# new phasmids



## rebirthflame

just got my first phasmids today, the last of my mantis died mid way through ooth laying and i fancied a change.

got some ARETAON ASPERRIMUS, Phyllium siccifolium, Extatosoma tiaratum and Lamponius guerini.

the phyllium are my fave they are the most active and the weirdest looking, a strange thing happened when one was one my hand though i heard this popping noise and off flew his leg :|

anyway for a while i was collecting bramble from my road but it dried out too fast, so i wondered if digging up a small plant and planting it in my terrarium would work if it would take root or not and it seems like it has a very inexpensive infinite supply of food for them and all all for the cost of a repti-glow 2.0 bulb.


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## Morpheus uk

I keep trying and retrying that, they either eat it all and dont give it a chance to grow or the plant just dies, i put my foodplant in a small plastic half cup filed with water and it usally last wuite a while if the water level is kept up, and yeah thats the problem with phylliums, theier *REAL* fragile


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## Asa

I wonder how they survive in the wild if they can't even get touched however slightly, without their leg popping off. &lt;_&lt; s


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## Morpheus uk

They can be touched, its just proberly they get scared when a great big hand comes looming over them :lol: , i had an adult female who was "perfect" no limbs, anttennae missing nothing, then she got old and a bit more clumbsy and lost both her front legs and eventually couldnt be bothered if u know what i mean  

and males! ive seen dyingones virtually fall apart!


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## rebirthflame

its probably because of that they do survive, something to distract any would be predator. kind of like geckos popping their tail.

my plants are doing okay i find that they dont eat the leaves untill they are quite large i think this is due to the fact that bramble leaves contain some kind of toxin at an early age to discourage feeding on them. also i have some earthworms millipedes and cockraches in with the phasmids to try and keep the soil fertile, i add leftovers occasionally aswell to help.


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## Morpheus uk

Never kept cockroaches though are they similar in diet and behaviour to crix?

In which case they might have a go at shedding phasmids, just a thought might be completly wrong tho :lol:


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## Asa

Cockroaches are very fun to keep. Especially the hissing kinds.


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## Morpheus uk

Yeah im looking to get some in the future, did have some hissers when i was tiny, what i was wondering though is that are they like crickets when it comes to eating alive a shedding mantid or phasmid :shock:


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## rebirthflame

they arent as aggressive as crickets so they should be fine i have some Blaberus Atropos they do tend to annoy things when they come out at night but only the adults, i guess they are just excited if you know what i mean......:| ive never seen them try to eat anything in the tank.


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## Orin

> anyway for a while i was collecting bramble from my road but it dried out too fast, so i wondered if digging up a small plant and planting it in my terrarium would work .


Most phasmid hobbyists use dram contianers or film capsules filled with water (a hole it poked in the lid to place the foodplant stem in) and it keeps the leaves fresh for days or weeks depending on the type of leaf. Same idea as cut flowers. Planting a dug up plant would be much more difficult and not work well for numerous reasons.


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## randyardvark

add a spoon full of sugar to the water mix well and it will xtend the lifetime of your cutting...works great if you go in holifday for short breaks ie a week

i love the pyllium loads of peopl seem to have troubl with them i found them really easy... although the sp were unknown

i love my E't's they live free range in my room


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## rebirthflame

> anyway for a while i was collecting bramble from my road but it dried out too fast, so i wondered if digging up a small plant and planting it in my terrarium would work .
> 
> 
> 
> Most phasmid hobbyists use dram contianers or film capsules filled with water (a hole it poked in the lid to place the foodplant stem in) and it keeps the leaves fresh for days or weeks depending on the type of leaf. Same idea as cut flowers. Planting a dug up plant would be much more difficult and not work well for numerous reasons.
Click to expand...

please explain. i have two plants established now, dug them up washed the roots thoroughly and introduced ladybird larvae into my tank to eat the aphids. they dropped their leaves at first but new growth came and now i dont need to collect any, i dont see why you think this would be hard or wouldnt work well.


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## captainmerkin

planting brambles in a terrarium should be fine for a while but they will require a lot of mantenance and also it really depends on the size of your phasmid community.

I have around 30 Maclays Spectre at the moment and these consume a huge amount of food, I tried planting 2 bramble plants for them... eaten to a leaf within a week all stems left bare, plant died shortly after.

If you have just one or two phasmids and good lighting you may be able to keep it going for a while as just 1 or 2 dont eat that much, but any more and they will out eat the growth of the plant with a vengence.

