Ralph Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Has anyone incubated and hatched these before? I have around 40 eggs and want to know what's worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Well, they hatched! Over the weekend, while I was at the other house, as my bugs love to do. But 36 are still alive, and some are eating, so I'm thrilled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Thats great! What are you feeding them?? I need to get a few mulberry trees started so I can mess around with cool native sp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted May 2, 2013 Author Share Posted May 2, 2013 They've been eating rose and blackberry. The mortality rate is huge, although that could really be due to the fact that they starved for a day or two until I got home... Five or six appear to be thriving though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 I think they eat Ivy and Privet hedge too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted May 3, 2013 Author Share Posted May 3, 2013 Good to know, I might have to try hardier foods for a few days if this cold keeps up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Are you gonna update us with picks Ralph? Were in the midwest are you?? here in south florida the best way to avoid a frost over of your plants is to cover them with a plastic tarp or visqueen and just sorft of balloon it over the bush your using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 I'll get some up soon, when I'm not on the iPod! Put them up on Facebook but forgot about here. Anyway, I'm in Iowa (Quad Cities). I'm down to two of the little guys, and even they seem to be declining. Had been eating well and behaving normally, sitting on the walls and plants in characteristic walkingstick poses. These two now seem to be having difficulty climbing and spend most of their time near or on the floor... They also frequently arch their bodies and wave their legs lethargically. I'm still holding out that they'll improve and shed, and I was hoping that this update would have been with better news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 Damn sorry for the turn to the worse..Hopfully they will make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 Down to one today... I'm confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Nice Are they in a screen cage? or a glass tank with a screen top? And why do you think your getting such massive dies offs with these sticks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Plastic with screen lid, like their parents were kept in. I know a lot of the die-off is due to the unexpected hatching, but I wonder if the foodplants were insufficient. The wild population was found on some low plants around an apple tree, and they ate rose and blackberry after I took them in. But I wonder if some nutritional deficiency happened with these nymphs. The reason I didn't feed them those un-ID'ed wild plants was that they haven't grown in yet... In what may be a related incident, I once raised some Microcentrum katydids on maple alone, and compared them to ones which were fed a variety of foodplants. The maple group ate a basically equivalent amount of foliage, but grew much more slowly and experienced "random" deaths which didn't occur in the group which ate several plant species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted May 18, 2013 Share Posted May 18, 2013 I honestly don't know about food and its values...But I really think the trick with difficult ectotherms "Inverts and herps" is in the design of the enclosures and preventing or slowing down dehydration. Good luck next time around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted May 18, 2013 Author Share Posted May 18, 2013 Yeah, that seems likely. I'm not going to try again for a couple years, so hopefully I'll have some better ideas by then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invertebrated Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 I don't keep sticks personally but have friends that do. Nymphs are very susceptible to dehydration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcbpolish Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Does anyone have recommendations for where to find these guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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