Environmental Health
and Safety
Ooooo, Stickbugs!
(aka, the weirdest office pets on campus)
A Fact sheet from a former EHS student worker who first brought these fascinating bugs to EHS.
Here is some information from various online sources regarding keeping these 2 species of stick insects (Extatosoma tiaratum, the Giant Spiny Australian Stick Insects aka “Big/Little Mama” & Baculum extradentatum, the Vietnamese Stick Insects aka “The Twiggies”). These sheets are full of useful information, but the truth is that their directions need not be followed to the letter. My terrarium @ home has never had a heater, a lamp, or a water dish – I’ve successfully kept multiple species for a couple of years now & have raised a multitude of nymphs without any of these suggested extras. As long as you adhere to the basics you’ll do fine:
Keep the tank moist. The bugs get their water from the leaves they eat & from water that collects on the leaves. Spray the tank thoroughly with water on a daily basis during the week. Before the weekend be sure to do an extra heavy drenching spray & drape some plastic lightly over the top of the tank to keep some of the moisture in – be careful that you don’t make it airtight, the bugs still need oxygen! If the office will be empty for longer than 3 days someone will need to either come in & spray the bugs over the holiday, or take them home during the vacation.- Keep the leaves fresh. Both species, despite coming from very different regions, do very well on a diet of brambles (blackberry leaves). There are some additional kinds of vegetation they can eat (see the attached printouts for more info on that) but blackberries are the easiest to get.
Depending on how much foliage you’ve brought them & how much they’re eating you’ll need to replace the leaves about once a week (more frequently if they’ve eaten them all of or if the leaves have dried up, of course). The best place to get massive quantities of blackberry brambles is up by the Center for Advanced Computing, @ the corner of 38th & Knight – follow the paved path that starts near the art building up through the meadow, you’ll see a giant blackberry hedge on your left when the path turns into a gravel road. The leaves will stay fresh longer if you top up the water in their containers on a daily basis (use the pipette to do this w/out removing the containers from the tank, it’s the perfect tool for the job). When you are changing out the brambles, replace the paper towel lining as well. - Keep the population under control!!! Though we only have females, both varieties of stick bugs we keep can reproduce asexually in the absence of males, so they WILL lay fertile eggs if they live to adulthood. There are pictures of the eggs of both species in the attached printouts – as of the writing of this care sheet “Big Mama” has already started laying eggs & we have started removing them from the tank & collecting them.
The eggs are small & may be difficult to tell apart from the bug poop that also litters the bottom of the tank – the general rule is that (on the paper towels we line the tank w/) poop sticks & eggs roll, though you can also tell them apart by looking closely since the eggs are smooth & the poop is usually rough. You will need to control the population by reducing the # of viable eggs… decide how many you want to keep (allow for some expected mortality – see the attached sheets for more info on their incubation period) & freeze the rest. If any of the stick bugs suffer a fatal injury like loss of all legs on one side or a serious body wound the most humane thing you can do is put them in a container & place it in the freezer. DO NOT release any of the stick bugs as they are non-native species… it is unlikely that any of them would survive a winter outside, but don’t take the chance. When all the adults are laying eggs it is good practice to freeze or briefly microwave the old paper towel tank liners before disposal to kill any eggs you may have missed so none of them are accidentally released.
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