Phyliium do not have such huge appetites to be honest and will often make their food last a long time. Phyllium are exceptionally fragile and will fall to peices if you exert much pressure on them at all, legs arms all just drop off with a tug, handling them is fine though and they are very passive if you let them do their own thing (otherwise they shake and wobble in a terrifying way).. they also fall to peices due to old age.

I use rose at the moment to feed my M.Spectres as they seem to eat vastly less of this than of the bramble and evergreen oak for some reason, it also seems to be eaten as a preference by them, when in the tank they leave the bramble well alone and just eat rose!


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## colddigger

you could have the plants potted and just exchange them when ever the current feeder is getting bare, also, would eating the dry leaves be fine for the insects?


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## captainmerkin

> you could have the plants potted and just exchange them when ever the current feeder is getting bare, also, would eating the dry leaves be fine for the insects?


These insects may die if the food is not fresh


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## spawn

What species of Rose do you use? I currently use bramble, but my walking sticks stripped the first 30" plant bare! Do you have an actual Oak plant, or do you grab the leaves off a tree? I need Oak for my P. giganteum.


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## Asa

> just got my first phasmids today, the last of my mantis died mid way through ooth laying and i fancied a change.


Don't give up on them


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## hibiscusmile

> add a spoon full of sugar to the water mix well and it will xtend the lifetime of your cutting...works great if you go in holifday for short breaks ie a week i love the pyllium loads of peopl seem to have troubl with them i found them really easy... although the sp were unknown
> 
> i love my E't's they live free range in my room


a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down, the mecdicine go down, a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down in the most nicest wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Sorry couldn't help myself!


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## captainmerkin

> What species of Rose do you use? I currently use bramble, but my walking sticks stripped the first 30" plant bare! Do you have an actual Oak plant, or do you grab the leaves off a tree? I need Oak for my P. giganteum.


anything I can find the bugs don't seem too fussy


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## randyardvark

> add a spoon full of sugar to the water mix well and it will xtend the lifetime of your cutting...works great if you go in holifday for short breaks ie a week i love the pyllium loads of peopl seem to have troubl with them i found them really easy... although the sp were unknown
> 
> i love my E't's they live free range in my room
> 
> 
> 
> a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down, the mecdicine go down, a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down in the most nicest wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Sorry couldn't help myself!
Click to expand...

crazy fool... i like it XD


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## Asa

> add a spoon full of sugar to the water mix well and it will xtend the lifetime of your cutting...works great if you go in holifday for short breaks ie a week i love the pyllium loads of peopl seem to have troubl with them i found them really easy... although the sp were unknown
> 
> i love my E't's they live free range in my room
> 
> 
> 
> a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down, the mecdicine go down, a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down in the most nicest wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Sorry couldn't help myself!
Click to expand...

Nah, its whisky that truly helps...


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## hibiscusmile

true, true, but as a child I have a spoonful of sugar in that too!


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## Asa

In whisky?! Weird, weird, weird...


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## colddigger

i personally always thought that a SPOONFUL of sugar in a spoon of medicine would just make it hard to swallow :?


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## Asa

> i personally always thought that a SPOONFUL of sugar in a spoon of medicine would just make it hard to swallow :?


Afterwards take the sugar.


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## colddigger

oh....i thought they meant to put them both in the spoon at the same time

never found that to be an ion-viting idea


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## Asa

> oh....i thought they meant to put them both in the spoon at the same timenever found that to be an ion-viting idea


I don't like sugar much myself.


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## colddigger

> you could have the plants potted and just exchange them when ever the current feeder is getting bare, also, would eating the dry leaves be fine for the insects?
> 
> 
> 
> These insects may die if the food is not fresh
Click to expand...

is this because of moisture levels?


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## captainmerkin

> you could have the plants potted and just exchange them when ever the current feeder is getting bare, also, would eating the dry leaves be fine for the insects?
> 
> 
> 
> These insects may die if the food is not fresh
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> is this because of moisture levels?
Click to expand...

nah for some reason low quality food can cause them to die rather a lot


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## rebirthflame

> just got my first phasmids today, the last of my mantis died mid way through ooth laying and i fancied a change.
> 
> 
> 
> Don't give up on them
Click to expand...

haha i havent given up on them i just got a little carried away with my scorp T and Phasmid collections, i plan on getting something new a bit more showy, maybe some kind of flower mantis.


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## Asa

Idolomantis


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