Arthropods - Insects/Spiders/Bugs

Insects can be great pets if you have allergies, don’t have a lot of space, and don’t intend to be too cuddly with your pet. Make sure it is legal in your area to keep your insect and don’t release it into the wild unless you have bees or newly hatched butterflies or praying mantises. Here is an introduction to common arthropod pets.

Ants

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meat_eater_ant_feeding_on_honey02.jpg

Ants are everywhere! You can gather ants and make an enclosed habitat for them or buy an ant farm. Ant enclosures are called formicariums. They are thin with glass sides and some kind of substance that the ants can make their tunnels in.  The glass allows you to view their tunnels. Pet ants will need water and some kind of food.  They will eat sugar, honey, fruit, and some ants eat small insects or seeds.

Bees

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European_honey_bee_extracts_nectar.jpg

Beekeeping is an urban hobby that is relaxing, interesting, and great for the environment. Where I live, there is an active beekeeping community where people share experiences and mentor novice beekeepers.  Bees sometimes swarm when their colony gets too crowded and you can rescue the sward (or get an experienced beekeeper to do the rescuing) and then provide a backyard, or deck home for them.  Each colony has only one queen and many worker bees and drone bees. You need to have a bee hive and learn how to keep them pest free and safe, what to do if the queen is sick, and general maintenance of the colony. Bees provide the necessary pollination of food-making plants as well as making honey.  The worker bees only live for a few weeks, but the queen spends her life making new eggs, so the colony goes on as long as the queen can keep up the pace.

Beetles

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cetonia-aurata.jpg

Beetles come in various sizes and colors. They will eat small insects, seeds, and plants. They like a warm climate with lots of places to hide. There are lots of different types of beetles and their specific care will depend on the type you adopt.  They are usually social, so you’ll want several beetles in your habitat. You might find dung beetles, eastern Hercules beetles, goliath beetles, rainbow stag beetles, or stag beetles as more popular pet beetles. Even ladybugs are considered to be beetles. Most beetles will only live for a few months.

Butterflies

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Butterfly_Green-underside_Blue_-_Glaucopsyche_alexis_01.jpg

You can collect caterpillars and keep them in an enclosure and watch the metamorphosis in action. I always let the butterflies go freely once they are hatched to help pollinate flowers.

Crickets

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cricket_(insect)_in_India.jpg

Um, some people raise crickets to provide food for their cricket-loving reptile, amphibian, or other pet. That’s ok - circle of life and everything.  If you want to have an actual pet cricket, that’s kind of cool too. You can have your own Jiminy Cricket.  They make such a peaceful noise and can live in a small aquarium. They’ll eat greens and meat or even crushed-up dog food.  The females might lay eggs, so you can watch that life cycle. You’ll find crickets in the wild all over the world, except where it is always really cold. They only live for a couple of months.

Doodlebugs

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myrmeleontidae_(antlion)_5370350.jpg

Doodlebugs are like having two pets in one.  They are the larvae of antlions and they stay in this stage for years. Doodlebugs make cone-shaped funnels in the sand where they trap their prey, such as ants. The Doodlebug grabs the ant with their front pinchers and is ferocious like a lion when it traps them. They are pretty small - less than 2 inches. The adult antlion looks like a dragonfly.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myrmeleon_acer.jpg

Leaf Insects

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LeafInsect.jpg

Leaf insects are similar to stick insects, except they look like leaves instead of sticks.  Adult male leaf insects can fly. They will need a habitat that is long and high so they can walk on the ground and climb on branches. They eat leaves. You can keep a bunch of leaf bugs in the same enclosure, but it may not work to keep them with other bugs. They will usually live up to a year.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gromphadorhina_portentosa_-_parc_phoenix_Nice.jpg

These guys don’t fly and they are big - up to 3 inches. They don’t mind being touched gently so they actually make pretty good pets. You can keep several together in a habitat, but they can multiply pretty fast if males and females are in one cage. It is illegal to release them, or any insect, out into the wild after it has been domesticated. A 5 or 10-gallon aquarium will be enough for several hissing cockroaches. They like the temperature to be in the 70sF. They will eat pellets, vegetables, and fruit. They can live up to 5 years.

Millipede

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Millipede_searching_for_food.jpg

Millipedes are..interesting looking. All those legs!  They like to live in a small aquarium with soil on the bottom so they can crawl through it.  Their preferred food is decayed food, so you can give them fruit and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, plus water. Millipedes have tiny little legs underneath their bodies, centipedes have legs that spread out from their bodies.  Centipedes are considered dangerous because they are more likely to bite humans, but you’d have to handle them for that to happen. Some people may have an allergic reaction to handling millipedes, but they are not considered dangerous. They can live up to 11 years and grow to about 4 inches. They like temperatures in the 70s F and humidity between 60-70%.

Praying Mantis

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Praying_Mantis_Male_European-42.jpg

You can find praying mantis egg pods in a field and bring them home to hatch.  I’ve gotten egg pods from eBay.  I put these pids in a glass jar for a month or so and then they hatch.  They need continuous warm weather to hatch, so if you get them when it is cold out, it may take a while.  I always release them right away, but you can keep some in a glass aquarium and see how they mature. Each one should have their own tank and they should be kept warm.  They feed on insects and spiders.  I get them for my backyard so they will eat up the mosquitoes. There are a lot of different mantids, each one has specific different habitat and food needs. They may molt several times and usually only live for about a year.

Scorpions

Photo by Federico Faccipieri https://unsplash.com/photos/a-scorpion-crawling-on-the-ground-in-the-dark-Evi3wy4cRlY

These are great pets for the wow factor.  Emperor scorpions are not that venomous and if you get bit by one, it will feel like a bee sting. They naturally burrow and hunt insects. They can be in a small 10-gallon aquarium with a secure lid and they need dirt or sand in the bottom to burrow. They will grow to be up to 8 inches and live up to 8 years.

Stick Insects

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stick_insect_WG.jpg

They look like sticks! If you look for them in the wild, you’ll have a hard time distinguishing them from actual sticks. They will eat leaves. They don’t require a large habitat, but the cage will require frequent cleaning. The tank should be tall because they like climbing and because they will molt by climbing up a branch and crawling out of their skin. They like the temperature in the 70s F and high humidity. Female stick insects will lay eggs without males.  The resulting insects will be female, but if a male fertilizes the eggs, males will hatch

Tarantula

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brachypelma_smithi_2009_G03.jpg

There are many different types of tarantulas. A popular pet tarantula is the Chilean Rose. They grow to be up to 8 inches and live between 5-20 years. Some tarantulas like to live on the ground and some live in trees. So a ground tarantula will need a long cage and a tree-dwelling one will need a habitat with some height to it.  They also need places to hide. They do best when living alone and have infrequently handling. They won’t bite unless they are scared. Another thing they do when they feel threatened is release little hairs from their bellies which prickle your skin if you are holding them. They eat live prey such as insects and roaches and you want to dust their food with vitamins. Adults will eat about once a week.  They also need a shallow dish of water.

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