Australia's Science Forum

Last year we bought 3 spiny leaf insects for school which have been a big hit with the kids. We got one male and two females. The male died a week ago and the females are really big now but we have had no success finding any eggs (the info. that came with them was sketchy). Has anyone out there had these critters can you help me with what to look for and how to hatch them.....thanks

Look amongst the leaf litter, we have millions of eggs, they are small round, brown to white in colour, and are frequently misstaken to be feaces by my teachers. I have however had no luck hatching my eggs, I do know that it can take a few years though before they hatch and we have only had them for about a year. LADA knows more about this, she has eggs hatching constantly and have so many insects she doesn't quite know what to do with them, so she generously give them to me She is great!

Have a look at this website:

http://www.abc.net.au/creaturefeatures/ ... insect.htm

It has some information about how to hatch the eggs.

Rosalie

Hi, I have had eggs hatch. I put them in the bottom of an old specimen jar in some washed sand and then covered the top with a peice of stocking. I was given the eggs so I don't know how old they are. After about 3 months since I had them they started hatching. The first ones that hatched died of starvation !I forgot to check them.So I put a small conical flask of water in the jar and a small branch of gum leaves now I have 6 babies they are coming along nicely.

Hi,
we have had our insects for about 4 years and kids love them.
We used to separate the eggs, set up little tank etc, now we keep the lot together, eggs, leaf litter etc, and the babies love it. Now its getting warmer we had about a dozen hatched over last months and we keep them with all the adults. We have a 120cm long tank with flyscreen lid and I change the leaves every 2-3days for fresh ones. We have lots of them, if there was a way of getting them to you, I would give you some.
Lada

You can always get in touch with the Australian Insect Farm, they have their own website. Just contact them on their email and they'll answer any questions.

thanks for your feedback it has been noted...I've looked at our droppings but I can't see any difference yet....maybe if we have no luck someone who has eggs can send me a few by mail...it would be appreciated....I shall keep on keeping on

I will send you some eggs. Give me your school address.
Lada

We have recently set up a tank with 4 stick insects of varying size in our lab. They were kindly given to our school by the Labbies at St Clares College in ACT. Our students are fascinated with them and were amazed when the two largest shed their brown skins and are now bright green and yellow with wings!! I too am unable to distinguish the eggs from the droppings. The littlest one escaped somehow a few weekends ago and I thought that was the end of him - however later on after hours of fruitless searching the lab I found him perched on a desk!! How he wasn't trodden on by students I will never know. He has not escaped since.
We also had a pair of kittens born to our mother rabbit Claire in the Ag Department on the weekend.
Jill

jilly wrote:We also had a pair of kittens born to our mother rabbit Claire in the Ag Department on the weekend.
Jill

What the??? How???

Sassi - Terminology my dear. It's one of those trivia games you can play with kids - naming the male,female & offspring of various animals. Baby rabbits are kittens too, like baby whales are calves.

NB A response to the question above re bats was: Batman, Robin and Bat-boy. Logical at least.

AHA, thanx for that smiley! Everyday you learn something new, I guess thats when I realize I am still Swedish, despite of having been here for nearly 7yrs!

Sassi

would love it if you sent some eggs..please send them to my home address incase I need to look after them over Christmas...
24 barton drive
kiama downs
2533...will let you know when they hatch

lada thankyou so much for the eggs. a couple got squished in the post but a lot are great. you said that you put them under leaf litter...do you spray it to keep them moist or put them in a warm place....is the leaf litter composed of the leaves that you intend to feed them or do you just put them in anything...i am such a novice...i love this site i can sound like a nerdy science person or a dummy and no one cares...to you all out there have a great Christmas and don't spend a moment thinking about school...unfortunately i have to go in twice a week to feed fish and any chooks left behind...nevermind, there won't be a student in sight....yahooo

Lorraine,
the leaf litter is left after insect finish eating it( dry leaves and some twigs) also their droppings. Normally u find the eggs among all this litter, so tip the eggs in there. Spray them with fine spray to keep moist, but because they are in the litter they dont dry up.
They are not supposed to be wet, just cool and moist. They hatch over summer when is hot and humid. Make sure u have a inclosed tank, as the babies are very fast. They are size of a bull ant.
They will be ready to feed with the adult straight away.
Good luck
Lada

thanks once again can't wait till the little blighters start hatching...i am keeping them with me over christmas so i will set up a tank and change the leaves every second day as i would if the adults were with them ..just in case..my daughter (11) is wrapped

My English neighbour has just sent an email stream to her friends in England (and me) proudly showing the before and after shots of a beautiful female stick insect that she bravely sprayed.

She being a pom thought it was a spider.

NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!

Glad to have been a help. Dont worry too much about the leaves, until they start hatching. Just maybe once a week, so when they hatch, they have a lunch ready.
We could have been neighbours , I used to work at the old ER&S(southern copper) in the 1970ties in Port Kembla.
Merry xmas
lada

Hi All
I thought I would just let you know, I have a very successful group of "stickies" breeding thanks to Lada.
I find the eggs take several months to hatch, I leave them by a warm window in a petri dish and only spray them when I remember.
I m now collecting eggs from my 2nd generation!
Must admit I was worried as the first emergence were all females and 1 male!!
But he did the job

I'm pretty 100% positive that the stickies can breed without a male present, that certainly seems to be happening in our tank at the mo. For some reason every male that we introduce to the tank only last a very very short period of time (seems to be the same in regards to our male teachers, could there be a correlation???), before i find him dead on the floor of the tank. But the eggs are still coming!!!

Sassi