Stick Bug Jealousy

In the three years which I have been keeping walking stick insects, I have not noticed any displays of emotion.  In fact, they hardly seem to move - or eat, for that matter.  They don't seem to seek out or mind the attention of other stick bugs.  If one walks on top of another, neither one seems to pay any attention.  With the exception of the adult males, who do manage to seek out and mate with the females.

Last week my daughter brought her small cage of stick bugs to display to the whole school, so the night before, I cleaned out the cage for her, and set up fresh blackberry leaves.  We were a bit concerned to see a male and female joined together, since this sort of thing would raise unnecessary questions from the younger kids.  As I removed the lid which they were clinging to, a second male approached from behind and climbed onto the first (successful) male's back.  I figured it was just because I had disturbed them, and expected them to soon settle.  Instead, I saw something I didn't expect.  The second male appeared to bite the first male on the leg.  The first male recoiled slightly, which confirmed to me that it was actually a bite which I had witnessed.  Then he bit again.

Normally, I would have gone for my Blackberry, to be ready to record in case it happened again.  But it was late at night (which always seems to be the case when I am cleaning their cages), and I wanted to get done before I got too tired.  So I never did see whether the biting continued.  But when I returned the lid a few minutes later, it appeared that the first male was still in position with the female, and the second male was still waiting nearby, perhaps jealously.

New "Baby" in the House - Leaf Insect

I admit that I am a bit strange, but I was very excited yesterday to discover a new "baby" in the house - my first spiny leaf insect (Extatosoma tiaratum).  I received about a dozen eggs a couple of months ago, and have been waiting patiently ever since.  They have been well worth the wait!

The baby leaf bug is similar in size to my baby stick bugs, but a stockier build, very dark with a red head.  When I tried to pick her up, instead of moving slowly like the stick bugs, this little gal starting marching quickly, almost running on my hand, and did not hesitate to jump when she reached the edge of my hand!  If I didn't know she was a gentle vegetarian bug, I'd be scared to touch her.  She looks downright fierce!  When disturbed, she rolls his little dark tail into a tight ball, looking like a biting ant.

We had a hard time taking photos with her moving so quickly, so this is all I can share so far:

For comparison, here is a newly hatched baby stick insect:

17April2011 - Here is another photo, a closeup showing the curled tail and pointy head:

Birthday Season and Stick Bugs

Today was my son's birthday party with his friends from school, and the end of "birthday season" in our house.  I have discovered the joy of making cakes instead of buying them, so today I had fun decorating his, except that I couldn't find my icing decorating set, so instead ended up improvising with a plastic bug cut on the end, and holding one of the icing tips I did find against it, but it was a real messy job, with icing spilling out on all sides onto my hands.  You wouldn't know it, though, by looking at the cake.  I think it turned out pretty good, don't you?:

My only mistake was that I indicated that we would be done by 7:30 or 8pm, and some parents arrived at 7:30pm, and we were not done.  My husband only arrived about 7:15pm from dropping off my daughter at the church, and I had waited for him to return before opening gifts and serving cake, since I wanted his help with a few photos.  So it was a bit of a rush finishing up, with parents arriving.

In the midst of the chaos, Gary from Cinemazoo arrived (from another birthday party he was entertaining at) to buy a few of my stick bugs for his collection of bugs and creatures which he shares with kids of all ages for educational and entertainment purposes.  I was very impressed with him.  Gary is a true nature enthusiast, and a very patient and kind person.  He graciously gave me some eggs of a leaf insect, which I will be thrilled to add to my stick bug "collection".  He also took the trouble to go back to his van and bring in some huge hissing cockroaches, which I enjoyed holding (the birthday kids all backed away and couldn't be convinced), and this giant stick bug which he preserved (wow, I would have liked to hold it while it was still alive!):

I think it would be a really cool birthday feature, to have Cinemazoo bring in their weird and wonderful creatures, and share them with the kids.   Tonight, one of the little sisters of one of the boys shrieked when she first saw my stick bugs, but after explaining to her that it was a "nice" gentle bug, I convinced her to hold one, and within a few minutes, she had convinced her mom that she wanted to take one home with her, which she did.  I was thrilled to see her transformed from her initial terror, to proudly clutching the little box with her new bug "pet".  What a night!

Stick Bug Unsuccessful Hatching

In the couple of years I've been keeping stick bugs, I have had a lot of babies hatch, but have not been able to witness any hatchings - until a couple of days ago.  Or sort of.  I saw a stick in the bottom of the cage, which looks like it had a failed attempt at hatching (I've had a couple of those).  But as I reached to remove it from the cage, it moved slightly.

