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The stick insects have been fornicating

Last week I discovered lots of little baby stick insects in our stick insect habitat. We started with four nymphs which I purchased on eBay last  year and they ate lots of leaves and grew and they must have laid eggs at some point because now there are babies. I’m not even sure how many – 7 or 8? At this rate we’re going to end up with an over-population. I read somewhere that they don’t live very long so maybe the four adults will die at some point? Here’s their habitat:

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I fill it with ivy which is sitting in vases of water to keep it fresh. I usually top it up once every two weeks or so. Here’s a close-up of one of the babies.

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This is a photo of the same thing as the one above but I’ve zoomed in on one of the adults at the very back.

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Rachel M

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Comments

5 responses to “The stick insects have been fornicating”

  1. Keith Wilkinson MBE Avatar
    Keith Wilkinson MBE

    Hi Rachel

    Your stick insects are probably parthogenetic – requiring no sex act to create the fertile eggs. Males are very rare and you mainly find adult females, laying eggs to create yet more females before dying off at the end of their fairly short life cycle. Fascinating ‘pets’ – I usually fed mine on Privet leaves which are toxic, but not as toxic as ivy. The toxins build up in the systems of most animals that feed on Privet, Ivy etc – but that said, since Stick Insect life cycles are relatively brief, choice of vegetation to raise them on is probably not that important. I think I also tried them on bramble leaves at one time.

    Regards

    Keith

    Reply
    1. Rachel M Avatar
      Rachel M

      Oh thank you, Keith! I guess there was no fornicating after all.

      I did try feeding mine bramble. When I first got them I fed them bramble and ivy but they seemed to prefer the ivy so I stopped bothering with the bramble.

      Reply
  2. Norman Avatar
    Norman

    Hey, pretty wonderful! Congratulations Grandma. I wonder how many of the babies have escaped around the house and where you will find them? Can I suggest you get a cat to hunt them down if the kids can’t find them? 😉

    Reply
    1. Rachel M Avatar
      Rachel M

      Thanks, Norman! I hadn’t considered that there might be tiny ones crawling around the house. They would have had to be pretty small to get out of the habitat.

      The kids really want a dog but it’s not going to happen any time soon.

      Reply
  3. Denise Avatar
    Denise

    I think they look like great pets. They seem to have a nice life.

    Reply

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