Recent content by Ambystoma

I have a bunch of northern walking stick ova hatching and did not freeze enough leaves. Anything would be much appreciated!

Definitely took some patience! Using a large potted plant really helped. I'd put the female on there, let her climb around a bit, and then put a male towards the bottom. After they were both adjusted I'd mist them lightly. The two pairs that paired up did so pretty soon after the misting. You...

I have a fairly large colony of dubias, some of which I'm willing to part with. I'm mostly looking to trade for other roach species (lateralis, orange head, and ivory heads excluded), but could be open to other offers. Let me know if you're interested in a trade! I'm pretty open to anything that...

Try soaking in 70% ethyl alcohol for a while beforehand and then quick drying.

I've seen quite a few insects struggle for quite a while in an ethyl acetate jar. To the extent that when I collect for specimens I prefer to spot freeze and then place them in the jar. The thrashing about has ruined some delicate specimens when added to a charged jar. Once had a huge tarantula...

I know it is a bit of a dark topic, but it's something that we keepers run into quite often. As mantids get older they tend to start breaking down and it can be quite difficult to watch, so I figured we could share some euthanasia methods. I know that the squish, or freezer methods seem to be...

So it goes with raising mantids I suppose. I ended up helping her along the way. It's pretty rough to see them going so slowly, unable to really pick themselves up. I am very excited about the oothecae. Still waiting on the 3rd pair, but I have a feeling they should connect soon. Looks like I'm...

I should also note that the second female produced two days after mating. I'm really hoping both are fertile. I had one female that had passed already that had laid two infertile ooths, both were malformed.

Hm, I've had a ghost that produced an ooth the day after and it ended up being viable. I'll keep an eye on this one though. She seems to be pretty healthy still and there was definitely a connection. I'll keep my fingers crossed for this one and hope for more.

First ooth laid! I'm really happy/excited that I was able to breed this species after having read how difficult they can be.

Male number two has mounted up. Let's see if this takes another three days. Just one more pair to go. Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it! I've only bred H. majuscula (ended up with a dud) and ghosts before, so this is a pretty exciting experience.

And on the third day he made his connection. Talk about having to have some serious patience. One down, two to go. Should I let the male rest up before trying him with the others? Provided he survives this experience.

So after what feels like forever one of my males has finally hopped on a female... about 24 hours ago. I thought I had noticed a connection, but it did not last very long. He is still on her back and riding around, but hasn't really made many more attempts at connecting. Any thoughts on...

Found a few of these this summer and decided to hold on to them. I'm pretty sure this is the only native phasmid we have around here. Started with 3, but I'm down to 1. Fortunately they did fairly well on oak and bramble leaves, well enough to drop a ton of ova. Does anyone know if their ova...

That's the plan as of now. We'll see how it turns out. Thanks for the input though!