Insect Pets <3

Samskeyti · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:01 pm

Vephriel's little spider made me think that there are a lot of us who like the less cuddly pets. I particularly love caterpillars. I look for them whenever I'm out and about, and have this awesome wooden box with one sliding plexiglass door and 3 wired sides, specially designed to raise caterpillars. When I was at uni in my first year, we had someone in our class who adored moths. He got all of us who were interested a few Death Head Hawk Moth eggs, and we raised those caterpillars and raided the neighbouring privet hedges for food. Then, they hatched into furry moths that squeak when you gently hold them in your hand, which we fed with diluted honey, let them mate, raised more, gave other students little tiny caterpillars to raise, raided more privet hedges...

Here's one scrambling over a painting pretending to be part of it :-)

Over the 3 years I was there, we also raised Oleander and Privet hawk moths, and the huge Atlas moths.

Here's a privet hawk moth caterpillar, I took the picture outside in the yard, the light is from the sun and the background was the yard gate.

This was a Grass Eggar I found last summer munching a grass leaf in an abandoned care tire. He came home with me.

I also had a pair of praying mantis'es that someone brought back from South France for me. They were the common green ones. When they died, they turned into illustration projects, as every first year had to illustrate an insect. Here's my friend James, who chose to paint one of those praying mantis'es:

One easter, I was in a nature reserve at home, where we excavated a breeding wall for the European kingfisher. We found mole crickets that were in the ground, and I smuggled a couple to Uni, they had a photoshoot and lived in the UK till I went back home 3 months later where I put them back in that same reserve.

I also did a work placement in a small zoo, and I was in love with their rose chafers so they gave me a few larvae to take home and raise. I'd love to raise a nice big staghorn beetle though.

And 6 months ago, when I came to the US, I was so intrigued by the cicada noises! We don't have them in my country at all. I searched and searched, and only found a shed skin, but they were buzzing everywhere. One morning though, the little girl of the family I stayed with called me and said she found one. She did indeed! It had a crippled wing so it couldn't fly, and the cicada mystery was solved:

Unfortunately, 4 years ago, while I was on that zoo placement, I went out one afternoon with my macro lens and came upon a hornet nest. That summer, I had photographed hornets before, went very close, and got pretty pictures. This time...I wasn't even close, and what I think is that one got tangled in my hair and alarmed the others. Very quickly I had them buzzing around my head, and felt the first sting. As there was a party that evening at the zoo director's house, with which I was staying at the time, I thought "oh dear, you're going to look stupid with a sting on your head" Then came more and more stings, and I cowered on the ground with my hands in front of the face, and they flew off eventually. I tried to get on the bike to ride back to the zoo director's house (I was in a nature reserve close by) but couldn't remember the way, then I could only see green and black... and finally wanted to do nothing other than lie on the ground and not move at all. Luckily, a friend who was invited to the party came riding past on his bike and found me, if not, I don't know what would have happened. I had an anaphylactic shock and spent the night in the hospital, with the worst headache in my life. Apparently, I had nine stings right in the head. And since then, I'm very allergic to all bee and wasp stings... but never got stung since. So much for trying to get close to a hornet nest!

Aahh...insects <3

Now, tell me your crawly stories! :-)

Zuilu · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:49 pm

Ohgodohgod that made me tweak out ;~; I have a phobia of moths..

..

The other bugs are okay though D:

GormanGhaste · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:57 pm

Beautiful pics! Raising moths sounds like a lot of fun. At one time or another we've bred meal-worms, crickets, roaches, and centipedes.

We once had a fish tank that we kept in full sun, and its ecosystem matured to the point where we just had to add water. Sometimes we would use water from the outdoor pond, and ended up with a dragonfly larva once. Getting to watch it grow into an adult that we released back outside was neat!

Yes, cicadas were the soundtrack of my childhood summers. We would gather up the shed skins and hook them by the claws into unsuspecting people's hair or clothes. It was also easy to find dead adult specimens after their mating season was over, the trick was finding them before the ants did.

The one thing I'd love to have someday, if I had the time and space for it, would be a leaf-cutter ant colony. We do have a species that is native here, but their colonies have been in decline.

