There are over 2,500 species of stick insect, with some looking like twigs and others looking like leaves. They are a popular choice for a pet insect, requiring very little effort to look after and maintain.
Here’s 30 amazing things you should know about stick insects.
1. Do stick insects have blood?
Stick insects have blood but unlike human blood, stick insect blood doesn’t contain hemoglobin instead their blood is composed of a liquid called hemolymph. Unlike human blood, the color of their blood is more greeny or yellowy instead of red due to hemolymph and lack of hemoglobin.
2. Are stick insects warm or cold blooded?
Like all insects, stick insects are cold blooded and not warm blooded and therefore dependent on the temperature of their environment to control their own body temperature.
When the temperature around them is low, stick insects can be inactive as they do not have enough energy to move, whilst higher temperatures, increase their activity as the absorbed heat gives them more energy, allowing them to go and find food.
3. Do stick insects need air holes?
Stick insects need to breathe and air holes are required for any enclosure to ensure proper ventilation is in place, so they can breathe. Without adequate air holes, stick insects can die from suffocation.
Plastic enclosures can have air holes punched into them in the walls of the container, whilst glass enclosures can have a mesh type layer placed at the top of the enclosure, allowing plenty of air to circulate into their enclosure.
4. Do stick insects need light?
As stick insects are nocturnal, they need light to be able to distinguish between the changes from daylight to night time. Without knowing when it’s daylight can stop stick insects from resting adequately, as it’s during this time they become inactive and go into a sleep like state.
In the wild daylight allows them to not only rest but also camouflage themselves against predators, without giving alerting predator to their presence as they remain still during resting. Night time alerts stick insects to start moving and feeding under the cover of darkness, protected from a drop in the number of birds at this time, who are their main predator.
5. Can stick insects see?
Stick Insects can see although this is limited to their compound eye structure detecting motion. Stick insects rely on their other senses like being able to pick up on vibrations in their vicinity to alert them to potential threats.
6. How many eyes do stick insects have?
Stick insects have two compound eyes capable of detecting motion but generally they have poor vision and find it difficult to see stationary objects and rely on their compound eyes to keep them alert against moving predatory objects.
7. How many legs do stick insects have?
Just like other insects, stick insects have six legs, with either sticky or non-sticky pads on their legs. With the sticky toe pads on their legs, allow the stick insects to get extra grip when climbing and the non-sticky heel pads providing grip on level surfaces.
Stick insects can lose their legs and these can grow back during the next occurrence of their molting. If they have reached their final stage of molting, any lost limbs will not be able to be regrown, as molting is required for this to take place.
8. Do stick insects feel pain?
Stick insects do not have receptors for feeling pain, so are unable to feel pain as other organisms with pain receptors can do. They may experience a different type of sensation to pain instead.
Without pain receptors, they can experience losing limbs without adversely affecting them as they are capable of regrowing limbs during the next time they molt.
9. Do stick insects have bones?
Stick insects don’t have bones instead they have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton that provides protection for their important organs and internal body.
10. Are stick insects blind?
Stick insects have poor vision and are not exactly blind. They have compound eyes that can detect motion, but this doesn’t allow them to see clearly.
They have to use their other senses like smell and feeling vibrations in their environment to help them find food and to also find mates, as the male stick insect is receptive to the smell of female pheromones.
11. Are stick insects made of wood?
Stick insects are organisms made of living cells and tissues and are not made from wood. Like other insects they have an open circulatory system containing a liquid called hemolymph providing stored water during desiccation and circulating hemocyte cells.
12. Do stick insects have a brain?
Like other insects, stick insects have a brain and even though the brain is quite small, it still carries out visual processing, auditory and movement functions. In fact, if the stick insect is decapitated it can survive for several days without a head, as the brain doesn’t provide the level of complex functions a human brain would provide to survive.
13. Do stick insects bleed?
Stick insects don’t bleed as their circulatory system contains hemolymph and not a blood like liquid. Even when they molt or lose limbs, they won’t bleed and their brain causes their muscles to contract to restrict any fluid loss, as the hemolymph doesn’t clot like blood does.
14. How do stick insects breathe?
Stick insects breathe using trachea, this is inline with other insects, where the trachea are composed of a network of tubes, with holes, called spiracles on it’s body to let air into the trachea as part of their breathing.
15. Do stick insects have teeth?
Stick Insects have tiny microscopic teeth and they use these to eat, especially leaves as they are herbivores. These teeth are not large or strong enough to cause harm if they are used to bite their owners or other stick insects.
16. Do stick insects have ears?
Stick insects use the vibrations around them to determine what around them as they don’t have any ears to hear with. By sensing the vibrations travelling in the air in their vicinity, stick insects can quickly work out what’s around them.
