image by author

Last year we thought we had sold off all of our Northern Walking Stick Insects. The tank had dried up and was awaiting cleaning. It was about a week or so later, my wife spotted “one that got away” climbing on some of our house plants. We put the little creature (about 2 inches long) into the vivarium, watered the tank, and added some food. At that time the trees still had leaves and we would feed them apple leaves.

As winter set it we switched to romaine lettuce leaves. Buying a whole head of lettuce for one tiny pet seemed silly, but we could enjoy salads too. All throughout winter I cared for this little one and watched it grow as I had with many others before. The difference was, I knew there was only one bug in the tank, whereas before we had several.

Generally they are not long lived little pets. I know this one is on its last legs. One day when changing the lettuce I was very surprised to find three little young insects. They had just hatched!

What a surprise, and a bit of confusion. There was only one adult. The tank had been too dry earlier for any eggs to have survived, and at least four months had passed since then anyhow.

Having read a lot about the breeding of these little critters, I had often heard theories that they could impregnate themselves or were perhaps born pregnant. Maybe the eggs really did survive in the dry soil? I have not been able to find any on-line information about how long their eggs can survive before hatching. So I really do not know what to say from here on it. I wanted to share the experience and welcome any comments from people with similar experiences or knowledge about these insects.

For more information on keeping Stick Insects as Pets, click here!