Stick insect
The insects prefer the thick grasslands where they blend in perfectly with their surroundings.
Stick insects also known as stick bugs, walking sticks or bug sticks are found on every continent in the world except the Antarctic.
However they are most common in tropical and sub-tropical environments.
Stick insects are very common in the Durban area, although seldom seen in gardens any more. And this has not got much to do with their impressive camouflage but more to do with habitat destruction and the use of pesticides.
Recently I was fortunate enough to join the Honorary Officers of the Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve for a night walk, pre-dominantly focused on counting the number of chameleons in the reserve, but we also saw a wide variety of night time creatures, including several large stick insects. The insects prefer the thick grasslands where they blend in perfectly with their surroundings. The ones that we saw were about the size of a man’s hand.
For some reason I have always thought that stick insects were carnivorous, but they feed on plant material. Apart from their amazing camouflage, their other means of self-defence is to excrete a fowl smelling liquid. The stick insect is 100% harmless to humans.
If you would like to contact Warren to have some of your interesting insects, snakes or other wildlife identified, send him a WhatsApp message or call him on 072-211-0353.
He also has a Facebook page called, Warren’s Small World.
