# Macro photo Stick insects



## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

This is one of my girls. There spiny leaf insects and i want to know what u think of their chaming good looks. I think perhaps its a face only a mother could love...

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## arbok (Apr 7, 2008)

i have a phobia of stick insects..


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Why is that?


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## arbok (Apr 7, 2008)

i dont know, just the ones that look like sticks scare me seems unatural


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Wait till a breeze hit them, then they sway like crazy! And slap u with their back legs if you get too close....
Cute.


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## chloethepython (Apr 7, 2008)

that is really fugly,but each to his own


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

very nice, i keep the green form, one of my girls made me bleed from the spines on her legs when she started going off, got well over 1000 eggs, going to have fun when they start hatching lol


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Neat! I want them to turn green already, as you can tell there is rose in there, as i read they change colour with what their eating. 
I have never bled from them. Do you know why she has 2 huge spikes coming from inside the tail. They look like stingers, but they dont sting. Do they?
I havnt got any eggs yet. As far as ive seen anyways


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

i believe those spines help direct the eggs when they eject them. I think they have to be very early instar to have food have an affect on color. The ones i have i believe are genetic green as there were both green and brown on the same plant but i will find out when my eggs begin to hatch in a year or 2


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Ok cool, my partner was a little weirded out by the spines. 
Have you got any piks of the green ones?


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

yea, i'll put them up tomorrow, off to bed now. Dont actually have any live phasmids right now just about 3000-4000 eggs of 3 different species.


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## Shonfield (Apr 7, 2008)

arbok said:


> i have a phobia of stick insects..



i with you on that
one jumped on my face off the roof when i was looking at it when i was 6 and i get scared when i see one on a wall or roof now :|


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## Tatelina (Apr 7, 2008)

hornet said:


> going to have fun when they start hatching lol


They're SO CUTE when they're little! 
We realised some of our eggs had hatched in the tank when we found some little baby ones on the curtains on the other side of the room... *blush*

Edit: And they're also cute when they're adults... Thanks for sharing!


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## Nikki. (Apr 7, 2008)

heheh Very nice Stick Insects !


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## Retic (Apr 7, 2008)

Here's one I saw near Cairns.


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## Magpie (Apr 7, 2008)

No shortage of them up this way. I once had a spiny leaf insect jump on me whilst hanging out the washing.


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## 888lowndes888 (Apr 7, 2008)

I hate stick insects too, along with prayingmantis's the way they move is strange and they look un natural. My girlfriend has a spiny leaf and it was on her head and fell and as it was falling it tried to grab her lip and it bled like crazy.


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

The piks are neat! Never seen any like that, looks like a actual stick. I want one..............


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

midnightserval said:


> The piks are neat! Never seen any like that, looks like a actual stick. I want one..............



I have heaps of eggs from the tesselated stick insect, they are a clasic stick type phasmid. Hopefully they will hatch this year


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## Kenshin (Apr 7, 2008)

what is the gestation time of phasmid eggs? you guys make it sound long


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

i'm sure some species would have shorter incubation periods but alot are around the 18month-2yr mark


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Ill buy some when they hatch.....


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## imalizard (Apr 7, 2008)

2yrs for the eggs to hatch! Wow that must take a long time.


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

lol yea, easy to incubate, just a room temp and dont need to do anything special so its just a bit of waiting.


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## collins94 (Apr 7, 2008)

what do they eat?


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## hornet (Apr 7, 2008)

various species of plants, some are specialists on one species or genus, others will eat a wide range of plants


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Any native or non poisonous leaf isnt it. Mine just eat eucalyptus leaves and sometimes rose leaves..


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## kakariki (Apr 7, 2008)

I'm a sticky fan. I am trying to get Goliaths atm, without success. Hornet, I would also be interested in purchasing some from you. We are planning to get a bigger tank & hopefully keep the different kinds together. Then our little tanks can be used for scorps.


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

I want a bird-eating spider again too. I miss them....


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## James_Scott (Apr 7, 2008)

I used to have a few hundred of these guys myself. make great cheap pets and made a bit of money selling them to the pet shops. In fact it paid for both my snakes and their setups.
Have fun with them.


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## Jen (Apr 7, 2008)

They look awesome, does anyone in WA keep them? is it legal here?


