# Incubating Stick Insect eggs



## koubee (Nov 13, 2007)

My spiny leaf stick insect has started dropping eggs. Today we got about 30 off the bottom of the cage.
How do i incubate the eggs?
How long will it take? I have read various things about how long they take to hatch. Some said 2months and some said up to 2 years.:shock:


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## channi (Nov 13, 2007)

apparently you can leave them with, but not touching a wet tissue, and after 3 or 4 weeks they will hatch


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## jan (Nov 13, 2007)

*Sticks.....*

You can put them into a container with peat moss and then put them into a warm spot, maybe a reptile enclosure if available...water spray them every couple of days or so thats what l did with my stick insect eggs...took a couple of months to start hatching, we then had over 200 sticks hatch over a 6 month period!!
l was reading that ants are attracted to the sticks eggs and that they cart them off into their ant nests and the sticks
hatch there...cool hey!!
Good luck with your eggs


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## WombleHerp (Nov 13, 2007)

yey for eggies! i have cricket eggies. all i do is stick them in peat m and put the container on top of a rep enclosure, or just above (not touching) a heat cord heating snakie so it doesnt dry out but keps warm!
hope that helps

xx Nat


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## Inkslinger (Nov 13, 2007)

soak in warm water for 5 minutes pat dry place in a warm area should have your stick hatching in a month or so


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## Sdaji (Nov 14, 2007)

I've hatched thousands of them, if I was feeling keen, I'd sort them out and incubate them on very slightly moist sand. If I wasn't as keen, I'd just fill up tubs with frass. The quickest I ever had them hatch was about two or three months, but very few hatched in under three or four months. I'd have a big peak in hatching between about five and eight months, then a few would pop out every now and again over the next 18 months or so. It was rare to have them hatch after about 18 months, but occassionally you'd get one hatching after a couple of years. I broke some open after over three years and some were still viable. I may even have a few viable ones left in old containers. I ended up with so many I was feeding them all off to the lizards and frogs!


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## koubee (Nov 14, 2007)

cool, thanks guys.
I put them on some moist vermiculite and put them on top of one of my enclosures.

I will do a trial lot with the warm water as inkslinger suggested. Sounds interesting.

Looks like i am going to have a fair few eggs. Would it be ok to scatter some through my garden and see if i get a population outside.


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## Magpie (Nov 14, 2007)

I used slightly damp sand and room temps.


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## Sdaji (Nov 14, 2007)

koubee said:


> Looks like i am going to have a fair few eggs. Would it be ok to scatter some through my garden and see if i get a population outside.



No, that would be _hideously_ irresponsible.


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## noni (Nov 27, 2007)

i have probably 100 or so eggs in a chinese food container with a stocking over the top and some peat moss stuff in the bottom and I mist it every day or so.

unfortunately my girl poncho is on her last legs and I might have to put her outside for the birds tomorrow but hopefully her eggs will hatch soon - some have been in there for at least 6 months; she's laid around a dozen a week since she got to laying age. 

might have to try the soaking in water method to speed them up a bit, thanks inkslinger


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## wood_nymph (Nov 27, 2007)

Sdaji said:


> No, that would be _hideously_ irresponsible.


 
ummmmmm how is that irresponsible they are native, most people get them as pets by taking them out of the backyard


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## noni (Nov 27, 2007)

yeah but i think they're native to tropical areas, is that what u meant sdaji?

koubee is in melbourne so they might not be naturally occurring down there.


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## channi (Nov 27, 2007)

is anyone interested in selling some eggs? my boys are very interested. pm me if interested in selling


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## Sdaji (Nov 29, 2007)

noni said:


> yeah but i think they're native to tropical areas, is that what u meant sdaji?
> 
> koubee is in melbourne so they might not be naturally occurring down there.



In part, yes. Something being native doesn't at all mean that it should be released outside of its range, or even away from the immediate area it was collected from. There are feral populations of native Australian animals within Australia, including several species of frogs. The original climates the animals come from don't always mean much either. A frog found in southern Australia, including Tasmania, Limnodynastes tasmaniensis was released into areas in the NT and established populations. A frog found in northern Australia, NSW and QLD, Litoria fallax, has become established in many areas around Melbourne (a long way south of its natural distribution and with a colder climate than anywhere it naturally occurs).

It's not just establishing new populations which is a problem. If I was to release a whole lot of Brisbane Carpets in Darwin, they might be very successful, with their genetics infiltrating the local population, resulting in the Darwin Carpets no longer looking like Darwin Carpets and having physiological differences from what nature allowed/intended.

One of the worst weeds in central southern Victoria is native to eastern Victoria. Amazing but true! The Sweet Pittosporum. If it sounds difficult to believe that a native Victorian plant could become a serious weed in Victoria outside its natural range and you don't believe me, just google "Sweet Pittosporum" and you'll get lots of Australian weed sites coming up explaining the situation. It's incredible what can happen when a species gets outside of its natural range, even if it is only a tiny way, or even if it is from a different area within the distribution of the species.

Stick insects, including native species in Australia, sometimes cause devastating damage to forests (they eat trees). Not quite as severe as locust plagues, but from time to time they do defoliate forests to a severe extent. Severe defoliation caused by stick insect species such as Didymuria violescens has long been well recorded on a fairly regular basis, and this is _within their natural range_. Common sense should tell you that releasing herbivorous insects into the wild is a dangerous thing to do. Imagine if I suggested I was going to breed and release Australian plague locusts!

Never, ever, ever release animals into the wild unless you know exactly what you're doing. Even the government approved projects which involve the release of animals go bad in the majority of cases, and they are usually researched by teams of people who are supposedly experts in the field of ecology, not to mention that they usually involve the release of native animals into their natural distribution. I doubt koubee has a large team of ecologists researching her suggested project, and obviously there isn't a valid reason to do it even if you do ignore the risks.


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## sengir (Nov 30, 2007)

WOW Sdaji just wanted to say of all the posts of yours I have read I have come to believe you are a wonderous fountain of knowledge it is good to have people who actually know what they are talking about on this site. Great to see and keep up wiht the knowledgable answers.

CHeers


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## Inkslinger (Nov 30, 2007)

Well said Sdjai it never ceases to amaze me that people would even consider doing this sort of thing, however having said that they tend to go right ahead and do it anyway.


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