will kill insects). Please clear up a domestic debate I have going on with my partner - as to whether or not our beloved Sabah Stick Insect (Aretaon asperrimus) is a flying variety or not? No, Sabah stick insects do not have wings; both the male and female are always wingless. What is the average lifespan of the Malaysian stick insects, you said they have a long life but just how long is it? Malaysian stick insects (Heteropteryx dilatata) live about two years; they take one year to mature and live one year as adults. I have recently been given 34 stick insect eggs. They are round, brown and have a yellow ring on one end. I think they are Indian sticks? Recently some have gone a paler brown on one side and have got a cut on the same side, are they hatching or have they gone bad ? Your eggs match the description of Indian stick insect eggs (Carausius morosus). Do you know how old they are because Indian stick insect eggs usually hatch after four months. Hatching is very quick and occurs at night; the insect pushes off the yellow lid. Healthy eggs should be mid-brown; not dark brown or pale brown. My children received five stick insects. They have been doing extremely well and have even shedded their skins. But when we woke up this morning all of them were laying on the ground, kicking their legs but unable to get right side up. What I can do to help them? Your stick insects are showing symptoms of chemical poisoning. This has damaged their nervous system resulting in loss of co-ordination. The usual culprits are plug-in air fresheners, aerosols, paint fumes, aromatherapy oils etc. Or the foodplant may have been sprayed by chemicals. Either way your stick insects are unlikely to survive, unfortunately. I have two female Macleays Spectre stick insects and they are laying eggs. Will these hatch? Or should I get a male? Australian Macleays Spectre stick insects (Extatosoma tiaratum) have males and females in approximately equal numbers. The eggs have the best chance of hatching if they have been fertilised by a male rather than having been produced by parthenogenesis. So, you should get one or two Australian male stick insects.
I have transferred my stick insect eggs to a QBOX and guess what, I have two babies! I only just found them tonight. Do they need brambles like the big insects? How do I give them water? Should I make air holes in the container? Newly hatched stick insects eat bramble leaves just like the adults. Every day take a fresh bramble leaf, lightly mist it with water and put it in the QBOX. Remove the leaf that is already there. There is enough air in the QBOX for the stick insects. Do not punch air holes as this would cause the leaf to dry up too quickly. I'm studying zoology at university. Does "The Bug File" give any information on what insect research is being done at the moment? Yes, indeed some PhD students are even contributing to the magazine outlining their work! My praying mantis has just laid an egg sac without any help from a male, is it fertilised and if so how do I help it to hatch? Ideally there should be a male and female mantid which mate and then the female can produce a sexually fertilised egg sac which has a high chance of hatching. If there is no male the female mantid can still produce an egg sac by a process called parthenogenesis. However, these eggs have a smaller chance of hatching. Leave the egg sac where it has been glued and every few days lightly mist it with water. How do I breed Baculum extradentatum (Vietnamese stick insect)? You need some male and female Vietnamese stick insects. Keep them in a large well-ventilated cage such as the Bug-XL-Cage and feed them with bramble (blackberry) leaves. When adult, they mate and the female drops eggs onto the floor of the cage. Save the eggs and after a few months mist them very lightly with water. They should hatch after five months; the newly emerged Vietnamese stick insects are particularly small. I have Malaysian stick insects and I was wondering about giving them ivy to eat as a change from bramble. Would this be advisable? No. Malaysian stick insects (Heteropteryx dilatata) do best on bramble (blackberry) leaves and so should be fed exclusively on this. I recently bought some Giant African Land Snails and they don't seem to be eating. They touch the cucumber but have only eaten a little bit. They eat the Calcium Pellets, but nothing else. I have tried keeping them in a warmer room, and have moved them to a smaller container but nothing seems to work. The snails do drink lots of water