stick insects – Imaginary Sunshine

Whoosh!

Michelle — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 02:43:29 +0000

I made the decision to go private on Twitter recently (erm, today) after getting more and more spammy-types of accounts following me and then sending me messages with spammy-type of messages. I could go through and block ’em all, but it was just so much easier to just go private all in one fell swoop (accounts that *I* don’t follow can’t send me messages). But if you wanted to follow me (and maybe I’d follow back, if you’re not a spammy-type of person), you can find me at @chelleshocks.

This weekend I’ve been working on my insect collection (due on Thursday, December 2nd) – just finishing up a few small things like gluing teeny tiny insects onto little triangles cut from index cards (I’m using light purple) and typing up all the information I’ll need for the tags that will be cut out and pinned as well. It’s going well though, I’m nearly completely done with a few days go about finishing it and putting down the final touches.

I have, at the time of writing, 3 more Oceanography assignments to do and 3 more online Oceanography quizzes. I also have maybe 2-3 more Ecology online assignments/quizzes to complete. There’s 5 more days of lectures, since I go to school Monday to Friday. I have one more project to hand in (my Entomology project that takes the place of a lab final, yay). After this week I have 4 finals before I get my Christmas/winter break!

I got really sad today because one of my stick insects had died. She was the one who moulted nearly a month after the other one and had a lot of issues with moulting (wasn’t able to pull free by herself) so I think in my heart, I knew she wasn’t ever going to really ‘make’ it because of that, as she had a lot of issues. She was the one that started off with the remaining egg casing stuck on her foot. The other one is still doing well, very much alive and eating and drinking whenever it wants (it’s fun to watch her eat because she eats a lot in one sitting). So while I’m really sad that one of them died in my care (although with all her issues, it’s possible that it was just nature taking it’s course), I’m quite happy that one of them is still doing well. This particular species is supposed to live for about 8 months, so we shall see how long I can keep her alive for (hopefully for the full 8 months, because then she’ll start producing eggs – no males/mating required).

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Monday happenings

Michelle — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:12:44 +0000

I went shopping with my mom and sisters…

Light purple heart hoodie with zipper and front pockets – $9.99 from $16.99
Brown hoodie with applique owl and embroidered and appliqued leaves over the front pocket – $5.99 from $10.99
Navy blue ‘boyfriend cardigan’ (says so right on the tag!) – $11.99 from $20.99
Two super-soft face towels – $0.99 from $5.99

Aside from the face towels, guess who has new school-friendly clothes? I avoid wearing office-work clothes to school, only because hoodies are just so much more comfortable when sitting in uncomfortable lecture hall chairs and writing on a cramped surface.

Out of curiosity, who’s idea was it to market a ‘boyfriend cardigan’? Because I’m 100% sure that I have never seen my boyfriend wearing a cardigan like that. Also, the store had pink ‘boyfriend cardigans’ available. And it wasn’t a pink that would be flattering on anyone.

I also went to gather more food for my stick insects. The problem with the fact that they now eat is that they also produce an absurd amount of frass (poop). Although I suppose it is to be expected, they are rather small insects right now. Also, did you know that a single caterpillar can produce up to a pound of frass in a week? Crazy, no? But I cleaned out their jar today, gave them some more food and they’ve haven’t touched the new food at all (it was even from the same plant, same area, everything!). Granted, they seem more active when I’m sleeping (silly bugs) so I guess I should expect to see nibbles in the morning instead of right now.

My stick babies are still alive!

Michelle — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 05:21:50 +0000

Apparently internet research is a win! I’ve managed to keep my two stick insects alive so far!

I learned that since they were clearly new hatchlings (since they were attached to their egg casings still), they can take a little while to actually start to eat. They were fairly active and now they’ve slowed down a bit in activity and no longer run around like little sticks on too much sugar.

They also occasionally keep all their legs in place and just move their body back and forth (swaying, it looks like dancing). And incredibly docile, they easily go onto my fingers and walk around a bit. Plus they’ve eaten! I’ve seen evidence of their munching on the leaves I’ve given them – they’re so adorable. Also, a response to them actually eating now is that they leave very little amounts of frass (poo) onto the bottom of their jar, I’ll need to clean it soon.