The Annam Stick Insect is a nocturnal stick bug that lives preferably in bushes in the tropical rainforests of South Vietnam. The name Annam Stick Insect derives from where they are originally from: From the region Annam in Vietnam. The Medauroidea Extradentata cannot fly and is a great pet for beginners.
Diet
This plant-eating species feeds polyphagous. That means that they only eat plants, but many different kinds of leaves, such as bramble, hawthorn, oak, beech, hazel, rose leaves, and lettuce.
You can try to feed them whatever you find outside, but keep in mind that the leaves should always be completely pesticide-free.
Cage
For this undemanding species, the enclosure should be at least 10 inches (25cm) tall to allow the stick bugs to molt properly. If the enclosure is in a room with natural light (but not in direct sunlight), no extra light is necessary.
You can use a cage with one or two walls made of a material that allows proper ventilation, such as mesh, to prevent mold in the tank.
Temperature
This species can go with normal room temperature.
As long as the room temperature is not below 65° F (18° C) at night or above 84° F (29° C) during the day, your stick insects with be happy. If you can meet these criteria, extra heating is not necessary.
Humidity
Spray a fine mist of water into the enclosure and especially in the substrate to keep the humidity at a constant level, slightly above the humidity you have in your home.
Anything between 60% and 80% humidity will do for these creatures.
Appearance
This species is wingless and comes in colors varying from light brown to beige and greenish.
The females usually grow up to around 4.3 inches and the males will be slightly smaller with around 3 inches in length. It looks like the typical stick insect with a long, thin body and long thin legs. It comes with tiny horns on the head.
Lifespan
The Annam Stick Insect needs around 3 to 5 months to reach maturity. They have a total life expectancy of around one year, but there are also reports of females that were more than 1.5 years old.
The females usually live a bit longer than the males.
Reproduction
This species can reproduce both sexually with a male and female, and parthenogenetically with only a female.
Females of this species can lay up to 200 eggs throughout their entire life. Without a male to fertilize the eggs, all nymphs hatching from the eggs will be females.
Ova, Incubation Period
The eggs are greyish-brown and the hatching nymphs are only 0.4 inches big.
Depending on the temperature and humidity level, the eggs will take around 3-6 months to hatch. The Annam Stick Insect is an extremely prolific species.
Overall Difficulty Rating
Very easy to handle and care for. Always keep in mind to freeze or burn any substrate you extract from the enclosure to prevent eggs to hatch in your garbage and nymphs to escape into the wild.
It is very important to protect the local ecosystem.
Lisa is one of the two founders of Animal-Knowledge. She has been very interested in animals and insects from a very young age and has owned different kinds of pets such as snails, ants, fish, turtles, mice, rats, hamsters, rabbits, a dog, … you get the idea 🙂