I gently picked it up, and took it into the kitchen, to watch it more closely, as it attempted to free itself from the egg capsule.

At first it looked like it was pushing with its front legs, to free its tail from the egg.  Then as time went on, I realized that the front legs were also helplessly attached to the egg, and only the middle two legs were functioning normally.  One of the back legs were broken off (perhaps by my picking it up the first time).

It struggled valiantly for a number of hours.  Finally I tried to help pull off the egg capsule, which came off but left behind an unidentified clearish white material, in which the 4 legs were firmly and hopelessly attached.  Unfortunately I managed to also break off on of the good legs, in the process.  So the situation was pretty bleak.  Without legs, this little guy would have no means of survival.  I tried to console him that evening with a moistened blackberry leaf, but while his mouth parts moved a bit in response to the leaf, he didn't make any noticeable attempt to chew it.  In the morning, he was dead.

Poor little thing.  It was sad to see him in that predicament, and not be able to help.  But at the same time it was neat to get a little glimpse into the hatching process, even if an unsuccessful one.  I still hope one day to witness a successful hatching.

Update on Rat and Sticks

I haven't taken very many photos of our pet rat, Sam, recently, since when we have her out, she is usually moving very fast, getting into mischief, and is often climbing on me.  She is growing nicely, and I wish we could get a photo of her in our hands, for comparison with her photo in our hands when she was just itty-bitty.

I try to let her out in the evenings when I'm on the computer, and she runs freely on our desks.  She has an annoying habit of running across the keyboard, clicking keys randomly with each step, and she pees on my mouse EVERY time she passes by, which is very often.  I understand that it's a sign of affection, of comfort, perhaps of marking her familiar territory, but I find this just too annoying, so I hope she will grow out of this habit.

She has found herself a place to create a part-time nest, under some file folder racks.  She collects tissues (the ones I use to wipe up her pee, so I guess that's encouraging her habit too), and occasionally I see her running by with a paper clip or other small object, to carry under there with her.  She gets pretty cozy in there, and it is a challenge to lure her out when it's time to put her back in the cage.

We have bought her a larger cage, which is multilevel so she can climb.  We have come to realize that she would really benefit from having a friend.  I hope to contact the pet store soon.  When we bought Sam, who was a beautiful gold/beige colour, I was really attracted to a black and white curly-haired baby rat.  So I am hoping there is a chance a few more curly haired ones will be born, and if so, I would be happy to wait for one of those.  And yes, I'm not so naive that I don't know that most of the rats born there are destined to be a meal for a pet snake, but that's life, and I will still buy my curly-haired baby rat from them.

My friend Andrea, who has prior experience with rats, has been a wonderful help with Sam, and has provided a second home to Sam when we go on vacation.   She has posted photos of Sam on her blog, "Rats Make Great Pets", and since sadly it didn't work out with her 3 boy rats, I think we'll be seeing a lot more about Sam on Andrea's blog in future.

As for our stick bug colony, they are doing fine, and still multiplying.  I have no large egg-laying females at the moment, but some of the eggs stuck to the top and back of the cage must still be hatching, since I have all sizes of walking sticks, including some hatchlings.  I may have finally squished that spider that was hiding in the back corner of the cage, and taking an occasional stick bug.  At least I haven't seen him recently.

I did a thorough clean of the cage today (instead of just replacing individual blackberry branches, as I usually do), so I also performed a count while I was transferring the stick bugs back in.  I have 37.  Wow.  Here is a photo of the cage.  This time I also added a branch of salmonberry, and they took to it fine, just like the blackberry.  I guess that's an acceptable "bramble" for them.  Probably raspberries would work, too, but I don't plan to offer any of those - I don't have any to spare.

Click here for previous posts about the walking stick bugs.

The Walking Stick Life Cycle Turns Again

I am thankful to my sister who tracked down a pair of stick bugs (walking sticks) a year ago October for my birthday gift. This is a photo re-cap, with some never-before-published photos, celebrating their life cycle. If you want to read my previous posts about the stick bugs, click the "stick bugs" Topic on the left side of my blog.

The original female laid a total of 25 eggs before she died. Here is the cage with a number of eggs on the bottom. They need to be kept moist until they hatch, so I used layers of paper towel which I regularly watered.

