Allotments 4 All

OKay....pets....wildlife....pests....I didn't know where to post, so if all else fails, stick it in the shed!

Good old Santy Clause is bringing daughter number one a stick insect farm.  (Son number one is getting an ant farm!! - a moment of madness I feel!)  Anyhows, sent of for said twiglets, and received 10 eggs..with no instructions other than they will hatch within 2 months.  Have been online and swotted up as best I can......but I figured one of you lovely lot will have first hand experience of everything a new stick insect owner should know.  Also......what should I be doing with these eggs??  ;D

Emma
PM me your address. I will send you a book on the subject. :)
We used to have them but not any more. The book was never used and is just collecting dust. If you send me your addy. I can get it in the post today. :)

Jill xx

They eat privet, which has to be replaced regularly. Eggs hatch into minute twiglets which grow eventually. That's all I remember; it;s vey simple as long as you remember to add fresh privet a couple of times a week, and remove the old when they've moved from one to the other.

You have to regularly do a sort out separating small black poos from small black eggs.

We had too many eggs and made mistake of binning some.  Bad news! Thousands of tiny stick insects all over walls, ceilings etc.  One turned up upstairs six weeks later, alive and well, can clearly live on nothing!

As pets they leave a lot to be desired.  Interaction with human beings = zero.  Of course, this may be just what you want! 

Good luck!

All I know is they breed like...well.......stick insects really!! Have people in mind for when you need to find homes for the squillion babies in a few months!! Great idea though!Good luck!

Now...where to find some privet!?!

That's no problem; keep tarantulas as well!

EJ, got plenty of that stuff, but it would require you and Ava visiting every 2 weeks! Not such a bad idea! ;D ;D ;D ;D

Great pressies EJ. Haven't done the stick insects but have had the ant farm and now have Sea Monkeys sitting on the kitchen bench.  The tank supplied with the eggs was cracked so have bought son a very small glass one. The monkeys are hatched and growing fast. They are dead interesting. Need to find a permanent place for them the live yet. My son thinks they'll be in danger of the cat,Spook, in his bedroom so we are wracking our brains for a safe place for them to live.  Spook knocks things over and doesn't notice he's doing it!

I'm a bit perturbed by stick insects if truth be known. Will you be touching them?

They're perfectly harmless to touch so don't worry about it!

We have sea monkeys also....living in a small tank on the mantlepiece.  Ava fancied Triops also, but I thought something the kids could hold would be more fun.  Can't wait to hold them actually, I love most creepies, so long as they are NOT spiders!! Thanks for all of your help folks.  I knew you lot would be able to keep me on the straight and narrow!  ;D

DP, keep that nice bottle of merlot open and I will be there, clippers in hand!  ;D (I am assuming daughter number one didn't set the guinea pigs free??!!)

Ew Robert have you seen those ones that look like leaves?  The Butterfly Centre in Edinburgh has a few different varieties of stick insects. They are fascinating to look at but I don't think I could hold one. If I happened to be walking through the jungle or wherever they are from and put my hand out and touched one I'd have a dicky fit I think.  I've held tarantulas which I thought were great. Feels to me like pipe cleaners walking across your hands.  I also found a millipede strange to hold as they feel like those plastic bugs you get from the toy shops.

The other bug type things that give me the colly wobbles are those hissing cockroaches and scorpions. I'm drawn to look at them but they make me cringe.

EJ what are Triops?

Triops, bigger than sea monkeys.......kinda like king crabs.

http://www.vulcano.demon.nl/triops/

Eeek!   They look great. Also alot bigger than the sea monkeys.  I'll bet my son would like some of those.Especially if I tell him they are from the time of the dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs are his other passion.

ooo live tropical fish food yummy lol. ;D

That is what my darling says about the seamonkeys Joji.  He threatens as soon as the kids get fed up with them, the fish will enjoy them as a mid afternoon snack!

Don't let him do it as those ones will kill his fish Emma. :o
They were bred for the pet trade not as food for fish. They won't be good for feeding to his fish at all. :P