You may be wondering, why did I start taking care of stick bugs? It all started several years ago when I went to an event at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Tucson. The college has an annual event called the Insect Festival where they would set up stands in one of their campus buildings. They would have a lot of stands for different insects like bees, ants, mosquitos, beetles, and even arachnids like scorpions and tarantulas! The first year I went one of their professors had his stand with stick bugs. I was fascinated by them and my mom brought up that I took care of insects and had tarantulas. The professor gave me a branch that had stick bug eggs on it and he said that I could have it to have my own stick bugs. They looked like small grains of rice. And that’s when my stick bug husbandry kicked off.
Starting from those 10 or so eggs came a bunch of stick bugs. Then from those stick bugs, more stick bugs. Stick bugs are capable of parthenogenesis, which is the ability to reproduce without a male. Even though the offspring have the same genetic makeup as their mother (basically the closest to a clone you can get) they still are genetically different. The concept of parthenogenesis is complicated and still somewhat of a mystery on how the offspring have both the same yet different genetic makeup to their progenitor. I just know that it gave me a lot of stick bugs. I’ve had about 4-5 generations of stick bugs develop through this process. From the small portion of eggs, I now have about over 30+ stick bugs.
It’s been a very enriching experience to rear stick bugs and take care of them. They are among my favorite insects to take care of and I hope you also find enjoyment in reading about my stick bug journey that I embarked on and continue to go on.