Of those 25 eggs, I believe 18 hatched. In this photo a newly hatched baby stick is next to an egg, with an out-of-focus sibling behind. It amazed me how the baby stick could fit into the egg, if it hatched out that big! Unfortunately, despite my constant watching, I never did see a hatching itself, I only woke up to the new hatchlings.

The stick bugs are an interesting pet. During the day, anyhow, they rarely move, and when I had only 2, there was little sign of them eating the blackberry leaves which I kept fresh for them. But on rare occasions, I actually saw them chowing down on the leaves:

Occasionally they would molt, and leave some spooking looking skin hanging from the top of the cage or a branch:

After some while, I had a full cage of stick bugs:


I would be fine with that, but if each of the females had 18 babies, that would have been a bit too much. So I have adopted out 8 of them, and am down to a more reasonable number now, I think 5 females and 6 males (I counted them last time I cleaned the cage, but have forgotten now). My original male is still alive more than a year later, although I can't tell anymore which one is him, since there are a number that are the same size now.

Happily, the cycle continues, as I found my first egg last week, and am now keeping the bottom of the cage moist and waiting for more. I found two eggs attached to the top of the cage, but I don't know if they would make it. For interest, I've left them attached, but am not hopeful, since they would certainly not be moist there.

Stick Bugs for Adoption

It was one year ago that my sister gave me the lovely gift of a male and female stick bug. No I am not being sarcastic, I had really wanted some ever since I saw the ones she had some years before. But no pet stores carried them, and my occasional Craigslist inquiries for them had gone unanswered.

Here is my original pair from last October (the male is darker, at the top) - click any photo for a slightly larger image:


The male is still alive, one year later.

The female started dropping eggs (to the bottom of the cage) 5 months after I got her, an egg or so every couple of days. She dropped 25 eggs total, and then died (of exhaustion?). I kept the eggs moist (by lining the bottom of the cage with paper towels, which I poured water on). The eggs started hatching about 2 months after they were dropped. Some 18 or 19 of those eggs hatched. Here is a newly hatched stick:

Some of the babies are now the size of the stick bugs I received last October. In fact, I have a hard time now telling which male is the father, and which ones are the babies.

I will keep a few stick bugs to continue the cycle, but I intend to adopt out the remaining ones. My sister happily took 2 females and 1 male. As of my count today, while cleaning the cage, I have 12 females and 5 males, which is too many to keep, once the females start laying eggs.

As I understand it, the females can reproduce without any males. In this case, all offspring will be daughters, and identical to their moms. But with a male, the offspring will be mixed males and females (as in my case), and with some genetic variation. For example, some of my females have a bit of green colouration on their legs, and others are brown throughout.

They are very easy to care for, their diet (and they don't eat very much) consisting of either oak leaves or blackberry leaves. Their maintenance consists of bringing in fresh blackberry leaves. I keep mine in small jars of water, so they only need to be changed every week or two, and I have no shortage of blackberry vines invading my yard from two sides. I always manage to poke myself as I try to change over the blackberries and move the stick bugs over from the old branch to new. But not seriously, yet.

I keep my sticks in a reptile cage, which has a mesh top, and doors which swing open and close with a small latch. It is a 18" cube. A smaller cage would do, since the sticks really don't move much, and don't eat much either. But this one provides great viewing of them.

When there are no eggs, the cage just needs to be cleaned occasionally, since the sticks drop little dry poops all over. I line it with paper towels, so I can remove them easily, and replace them. When there are eggs, they need to be kept moist. I use a few layers of paper towels, and pour a bit of water on them every day or two.

Apparently if one doesn't want the eggs to hatch, they should be frozen first (to sterilize them), before being discarded. I didn't need to do that, at least on this first cycle.

The stick bugs don't bite. They are gentle. They tickle. I think they make a great "pet" for children. Except that kids eventually get bored of them. Mine did. Now they're just my pets again.

If anyone from the Vancouver, BC area is interested in adopting some stick bugs, let me know.

30Oct09 Update : Happily, I have found some good homes for my sticks, and am down to a more reasonable number now:

1 male and 2 females to my sister
1 female to Susanna, mother of two boys in our school
1 male and 1 female to Beth, mother of a girl (good friend of my daughter) and boy in our school
1 male and 1 female to a school teacher in my sister's school, who is apparently "into" lots of different types of creatures, which she keeps in the classroom - cool!

