Reptile & Amphibian Forums

These are vietnamese stick insects, one of the many species of insects that I keep and raise for my monitors' consumption. They reach about seven inches or so in length, grow fast, and lay hundreds of eggs. Some species are parthenogenic, so they do not require the opposite sex, however these such species are usually slower at reproducing. I think that they make a great addition to the diet of the prasinus complex- prasinus, becarri, macraei, and boehmi; in fact from what I have been reading, phasmids(stick insects) appear to make up a considerable portion of their diet. Now, all I need to figure out how to breed or obtain katydids, and my monitors will be set!!!

BM

n/p

on my farm (ohio), but unfortunately it's too late in the year for them right now...
maybe come spring I can box some up and ship them to you...you'll just have to remind me come time...
maybe you'll have some chance breeding them...
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Pozdrav,
Anton T.
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Thank you Sir, may I have another?

awesome, thanks, and I'll let you know. Take care,

BM

Hi Bob,

There are several books on how to breed, parthenogenetically or otherwise, and good easy reading:

Brock, Paul D. 1985. The Phasmid Rearer's Handbook. Amateur Entomologist Vol. 20:41p.

Bedford, Geoffrey O. 1978. Biology and Ecology of the Phasmatodea. Annual Review of Entomology 23:125-165.

and there are a few others - but any walking stick book by Paulk D. Brock is excellent!

Good Luck Bob,
markb

As you can see they breed quite well even in your hands LOL.

Hey jody,

what kind of sticks are those?? Are you currently breeding them? How are they as far as how prolific are they. I would like to widen my feeder collection for my tree monitors, so let me know, and where you acquired them..

BM

I do not breed them as there are tons of them outside my house already. But I have captured a few and they breed and produce quite easily. But then again they live around here so not sure how it would be in a different enviroment.

They are abundant enough to see them all over the roads at night, typically when I find them they are breeding. They are heavier at times then others. We also have huge katydids, and many other insects living around the house.

BTW: I am in Florida

These being north american walking sticks Anisomorpha bupestroides, they spray a very nasty acid at you.

I found this out one night after catching my first pair and getting sprayed on my forehead it then ran into my eyes. I was blinded and had to call home to get water to flush my eyes out so I could see.
It took about 15 minutes for the cloudy watering eyes to feel better and let me regain sight. After that I found a new respect for these little insects.

So I am not sure how edible they are if at all for monitors.

Here is a care sheet on stick insects I found online. http://www.earthlife.net/insects/sticks.html

I have been considering raising stick insects for my blackthroat monitor... if I do decide to how can I go about getting some insects/eggs and is this the species that you would recomend?