Bonita · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 5:11 pm

Omg I love caterpillars! I used to have a container to raise the ones Id find outside in until my parents got tired of me bringing bugs into the house. They tossed it out while I was on vacation -_- lol. This has just inspired me to start it up again lol.

Mychelle · **Posted:** Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:52 pm

Moths and Caterpillars dont bother me that much at all, and I am actually pretty jealous of your little breeding project. =P

But...Cicadas, Mantises, and Wasps...make me want to go crawl in a hole. ;.; heh. I am -specially- terrified by wasps. I will cry if exposed long enough to even one.

I am curious how "difficult" it was with the moth breeding project? Was there any hurdles or anything learned as far as caring for them? Death Head Moths are insanely cool and I'd love to read more about it from someone who actually bred them. =P

JezzebelPop · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:17 pm

Samskeyti what course are/were you doing? It sounds like heaven to me! I've never raised an insect, tried as a child with taking caterpillars home but well being around 8 years old it didn't end well. =/
That Cicada is awesome and your mantis illustration is superb!

I don't have any pictures but I have a Chilean rose Tarantula named Andariel <3 She's the first pet I've had since I had to sell my Chinchillas (mum got allergies to their dust baths and developed asthma... never mind her insane smoking habit <_<). She had her first moult mid last year which for me was nerve raking as I've never had my own spider before so when she wasn't easting for nearly 6 month I was getting paranoid :p. She's a feisty little spider who loves snapping up multiple locusts up in her mouth and running towards my hand if I'm cleaning her water dish.

I'd love to handle her but live with a very irritable man (fiancé's dad) who has said if he finds her out of her tank he'll not hesitate to kill her. -_- So I'm not taking any chances as she is very speedy when she gets a fright. Also I'm not 100% confident I'll not hurt or make her upset so there's that too.

My fiancé has a haitian brown bird eating spider who has never been held before and we're wary of doing so as she's quite aggressive. Her name is Loa and she's just as lovely as my little Andariel! Just a lot bigger and less pink! xD

Samskeyti · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:19 pm

Quote:

I am curious how "difficult" it was with the moth breeding project? Was there any hurdles or anything learned as far as caring for them? Death Head Moths are insanely cool and I'd love to read more about it from someone who actually bred them. =P

It wasn't difficult at all. As long as you know what the caterpillar feeds on, you're fine. The place where we got our caterpillars from was a livestock group in the UK (http://www.pwbelg.clara.net/index.html). Else, keep them dry (not in a plastic jar or aquarium, but something like this:

Death Head's hawk moth caterpillars eat privet, which is an evergreen and commonly used as hedges. One of the best ways to keep the branches for them fresh, is to stick them in that porous stuff that florists use for flower arrangements; soaked in water. As adults, you can dilute honey with some water and put it in a jar lid, and if it's too deep, put a cotton pad in it so that it's soaked in the solution. It's a bit messy and sticky... The adults live for a couple of weeks, but some moths don't have feeding parts, so they emerge, mate and die and that's it.

I tend to keep the stinging nettle-feeding caterpillars in summer...ouch.

Quote:

Samskeyti what course are/were you doing? It sounds like heaven to me! I've never raised an insect, tried as a child with taking caterpillars home but well being around 8 years old it didn't end well. =/
That Cicada is awesome and your mantis illustration is superb!

The illustration is by a friend, he gets all the credit :-)

I illustrated a chafer.
Sadly, my course isn't taught anymore, the uni decided that the small classes weren't worth it, and turned it into a general illustration course...it's a great shame. It was called BA (Scientific and Natural History Illustration), in Blackpool, UK. http://www.illustration-blackpool.com/BE_sci-ill.htm
But one great course that I know a few people did is this one in Santa Cruz, CA: http://scienceillustration.org/

Wain · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:35 pm

Wow that Atlas moth is amazing!

SpiritBinder · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:46 pm

When I was in Thailand last year we also went up to Loas and Traveled through the mountains. There was one particular spot that had a little homely restaurant high in the clouds.