Another Baby Stick Bug

Today I found a fifth baby stick bug on the side of the cage (the other 4 already being on the blackberry branch). What surprises me is the relatively large size when they are first born. Here he is on my pinky finger:

Sure, he looks small, but in comparison to the size of the egg , the stick bug's body is much more than twice the length of the egg, not to mention its long legs! See photo below, where the brown egg is on the leaf, the newborn stick bug is on the edge of the leaf, and a 3+ wk old baby is to the left of it:

How does he fit inside the egg before he hatches out? I would be really curious to see one hatching, to find out how it manages to unfold or lengthen itself as or after it comes out.

By the way, the upward curl in the stick bug's tail indicates that the stick bug is agitated. In this case, I had just moved it to the leaf for the photo. Once it settles, it straightens its tail.

Stick Bug Surprise

I had a funny incident with my stick bugs this morning. On the way back from walking the kids to school, I clipped a fresh blackberry branch to replace the dying branch in my stick bug cage. The adult male was on the ceiling of the cage, so I pulled out and held the old branch (with the 4 babies) over the sink while I replaced the water in the container and stuck the new branch into the cage.

Then I carefully transferred the baby sticks one by one to the new branch. But to my dismay, I could only find 3 stick bugs, not 4 (and I had even hoped for more!). I searched for some time, leaving the old branch on the bottom of the cage, just in case I had missed the 4th baby stick but it was still there.

Then since I was getting ready for an appointment, I brushed my teeth, changed my shirt (including cutting off the tags since it was the first time I wore it), checked my phone messages (replaying one of them a few times, to get the phone number), wrote an email, and then stopped at the washroom before I headed out the door.

While on the potty, I felt something tickling my shoulder. Good thing I have a pretty strict look-before-you-slap policy, because, to my astonishment, it was the baby stick bug. He must have climbed up my arm while I held that old branch over the sink. But how he managed to cling onto me while changing my shirt and all the other activities (which was probably 20 minutes' worth) is a mystery to me. But I was very pleased to be able to return him to his cage before going to my appointment. Much better than if I had discovered him while at the appointment!

Baby Stick Bugs

Four days after our cruise, we took the kids to Disneyland, to take advantage of the Victoria Day (May 18) holiday in Canada. When we returned home, I got a very nice surprise.

Do you remember the stick bugs my sister Rose bought me for my birthday back in October? Here they are again:

In mid-March, the female (the bigger one) started dropping eggs. I think there are now about 25 on paper towel on the bottom of the cage, which I am keeping moist by pouring water on it a couple of times per week. At first I was quite anxious, watching the eggs every day, until I read at the library that stick bug eggs can take anywhere from 6 months to 18 months to hatch, depending on the species.

Well, when we returned from Disneyland, there were 3 small babies in the cage. They grow fast, here is one of them at what is probably 1 week old:

According to my records, it was only 9 1/2 weeks for the hatching. So now I'm back to watching the cage anxiously again.

Stick Bugs

I was very happy when my sister, Rose, bought me two stick bugs for my birthday in October, so these first few photos of them on my blog are long overdue.

They have already grown to probably twice their original length, in these past couple of months, and their colours have become much darker. I noticed a while back, a skin molt in the bottom of the cage. But then the other night, I discovered this spooky looking skin molt hanging from the top of the cage. I was able to snap a few photos of it, before it fell.


My sister bought me a male and female. The males are not really necessary for reproduction, since the females can reproduce asexually if no males are around, but then I understand that then the offspring are pretty much genetic copies of the mother, so sexual reproduction provides greater genetic variety in the offspring.

The eggs will drop to the bottom of the cage, and if kept moist (neither too wet nor too dry), they will hatch into tiny stick bugs. My dear sister thoughtfully also brought me two eggs so I would be able to recognize them when they come. So I'm ready and waiting, and watching the bottom of the cage (I have them in a reptile terrarium, with glass doors which open at the front, and a mesh top for good air circulation).

When the stick bugs are at rest (which seems to be all the time!), they extend their two front legs directly in front of themselves, and are very twiglike, as in this photo:

They are very gentle, and although a bit tickly at first, very easy to handle. When you coax them onto your hand, they may walk a bit, or more often will just position themselves, motionless, until you coax them to move again. They eat only leaves from blackberries (or other brambles), which I fortunately have more than enough fresh supply encroaching on my yard from many sides. Even at that, I can hardly see the small amounts chewed at the edges of the leaves. So even if these were in the garden, they would have minimal impact.

Please feel free to click any of the photos for a closer view.