This week, Teacher Marie from the West Seattle Family YMCA Preschool brought us a terrarium of Indian Stick bugs. This is an observation terrarium that lived in one of the school’s classrooms. However, as the population of stick insects began to grow exponentially, they all agreed they could no longer take care of them.
We realize that as we’re heading into the summer, and students and teachers are taking a break, there may be even more classrooms out there with the same problem. This is a reminder that the Life Sciences department of Pacific Science Center is allowed by the United States Department of Agriculture to accept any non-native stick insects from the public. If you or your school would like to donate your stick bug population to Pacific Science Center, please email us at feedback@pacsci.org.
Remember, stick insects are parthenogenic. That means their eggs are viable without being fertilized, so each stick insect in a terrarium will likely produce many offspring all by herself! The USDA is appropriately concerned that the non-native species might become naturalized in our local environment and become a destructive pest. All it would take is a single misplaced egg! So before you take off on that summer vacation, please make sure your stick insects are appropriately accounted for!
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