The amazing thing was after having a closer look around the place was full of massive moths and butterflies, perched from the beams above, on the window frames and even the back of the chairs.

They where so big and so beautiful!

Zuilu · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:08 pm

I will (hopefully) be picking up an a. avic within the next two weeks

Mychelle · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2012 6:33 pm

Samskeyti wrote:

The adults live for a couple of weeks, but some moths don't have feeding parts, so they emerge, mate and die and that's it.

Aw, thats sad. ;.; But, it still sounds like a really interesting experience you got to go through. =P

Samskeyti · **Posted:** Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:41 am

Spiritbinder wrote:

When I was in Thailand last year we also went up to Loas and Traveled through the mountains. There was one particular spot that had a little homely restaurant high in the clouds.

The amazing thing was after having a closer look around the place was full of massive moths and butterflies, perched from the beams above, on the window frames and even the back of the chairs.

They where so big and so beautiful!

O. o that must have been an amazing sight! That picture is really wonderful, especially with the coloured background of the restaurant.

Miacoda · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:37 pm

I recently had a praying mantis that died of old age around New Years.

But he was really fun. He loved to climb around on our hands. I couldn't think of a good name for him so I just called him Mantis, but here's a picture of him!

Rawr · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:02 pm

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE! So big and fuzzy, I just want to squeeze them! :lol:

Samskeyti · **Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:40 pm

Quote:

Mantis hug!!

More fuzziness!
On a walk in winter in the US last november, I found a big silk cocoon on a barren bush. I took it with me and brought it back to Europe. Today, it hatched :-)

It's a male Cecropia moth, gorgeous little thing. Well, "little", the wingspan was over 6 inches. It won't live long, seeing as it has no mouth parts, but I'm glad I could see it hatch. It will certainly live on in a painting.

Wain · **Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:23 pm

That's really gorgeous!

But isn't it kind of illegal and risky to your nation's quarantine to bring things like that back? Or maybe I just assume it is because I live in Australia.

GormanGhaste · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:42 am

Wain wrote:

isn't it kind of illegal and risky to your nation's quarantine to bring things like that back? Or maybe I just assume it is because I live in Australia.

In the US, the only two states I know of that are especially vigilant about that sort of thing are Hawaii and California.

Samskeyti · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:04 am

It would be very risky if it was a zebra mussel, or something that was able to reproduce in the wild etc, like a lot of the alien invading species. You have all these unique species in Australia that evolved over thousands of years, and just aren't adapted to the introduction of things like foxes, so it's very understandable that customs are very strict. Europe has a similar problem, with the introduction of grey squirrel, various neophytes etc. but this moth won't do any harm. My only bad is that it 1. hatched on a different continent and 2. hatched in the middle of winter instead of spring, but it's not an endangered species.

Wain · **Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:48 am

Oh it's not just that the species itself that could go wild, it's the pests it could also carry. One nasty virus transferred between continents could devastate native species or commercial species.

LupisDarkmoon · **Posted:** Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:49 am

Oh my goodness, all these gorgeous, amazing moths. <3 I adore moths. I used to raise them myself, but eventually fell out of the practice - I may start again. Especially if I can find a few Leopard Moth caterpillars. We've seen a few around, they're just beautiful.

The first Leopard moth I'd ever seen. It was on the side of our house.

The second one, which I had to pick up and move out of the way of the hose.

I've always been enchanted by moths, it makes me so sad when people kill them. I think it sparked from elementary school, when a bunch of boys were pulling the wings off of moths they caught because they "ate clothes". I'm pretty sure I cried.

I've only seen one Luna Moth. I freaked out when I saw it, having glanced out the window to see it perched on the window frame.

As for non-moths, I adore Praying Mantis. Again, I've only seen one in the wild, a massive brown one. It somehow managed to cling to my dog's leg and we got it to climb on a tennis racket. It then proceeded to charge up the length of the racket, trying to get to my hand! We put it in the garden and didn't see from it again, but it was a heck of a memorable experience. It was HUGE.

Oh and have a Cicada. I love their sound, but I admit, they are UGLY little critters.

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