though. Giant African Land Snails tend to be less active in the Winter months even if they are kept indoors in a centrally heated house. They respond well to sunlight and so you could put them in a sunny place whenever the sun shines. Winter sunlight is not as intense as Summer sun and so the snails are unlikely to get too hot, although obviously you should keep checking them to make sure they are not overheating. I've heard praying mantises can regenerate limbs between moults. One of my Sphodromantis' had its hind leg and one antennae damaged while moulting. Will the limb be regenerated in one moult or over a series of moults? The mantid has had wing-buds for two moults now. Absent limbs and antennae can be regenerated, so if your mantid has suffered such a loss, it should be able to regenerate after the next skin-change. Regenerated legs of mantids are surprisingly large; and can be used as soon as they appear. The regenerated limb will "catch up" with the other legs after the next moult or two. This is a much faster process than seen in stick insects; here the first time a limb is regenerated it is very small, sometimes curly, and is of little use. The stick insect has to complete several more skin-changes before the regenerated leg is up to a size to be of use. How long does it take until Giant African Land Snail eggs hatch? Usually approximately three or four weeks, if kept at room temperature in a closed container. We are writing from a preschool in California, USA. Our stick bugs eat rose bush leaves and normally thrive and multiply rapidly. Just recently, our younger ones began dying. At about the same time we noticed the leaves were infested with aphids. How can we get rid of all the aphids? Small numbers of aphids on the leaves does not seem to affect stick insects but a large infestation of aphids can cause a problem as you have experienced. You need to introduce some ladybirds into the stick insect cage. Large ladybirds are best (red or yellow ones); they will walk along the stems and leaves, consuming vast numbers of aphids. I use this technique regularly; fortunately the ladybirds prefer to eat the aphids rather than the stick insects! How long do the stick insects live, kept in a classroom, taken home at weekends and cared for by my daughter who is six years old? Stick insects usually live a year. Travelling can be stressful and so should not be too frequent. I assume your daughter is bringing the stick insects home at weekends because the school gets extremely cold. That is OK for now but when it is warmer the stick insects would be less stressed if left at school over the weekend.
I am going to get some stick insects but I don't know how much water to put in. Can you help me? It is best not to put a bowl of water into the stick insect's cage because they may drop in and drown. Instead, lightly mist the bramble leaves once a day. The stick insects can then drink from the water droplets on the leaves. An exception to this is the New Guinea stick insect (Eurycantha calcarata) which needs to be taken out of the cage and allowed to drink from a bowl of water for about an hour once a week. I have just received a wild caught Chinese mantis egg-case (ootheca). How likely is it to be fertile? How do I keep it (I live in Great Britain) and how long does it take to hatch? Fertilised mantid oothecae usually hatch after several weeks if kept indoors and occasionally misted with water. It is very risky buying a wild caught ootheca as you know nothing about it's history and I doubt it came with a guarantee. So instead I advise buying a living mantid (bought from a reputable supplier of captive-bred insects) as it is much easier to look after one medium-sized mantid rather than lots of fast-moving tiny ones that will eat each other if kept together. How long does it take for Australian stick bug eggs to hatch? Australian Macleays Spectre (Extatosoma tiaratum) stick insect eggs usually hatch after six to eight months. The newly hatched do best on eucalyptus leaves rather than bramble. My partner tells me he's been fascinated by creepy crawlies since he was a child - he'll be 24 soon. I was thinking about getting him a year's subscription to "The Bug File" magazine for his birthday - would this be suitable or would it tell him things he already knows? "The Bug File" contains cutting edge news and observations about insects. Existing subscribers (many in their 20's) are very complementary about its content and so I am sure it would be an ideal gift for your boyfriend.
