Stick insects and their eggs

by Sarah
(Melbourne)

I have one spiny leaf stick insect. It is about 10 months old. I got it from my school teacher last year 2010 for free as she had to many babies to control. I got about seven from her and only two survived which was a male and female. My male sadly wasn't standing on his legs one morning and didn't make it through my school time which is about six hours and died at eight months. Then I was left with one which I named, "Hamburger". Knowing that they had mated I realized that she would start fattening up but spiny leaf insects do not need to mate to lay eggs any way.

When I was cleaning out the cage I found two seed like round balls (well that's what I think they were) but they were not - they were two little spiny leaf insect eggs. I quickly went down to the beach and got some sand or you can get dirt but I recommend sand better for them. Any way I sprayed the sand and placed the eggs on the surface of the sand and sprayed them with a spray bottle once so they didn't get mold on them.

Now it is October 2011 and she has reached the 100 mark with her eggs and at this point I am having to give them to friends and my family member to look after.

When stick insects mate they will have male and female babies and if they don't mate they will be female baby spiny leaf insects. If your eggs get a clear layer of stuff on them scratch it of with your finger so the egg has more air so it can breathe.

Send more comments to me on this page so I can answer your questions.

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Dec 11, 2011
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hatchlings
by: Jack

Our class insect died about 6 months ago but her eggs have just started hatching. In the last 3 weeks we've hatched 30 eggs and only lost 2. One just after birth and one that drowned on a big droplet of water. We've had as many as 4 hatch in one day. Very exciting!

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