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Hey -jen, did you draw your avatar? I would guess there legal anywhere, i dont think they harm anything...


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## Jen (Apr 7, 2008)

No, thats Death of Rats, from the Disc world series. WA has very strange laws regarding keeping reps and inverts, we can't keep scorps or tarantulas here.


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## Noongato (Apr 7, 2008)

Ok, if thats the case with scorps n stuff there might be issues with stick bugs. Although you can buy the eggs of all sort on eBay, as much as their not supposed to sell live animals.


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## Jen (Apr 7, 2008)

i just emailed calm, so i'll have a reply sometime next year


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## hornet (Apr 8, 2008)

sorry jen, as far as i know its no inverts full stop in WA. Its mad how you can keep herps but not bugs.


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## lycanthropica (Apr 8, 2008)

i love the plain stick ones but the leaf ones with all the bits and bobs hanging off freak me out a bit

i am very very afraid of caterpillars and centepeides though


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## Noongato (Apr 8, 2008)

What does Lycanthropica mean? Is it scientific or related to werewolves?


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## Noongato (Apr 8, 2008)

The only animals in the world i am afraid of are blood suckers, such as lice, leeches, ticks. Bleach there is nothing worse than them crawling all over you........


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## lycanthropica (Apr 8, 2008)

i'm cool with leeches. don't like ticks at all.

a lycanthrope is a werewolf, lycanthropy was/is considered a mental illness where people think they are wolves. tho some psychologists think it is outdated and stuff
so lycanthropica is a feminine play on the words because i really like werewolves


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## Noongato (Apr 8, 2008)

Me too. I wish i could turn into one with wings, then terrorise the town. Bwahaha.
My house is covered in werewolfs and doggy creatures, etc.


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## anguskennedy (Apr 8, 2008)

Hey Hornet, you know how you said just incubate at room temp and nothing extra, do you think that would still be OK in Canberra's cooler climate and lower humidity? I have hundreds of eggs, couldn't decide whether i should put them in my reptile incubator (30C, a bit too warm i thought), in a sealed tub for humidity or just sitting in the room, that can get a bit cold over winter.

what do you think?

Any advice would be much appreciated!


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## Jen (Apr 9, 2008)

they sell them in pet shops, but i don't really trust them to be legal


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## hornet (Apr 9, 2008)

they sell them in WA petstores? mayb the laws only relate to arachnids, see what CALM say.

anguskennedy: you could heat them to 20c if you wished, they would hatch without heating but will take longer than in a warmer climate


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## anguskennedy (Apr 9, 2008)

Thanks hornet - will give it a go. You dont think humidity will matter?


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## ryanharvey1993 (Apr 9, 2008)

wow that looks awsome


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## iceman (Apr 9, 2008)

great pic's midnightserval


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## hornet (Apr 9, 2008)

you need to incubate them in something like a chinese container filled with peat or spagnum moss with a mesh lid. Let the substrate dry in between waterings but most of the time there will be enough humidity.


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## Noongato (May 18, 2008)

Let me know if anyone decides to sell some bugs........


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## station (May 18, 2008)

my wife has some , it took under a year for about 13 to hatch so far only thing she does is mist the enclosure everyday in summer and cuts it back to about 3 times a week in winter

this is one of them eating

[video=youtube;AkEJIZZv9qA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkEJIZZv9qA[/video]


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## Noongato (May 19, 2008)

Cool, cool. I miss my old Bird eating spider, the stick bugs sortof fill the emptyness.


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## hozy6 (May 19, 2008)

cool hornet i wouldn't mind getting some stick bugs what sort of setup do you need for them


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## Noongato (May 20, 2008)

Something that will hold plants, and preferably a gauze/flyscreen material for air flow.


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## rmcneill (May 20, 2008)

Station, did you put the music in the backround your self? what was it do you remember? i love all of that relaxing type of music


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## noni (May 23, 2008)

rmcneill said:


> Station, did you put the music in the backround your self? what was it do you remember? i love all of that relaxing type of music


 
hey it's noni (station's mrs) i made that vid and the music was an american indian flute thing i found on limewire


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## noni (May 23, 2008)

here's a few pics of our babies - they are about 15mm long and are still dark brown like ants (and they run like crazy)


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