17. Do stick insects have organs?
Stick insects do have organs and these include a brain, a heart, a gut for their digestive system and reproductive organs for mating. Their heart pumps a fluid known as hemolymph, which lubricates their tissues and transports nutrients as well as carrying away waste.
Stick insects don’t have a circulatory system like those found in vertebrates instead they have an open not closed system, thereby arteries and veins are not present as would be the case with closed circulatory systems.
Their digestive system consists of a ‘foregut’ and a ‘midgut’, with the midgut having hollow tubes attached to tiny bulbs which open towards digestive tracks in the stick insect. This is where the plants eaten by the stick insect are digested using a special enzyme capable of digesting the cellulose material in the plant matter.
18. Are stick insects invertebrates or vertebrates?
Stick insects are classed as invertebrates and not vertebrates as they have no backbone. Their bodies are comprised of a head, a thorax and an abdomen with six legs and two antennae on the top of their head.
19. Are stick insects amniotes?
Stick insects are not amniotes as stick insects are invertebrates and amniotes are actually vertebrates, specifically tetrapod vertebrates who have a membrane around their egg for protection.
20. Are stick insects arthropods?
Stick insects are arthropods as they are made up of joined segments, a head, a thorax and an abdomen. They have no internal spine, meaning they are classed as invertebrates.
21. Are stick insects mammals?
Stick insects are not mammals as their taxonomy puts them into the insect class. Unlike mammals, stick insects actually lay eggs and do not give birth to live young as mammals do. Mammals are also warm blooded whilst stick insects are cold blooded.
22. Do stick insects poop?
Stick insects expel waste materials primarily poop from their bodies. Their digestive system takes the digestive waste and creates poop from it, whilst the nutrients are taken away by the hemolymph, to be used by the rest of the body as a source of energy.
23. Do stick insects pee?
Stick insects do not separate their waste from their digestion into separate pee and poop, therefore all digestive waste is eliminated as poop. This ensures the stick insects does not need to pee to eliminate some of their digestive waste and solely rely on pooping to do this.
24. Do stick insects have feelings?
Some entomologist believe insects like stick insects can feel some elements of pain and have carried out some studies on some species of insects. Without any research on stick insects being available on them having feelings, it’s assumed they would respond the same way as other insects.
25. Do stick insects make noise?
Stick insects do not make any noise as keeping quiet has helped them in the wild against predators using their hearing to catch stick insect prey. Even when kept as pets, there won’t be any noise coming from a stick insect that’s audible by humans.
By minimizing their movement during the day by entering an inactive stage, predators will be unable to hear any movement sounds. Stick insects don’t move much except when they are eating plant material and this is usually at night, thereby remaining quiet the rest of the time to keep predators away. Their docile natures makes some species of stick insects great pets.
Stick insects also use their camouflage abilities to ward off any predators including moving from side to side in tandem with the tiny branches they’re attached to, to fooling their predator into believing they are tiny branches themselves. With leaf insect species looking leaves and using tree leaves to blend in with for camouflage.
26. Do stick insects get cold?
Stick insects are cold blooded and need heat to survive, without enough heat they can get cold and this affects their movement later during the night when they need to feed. In the wild, their climate especially if it’s tropical can limit them becoming cold.
27. Do stick insects like the sun?
Stick insects need heat as they are cold blooded, but they don’t necessarily need direct sunlight for heat. They will tend to camouflage themselves against twigs under shade during the day, to keep out of the way of predators.
When kept as pets they need a heat source, with some species able to survive on room temperature and other species requiring a dedicated heat source.
28. Do stick insects sleep?
Stick insects become inactive in the day to rest and this could be a form of sleep, allowing them to recuperate and their cells to carry out any repairs. As they are nocturnal, they become more active during the day, primarily to feed.
29. Do stick insects hibernate?
Stick insects do not hibernate but do go into an inactive state during the day which could be mistaken for hibernation. Stick insects are nocturnal insects, coming out at night to feed and spending the rest of the night in an inactive sleep like state.
During mating and molting when they are shedding their skin, stick insects can become inactive. This is temporary and not long term as hibernation would be, which would be a prolonged period of inactivity running into several weeks.
30. Are stick insects fast?
Stick insects are not fast movers as they rely on their camouflage to hide from their predators. They tend to hide under shade during the day when they are inactive and come out at night to feed. As their food is only plant matter, they don’t need to be fast to be able to catch their food as it’s stationary.
Stick insects can move their limbs with speed, especially when they are engaged in fighting with other stick insects. But with predators they only have camouflage to rely on for protection as they will not be able to fight their way out of an attack from a predator.
Get More facts
Stick insects are amazing creatures with their popularity as pets soaring. With many species available to consider as a pet, appreciating more about each of the different species makes sense before deciding which pet insect species to buy.
