You also need to follow the laws. A big part of ethical pet keeping involves not keeping potentially invasive species. We will not assist people in obtaining some of these illegal animals, such as phasmids or exotic beetles. As well as asking for considerations about how to choose a pet, people have either asked us for suggestions or thrown suggestions our way.
Cockroaches can be very beautiful, something we take great pride in pointing out on Facebook. Over time, however, they might become dangerous because their poop causes severe allergies. Cockroaches are also highly allergenic, a topic we talked about when we talked about scary bugs. They can be handled, but their poop is very good at triggering allergies. Gloves should be worn when handling. Gloves, dust masks, and goggles should be worn when cleaning cages. Crickets are very short-lived, usually only living for a few weeks.
Like mealworms, they should be kept as a culture. Their care is quite a bit more difficult than that of mealworms and cockroaches, due to the need for cage maintenance. Superworms, which are different than mealworms, live in wood as larvae. So they need to be isolated from their siblings before they can complete their lifecycle. Image credit: Evanherk, via Flikr.
Keep them in a bed of oats, and give them small amounts of fresh veggies for water. They require almost no maintenance, and you just have to replace the oats every so often.
The only cons are really a matter of taste. Millipedes can eat stuff like fruit and dog food, which makes shopping pretty easy. Care can be difficult for millipedes, because many species require moist environments.
Moist environments can breed mold and mites, so regular cage cleanings are a must. The native species, like Narceus americanus tend to do pretty well. Scorpions are popular pets, and most species fare quite well in captivity. They eat crickets, which can be found at any pet store.
There are many species for sale which are not for beginners. Many of these scorpions are from the family Buthidae, which have tiny claws. Fat-tail scorpions Androconoctus, Parabuthus and Deathstalkers Leirus have venom which is capable of killing a person. One US species, Centuroides sculpaturus, has venom strong enough to require painkillers. Tarantulas are the quintessential arthropod pets. Most species are quite forgiving, although some really should only be kept by experienced breeders.
The other is the kuwagata or Stag Beetle. They're named for their double horn, which again, made English speakers think of another animal and reminded the Japanese of a type of samurai helmet. Both beetles can get to be two to three inches long and, with their big horns, you can imagine that the first small boy to stumble across them had the obvious thought: BUG FIGHT! So it's no surprise that this was the traditional way to play with pet beetles. If you've ever heard of these beetles it's probably in the context of these fights, since it's one of those weird only-in-Japan things that the media loves.
So when I wanted to know more about beetle-keeping, my first question, of course, was whether kids still have bug fights. I spoke to my friend Evangela Suzuki, who has experience of both pet beetles and small boys: together with her son, she kept both kinds of beetles at her home in Ibaraki Prefecture. Despite my concern for animal welfare and yes, bugs are animals , I was disappointed when Suzuki said she'd only seen the beetle fights on Japanese TV herself, and didn't know of any kids that fought them.
The really nice beetles are expensive and I would not think kids would want to damage them," she said. That comment introduced me to the world of modern beetle keeping which, of course, in a modern capitalist society, turns out to involve a whole lot of shopping. These beetles were traditionally caught in the wild, like an American kid might catch a firefly and put it in a jar.
Nowadays, though, people who live in cities and can't go out to collect their beetles for free apparently haven't lost the urge to keep them. So a whole industry has sprung up selling beetles and supplies.
There are even pet stores dedicated entirely to them, like the one above I photographed in Tokyo. And if you want to know what Suzuki means by nice, expensive beetles, you can check out the prices for adult beetles at this online store. There are also a few on that website, which I presume are rarities that only a specialist would appreciate. Putting a pricey beetle like that in a fight would be like putting your brand new sports car in a demolition derby — and even a thirty dollar bug probably isn't something you're going to throw into a cage match.
In fact, the more expensive beetles are geared less toward kids than to adults who are beetle otaku of course there are beetle otaku, are you even surprised? There are so many kinds of otaku. Observing a caterpillar change through the pupal stage into the adult stage is a fascinating lesson in nature, and is recommended as an individual or group exercise during the childhood years.
When finding a caterpillar to rear, one should note the plant foliage on which it is feeding, because it is important to resupply food as the insect develops. Small branches of the food plant may be broken off and placed in a small water jar in the rearing cage.
Another choice is to build a small enclosure around the caterpillar and its surroundings on the food plant, using a transparent material or screening. Any such device should include "plugs" at the end clothing, cardboard or such that will keep the insect from escaping. When the caterpillar enters the pupal stage chrysalis or cocoon , it may be left in place or removed to be kept for closer observation. It is important to keep the pupa outdoors in a natural state of weather.
When the moth or butterfly emerges, the wings should slowly unfold, and the wings will dry before the insect moves and flies. Although called "mealworms," these insects are actually not worms but rather the immature larvae of a black beetle.
Mealworms are reared in great numbers for commercial purposes, usually for food for certain birds, lizards, snakes and other animals. Unfortunately, mealworms are also pests, annually destroying great amounts of stored grains and flour. For successful rearing of these insects from egg to adult, nearly any reasonable container may be used a glass jar, a tight box, crock, or a large tin can being possibilities. The container should be filled half full of food cornmeal, breakfast bran cereal, or wheat in some form.
You can put some live plants in the enclosure, but it is possible that the beetles will slowly destroy it or eat it. Check what kind of temperature and humidity your species of beetle needs, and adjust the environment to match these conditions. The best way to heat the terrarium of beetles is with a light bulb that also emits heat. Any ordinary incandescent light bulb will do this. Because you heat the terrarium with radiation from the lamp, it is similar to the sun.
The beetles can then bask in the sun to heat up, or choose to hide in the shadows to become cooler. Beetles can only adjust their body temperatures in this way. If one light bulb does not produce enough heat, you can heat the enclosure some more using heat mats or a heat cable.
You can increase humidity by spraying with water. Do not supply the enclosure with a water bath or something similar, because the beetles can drown in this. Again, what your beetles eats depends on its species.
This general caresheet only deals with caring for fruit eating beetles. Fruit eating beetles eat fresh fruits and sometimes nectar. To feed the beetles you can offer banana, apple, orange, grape, pineapple or mango among other fruits on a ceramic or plastic plate.
Just place this in the middle of the enclosure, preferably not directly under the light bulb. The beetles will find it and you can see them eat from it.
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