I have had three Giant African land snails for 2½ years and they haven't laid any eggs apart from four which were really soft and never hatched. I have cuttlefish bone in and a fresh supply of food, also a shallow dish with water which they love. The compost is about three inches deep and they are damp and warm. What size of container are you keeping the snails in? If it is too large this deters them from producing eggs. Also, for burying eggs, it is preferable to have a separate dish of dry potting compost rather than covering the floor with compost (as this makes it difficult for the snails to keep themselves clean). And of course, a varied diet is necessary for the good health of snails. I have a question about butterflies. I have to do a report on insects and I wanted to do a Clouded Sulphur butterfly. Is a butterfly still considered an insect even though they only have four legs and normal insects have six legs? Butterflies have six legs although in some species the front two legs are not used for walking. So yes, butterflies are insects and the butterfly you are studying has six legs. I received a Ghana mantid a few days ago and apart from eating the insect it was posted with, the mantid has not eaten anything since. It looks fat but makes only half-hearted attempts to catch anything. It even let one waxmoth larva go again! Should I be worried? No, do not be concerned. It is quite normal for a mantid to go go several days, even as long as a week, without eating. Providing it's abdomen is plump, there is no need to worry.
I am looking for any information regarding stick insects' feet. I understand that their feet have both claws and suction cups. The claws grip rough surfaces while the suckers grip smooth ones. Can you confirm this? Yes, that is correct. A stick insect's foot has two claws, one either side of the suction pads. A good way to study the feet is by examining a shed stick insect skin. When a large stick insect walks on your hand you can feel its claws gripping your skin. Newly hatched stick insects rely more on their suction pads than claws and can walk upside-down on plastic surfaces; older insects rely more on their claws and so cannot cling on because the surface is too smooth to grip. I recently purchased a pair of New Guinea stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata), the male has recently shed his skin but she hasn't. Can you tell me on average how long it is between sheddings of this species ? Like other stick insects, New Guineas undergo skin-changes every few weeks but the intervals between skin-changes are determined by how warm the surroundings are. You can tell when a stick insect is preparing to change its skin because the insect looks much fatter than usual. I am a university student and I'm doing research into how many times female stick insects are mated with in their lifetimes. I read that some stick insect species mate frequently throughout their lifetimes. I was wondering whether you have any estimates of this? A few species of stick insect appear to mate almost continuously throughout their adult lives. Mating lasts several days and the male insect is riding on top of the female throughout. Such species include the Reunion Island stick insect (Rhaphiderus scabrosus) and the Jamaican species (A.cyllarius). More common though are species in which mating occurs about once a fortnight; this is seen with Thailand Winged (Sipyloidea sp) and Guadeloupe (Lamponius guerini) stick insects.
I have two Indian stick insects that I got last Summer. How long can I expect them to live? You do not say how big the stick insects were when you got them so it is difficult for me to assess their age. However, Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) live for one year, on average. I managed to mate my praying mantises the other day, they are Sphodromantis centralis. They mated for around four hours, is this long enough for the female to get fertilised, or should I put them together again? Mantids mate several times during their adult life and, as you have seen, mating can last for a few hours. Your female has a good chance of having been fertilised but not all matings are 100% successful. Hopefully her body will swell in the next couple of weeks as it fills with eggs and she will produce an egg-sac (ootheca). You could put the mantids together again in about three or four weeks time and let them mate again. (Wait longer if the female has recently laid eggs). The Latin name for the Ghana mantid is Sphodromantis lineola, but some are being sold having been mis-identified as Sphodromantis centralis.
