How to keep a stick bug as a pet

Everyone probably knows the stick bug can be kept as a pet. So when Lee Elliott of Linden found one recently on the tennis court, he tried to make friends with the fellow.

He bent over and touched the tree leaf on which the stick bug sat … or stood. It’s hard to tell what a stick bug is doing.

The bug didn’t respond. It just held onto the leaf that had really been the item to attract Elliott’s attention in the first place.

Here are come understandings of the stick bug.

1. They are easy to care for in captivity. One just needs a bottle with a hole or two punched in the lid, and a piece of bramble, ivy or shrub left inside for the stick’s food.

2. Keep at room temperature. In the wintertime, add some lettuce for food.

3. It seems these bugs are almost all female and reproduce by parthenogenesis that is, without the male. Perhaps because of this, they’ll appear content to live on their own, inside their jar.

4. The stick may appear to be happy by making a rocking movement, side to side. Perhaps this is how its life would be outside on a limb and in the wind. But since they are nocturnal, one may not see this movement.

5. Their scientific name is Phasmatodea. This has something to do with being a phantom or an apparition since the bug does look like a stick.

6. Some sticks can be up to 12 inches in length. Still, one would never call it overweight or fat. One of the interesting things to note, should you wish to inspect closely, is that their two antennae are sometimes longer and thinner than the stick’s legs.

As might be expected, there’s a lot more complexity to the stick than the one pictured here seems to show. Some sticks may have a flat leaf appearance. They may change colors, may smell and give off body fluids for protection.

They are found all over the world, mostly in warmer zones.

There’s not much else to do with a stick than leave it alone or keep it as a pet.

If you really want to get close, obtain a magnifying glass and look closely at one end of the stick. Its compound eyes will be looking right back at you. They are thought to have good sight.

Tennis player Elliott carefully moved the bug and leaf off the tennis court. He’d waited long enough, and the stick bug appeared to be winning the “who moves first” contest.