Stick & Leaf Insect Care Sheet.

Introduction.

Stick insects for kids as well as experienced breeders, are fun and easy to raise. Stick insects are great for kids under strict supervision of adults in countries where the stick insect is not native. In case if it would get outside, even if it is just one stick insect because most of them clone them selves, it most likely will cause great damage to the echo system because there would be no natural predators to hunt them. Also if you ever have too many of stick insects it is important to always freeze any unwonted eggs for 24 hours before throwing them out. Young bramble leaves are more toxic then the older ones, so most stick bugs will try to not eat them unless they run out of food.

Housing.

A general rule, the terarium's walls on each side should be no smaller then the full grown Stick/Leaf bug's length times 2. A daily misting of the cage using a spray bottle allows stick insects to drink water droplets off the glass, leaves etc. Try to avoid spraying nymphs cause it often will make them drown, also i do not recommend giving them a water bowl due to high chance of them drowning them selves.

Equipment.

You will need some peat moss, sand or anything als what won't trap the ova. You can get peat moss from a nursery or garden store.

Temperatures and Humidity.

It is ideal to try and give each specie the temperature it requires, if however thats not possible, all of the stick insects will survive in the temperatures of (70-80F/21-29°C). The ova (eggs) is fairly easy to keep and hatch. Depending on the specie, but in general ova needs 24-25°C and a damp of 70-80% to successfully hatch. You can achieve that by making yore own incubator.

Recommended Substrates.

To incubate ovae it's best to use Vermiculite.

Eco Earth is a great substrate to use as a floor base in the Stick/Leaf Bug's terarium.

Breeding Your Stick/Leaf Bugs.

Depending on the specie you are trying to breed you may need both sexes to reproduce, while other species can clone them selves. After your Stick/Leaf Bugs have laid ovae, here is how you can make your own incubator for them (if they need more humidity, just put less holes in the incubator).

Step 1, Take a see thru plastic container with an air tight lid.
Step 2, on the bottom of the container fill it with 1/3rd of the way with vermiculite or paper towels.
Step 3, suspend a plastic mesh so that it is at least 4mm away from the substance.
Step 4, drill/poke some wholes thru to bring in some fresh air, but not too much or als the water will evaporate too fast.
Step 5, cover with the lid and poot it in some worm place. This method is especially a huge time saver for you, if the eggs take 1 month or longer to hatch.

Check on your ova daly especially ones the time gets closer for them to hatch. New born nymphs will only live for 24 hours if not given water, they start eating after 3- 5 days.

For more steadily regulated temperature and humidity, it’s great to have an incubator. This took under 30 min to do.... First, take a styrofoam box. put a 4- 5 gallon tank with water and heater inside. On the opposite side, place a fan on a timer, to be turned on up to 8 times per day, to ensure there are no hot spots with in the box. I also included a thermometer, so I can check and adjust the temperature accordingly. They heat of the water, will heat up to box and the evaporation creates high humidity levels.

Carefully cut out a piece of styrofoam to thread the wire out of the cage. One done, it can be re-glued with Silicon.

Make sure the Heater is fully submerged in the water. Most heaters are not meant to be fully submerged, so ask for submergible one.

The humidity in individual incubators can be adjusted by either how moist the paper towel is being kept with in the fully enclosed cup. Or by adjusting the size of holes in the cups. I prefer to keep my cups fully enclosed to minimize any disease out brakes.

I got this timer from a Home Depot. The cost was around $25.00 CAD. It can be programmed to be turned on and off up to 8 times a day for 7 days ahead!