I have four Indian stick insects(Carausius morosus). They are laying eggs and I'm taking the eggs out when I clean the cage out and putting the eggs in a small tub. You sell pots of sand for the stick insects to bury their eggs in but my stick insects are not burying their eggs, should I do it for them? Indian stick insects drop their eggs onto the ground, they do NOT bury their eggs. The best way to store Indian stick insect eggs is to put them in a clear plastic container (or tub as you are doing) and put a lid on. The pots of sand are for species of stick insect that bury their eggs, such as New Guinea stick insects, Sabah stick insects and Malaysian stick insects. I am looking to purchase a larger cage for my eight Indian stick insects, about 18 inches x 18 inches x 24 inches. I would also like to expand on my collection with something a bit more exotic. Could you please advise what other stick insects are suitable to mix with Indian stick insects and how many can I keep in this volume? You could mix four Thailand (Baculum thaii) and four Pink Winged (Sipyloidea sipylus) in with your eight Indian in this sized cage. All these species like through-draught ventilation and it is important that the cage should have two mesh sides to provide this. The Thailand and Pink Winged stick insects eat bramble (blackberry) leaves but not privet like the Indian stick insects. Can the mother mantid eat her babies? It is extremely unlikely because the newly hatched mantids are too small to be of interest as food to the relatively large adult mantid. Mantids prefer to eat prey larger than themselves, even up to three times larger! So an adult mantid would be eating moths, large stick insects etc, not insects that are only a few millimetres long. However, the baby mantids can eat each other and so should be put in separate containers at the earliest opportunity. My daughter has always been interested in insects and is in her first year studying zoology at university. We've looked in newsagents for a suitable nature magazine but couldn't find anything suitable. She's seen "Nature" magazine at university but wants something a bit lighter. What can you recommend? I think she would enjoy "The Bug File" as this contains a range of articles about insects, written by leading experts in the field of entomology. The articles are written in a clear style, without the "heaviness" of articles that often appear in more academic journals. "The Bug File" can be ordered from Small-Life Supplies and is sent out monthly.
I have two Macleays Spectre stick insects (Extatosoma tiaratum) which I regularly feed eucalyptus plants (every month or so). If I buy two New Guinea stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata) will the eucalyptus kill them or will they eat it? Whilst Australian species of stick insects such as Extatosoma tiaratum and Achrophylla wuelfingi devour leaves of eucalyptus, it does not usually appeal to New Guinea stick insects and so they ignore it. So you could still put eucalyptus in the cage for the Australian Macleays Spectre but you would need to have a supply of bramble (blackberry) leaves in the cage for the New Guinea stick insects to eat. I have had three Giant African land snails for 2½ years and they haven't laid any eggs apart from four which were really soft and never hatched. I have cuttlefish bone in and a fresh supply of food, also a shallow dish with water which they love. The compost is about three inches deep and they are damp and warm. What size of container are you keeping the snails in? If it is too large this deters them from producing eggs. Also, for burying eggs, it is preferable to have a separate dish of dry potting compost rather than covering the floor with compost (as this makes it difficult for the snails to keep themselves clean). And of course, a varied diet is necessary for the good health of snails. I have a question about butterflies. I have to do a report on insects and I wanted to do a Clouded Sulphur butterfly. Is a butterfly still considered an insect even though they only have four legs and normal insects have six legs? Butterflies have six legs although in some species the front two legs are not used for walking. So yes, butterflies are insects and the butterfly you are studying has six legs. I received a Ghana mantid a few days ago and apart from eating the insect it was posted with, the mantid has not eaten anything since. It looks fat but makes only half-hearted attempts to catch anything. It even let one waxmoth larva go again! Should I be worried? No, do not be concerned. It is quite normal for a mantid to go go several days, even as long as a week, without eating. Providing it's abdomen is plump, there is no need to worry.
I am looking for any information regarding stick insects' feet. I understand that their feet have both claws and suction cups. The claws grip rough surfaces while the suckers grip smooth ones. Can you confirm this? Yes, that is correct. A stick insect's foot has two claws, one either side of the suction pads. A good way to study the feet is by examining a shed stick insect skin. When a large stick insect walks on your hand you can feel its claws gripping your skin. Newly hatched stick insects rely more on their suction pads than claws and can walk upside-down on plastic surfaces; older insects rely more on their claws and so cannot cling on because the surface is too smooth to grip. I recently purchased a pair of New Guinea stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata), the male has recently shed his skin but she hasn't. Can you tell me on average how long it is between sheddings of this species ? Like other stick insects, New Guineas undergo skin-changes every few weeks but the intervals between skin-changes are determined by how warm the surroundings are. You can tell when a stick insect is preparing to change its skin because the insect looks much fatter than usual.
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