How to Choose the Pet Bug That’s Right for You

August 16, 2020 7:54 AM

"“If you had a permit, I would recommend getting your own little LeRoy"
posted by Brandon Blatcher (19 comments total)

Those are some excellent bugs.

An entomologist friend has written a song about Parasteatoda tepidariorum. It's better than you might expect.

Also bonus super-cute sproingy mini tarantula Typhochlaena seladonia.
posted by scruss at 8:39 AM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Viking funeral for your pet milipede in college? Good idea.
Viking funeral for your roommate in college? Bad idea.
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:45 AM on August 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

What if you pet millipede was your roommate in college?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:56 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Traci Roach, who handles bug upkeep, packaging, and shipping for Ken the Bug Guy
posted by sjswitzer at 9:16 AM on August 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

I love this! Insects are wonderful and amazing - they're like little aliens that live on the same planet as us!! I once ended up with a cage full of pet crickets after inadvertently walking through an aisle with bags of live feeder crickets at a Petco - they were so cute and I felt so bad for them that I bought the bag, a cage, and food for them on the spot. Another time I had a pet lubber grasshopper and she was so much fun to watch. My 7-year-old niece has one now (she lives in an area where they are plentiful) and I'm genuinely impressed with how well she's been taking care of him - she's had this lubber for quite some time now and I'm still getting videos of all the different things she's doing to keep him healthy and to provide enrichment.

These days all I have are "free range" insects and spiders, which we do our best to keep outside, but I can definitely see a pet stick insect or some other chitinous critter in my future.

(on a different note, anybody who likes insects and has the opportunity to do so should definitely visit the Insectarium in Montreal. Looks like it won't reopen until 2021 but do go if you ever get a chance)
posted by DingoMutt at 10:08 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Nope.
posted by MythMaker at 12:16 PM on August 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

“I wouldn’t say they would recognize you as a person giving them love,” he says, “but they can recognize you as the person giving them food.”

So basically like a cat then?
posted by Fuchsoid at 1:08 PM on August 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

Really though, I quite fancy one of those giant stick insects - I used to have regular stick insects as pets when I was a kid, and even managed to (accidentally) establish a free-living colony in our privet hedge. Which is probably why you now need a permit for these exotic species.
posted by Fuchsoid at 1:10 PM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is great, and the photos are fantastic! I wasn't aware of the NYC tarantula ban, and now I'm really curious about the rationale behind it as species kept as pets are generally pretty low maintenance and not really threats to humans. It seems like it's just part of a general ban on keeping any "venomous spider" as pets, but I can't find any more context on how that came about, whether it's been challenged, etc., unfortunately. Oh, well.

Millipedes, though, can make excellent pets. I've kept several and had friends who did as well. They tend to be curious but docile animals, and easy to care for as they're happy with leftover veggies. They can be a lot of fun to watch and interact with.

Bugs are cool.
posted by Lonnrot at 1:14 PM on August 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Leroy looks entirely too much like a house centipede I first learned about on AskMe, and then found a specimen of in my bathtub. I’ll pass on keeping one as a pet.
posted by elphaba at 3:26 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's been years now, so my recommendation is dated, but then the children were little they had annual passes to the Victoria Bug Zoo because they loved it so much. Because they were too small to do so themselves, I was always the volunteer to hold the scorpion and tarantula, but they loved holding the katydids and various stick bugs.
posted by bcd at 4:09 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

I wouldn’t say they would recognize you as a person giving them love,” he says, “but they can recognize you as the person giving them food.”

So basically like a cat then?
posted by Fuchsoid

I feel sad for people who say this, who have never known the devoted, dear love of a cat.
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:54 PM on August 16, 2020 [9 favorites]

Not really a bug, I guess, but I had a black widow for a fairly long time. Like a year or so, in a jar. I don't see them very often at my house, but they're all over my mom's house in the high desert, where they can be found in every undisturbed dark corner. And they grow fairly large, maybe about 1.5" across. She got fed mostly house flies, but pretty much anything I could find. Then one day, she wasn't moving anymore.

I got another, but she only lasted about a week, when it became apparent that she had a parasite. Ughh... I haven't had anther since.

The last couple years, I've been raising a lot of monarch butterflies, the result of having planted milkweed a while back. Not really pets, but the caterpillars are fun to raise. And they make me feel like their advocate, since it turns out the paper wasps of summer are very aggressive attacking them in the wild. And of course, it's quite nice to see my babies grow up and leave, and have them fluttering around the yard all summer.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:11 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've been keeping praying mantids this year after I found an egg sack for sale at Lowe's. They're definitely fun to watch and have slightly different "personalities", some are bold and curious, others are more timid and fearful. Watching them explore their environment and problem solve is a delight, and they do seem to associate you with treats and safety over time, occasionally even grasping at the air to ask to be picked up.

Beware, however, if you become emotionally attached to pets easily, that bugs have a short life span and are very fragile. I've lost all but one now to problems with molting or food, and their deaths aren't any less tragic than when I've kept rats or lizards, just with the added bonus of feeling foolish for mourning the death of a bug. :(
posted by Feyala at 6:23 PM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

The brightly colored Gooty ornamental is a popular pet tarantula.

I can see why. That is one sexy spider.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:28 PM on August 16, 2020

"Traci Roach, who handles bug upkeep, packaging, and shipping for Ken the Bug Guy"

This really pissed me off for some reason
posted by Dokterrock at 10:33 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

I wasn't aware of the NYC tarantula ban, and now I'm really curious about the rationale behind it...

Also, you are not allowed to have a pet whale in NYC.
posted by Drab_Parts at 9:34 AM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I had a pet scavenging water beetle- It was a fine animal.
posted by acrasis at 3:13 PM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'd be terrified to let my pet millipede or spider just roam -- I would assume the chance of accidental squishing is.. pretty high? I've felt awful when I tripped over a cat or dog, and they shook it off and were fine. Killing my pet buggo would be devastating.

Fascinating to learn about chill millipedes, tho! Thanks for the post!
posted by curious nu at 9:21 AM on August 19, 2020