Orchid enemy #1 at Possum Glory...

[frostychic]

Possum Glory is the name of our farm (not chosen by me mind you... been a long time name that was placed loooooooong before we bought it).

Well... for a few years now I've seen several "stick bugs" ... you ever seen one

Here is a Wiki link & you can view one there... Phasmatodea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some people call them: Walking Sticks

Well... I had read a couple of years ago that they like vegetation like rose bushes etc. I had been hoping that they liked to eat other insects similar to the behavior of the praying mantis... but noooooooo.

Anywhooo... I am not 100% certain that it is the walking stick but I'm pretty sure that it's been that bug that has chewed on more than one of my orchid roots... it's like it sucks the good stuff right out of the end of it... chews it in half & yowza there is some damage done! I think it's the walking stick though cause I've not seen any other bug do this much damage so quickly!

I have removed a walking stick from one of my orchids (the stix seem to like one of my vandas & especially one of my catts the most) several times. I don't kill them cause I just cannot... but I do "dis-place them" to another location... apparantly not far enough in distance from my orchids or else it's just another walking stick.

Anyways... just another peril involved in outdoor summer growing I guess.

[-k-]

Walking sticks do enjoy a nice salad They are some my favorite insects though I do not see much of them anymore. I can recall seeing many of them throughout the years when I was kid, but it's been a while. Nice find, though a bummer about the orchid damage.

[Anisa]

Hmm..i wouldnt guess that it is not praying mantis and it does not eat bugs. So it appears I never seen one. Sux though they eat your plants. Perhaps nice blast from a hose would dis-place them too, but with those legs probably not for long.

[Stitz]

I rarely see "walking sticks" any longer. I rarely saw them as a kid! They don't "stick-out" ! I noticed through the link that there are many species.

The ones around here have much more "meat" on their .... (scratch that last thought) .... bones!

I am surprised to learn that these "buggers" are not insectivorous.

[orchidaddict789]

I thought walking sticks ate insects, since they're related to praying mantises. Yikes, hope they stop munching on your plants!

[jayfar]

On a sadder note, I saw a praying mantis in Center City Philadelphia this afternoon, just across from City Hall, flattened on the sidewalk. The only other praying mantises I've seen since childhood were at the suburban office park where I work in a data center. In one instance, a mantis had found his way into our hallway there and I carried him outside to a grassy area. In the other case, one was living just outside our entrance on a loading dock door and would sit virtually unmoved in the same spot for several days at a time. I have a fuzzy recollection of returning to work from a 10 day vacation and spotting a mantis sitting on the door within a couple feet of where he was when I left.

[orchidaddict789]

Originally Posted by jayfar

On a sadder note, I saw a praying mantis in Center City Philadelphia this afternoon, just across from City Hall, flattened on the sidewalk. The only other praying mantises I've seen since childhood were at the suburban office park where I work in a data center. In one instance, a mantis had found his way into our hallway there and I carried him outside to a grassy area. In the other case, one was living just outside our entrance on a loading dock door and would sit virtually unmoved in the same spot for several days at a time. I have a fuzzy recollection of returning to work from a 10 day vacation and spotting a mantis sitting on the door within a couple feet of where he was when I left.

Me too! I was leaving Costco last week and I saw a flattened praying mantis on the pavement. Poor thing, I wondered what it was doing over there, since there were no trees or grass nearby. There used to be some in my backyard--one female laid eggs and the next year, I saw many 1" little mantises crawling around. So cute. But now there are no more left--perhaps they migrated somewhere else in search of more food? I could use some of them in my yard to help take care of the nasty, plant-munching critters!

[frostychic]

Well... this last time I relocated this walking stick about a football field length away from my chids. That was right about the time I posted this thread & I haven't seen him back yet.

They are very cool looking & I guess from what I read some people keep them as "pets"... better than a ferret I suppose, hahahaha (I've never understood ferret ownership).

I had several of these walking sticks in my roses a few summers ago & earlier this summer one of my Cattleyas produced it's BIGGEST bloom ever and doggone it if something (I'm guessing it was the walking stick) ate a big hole thru the bud before it opened... needless to say it wasn't as pretty of a bloom as it could have been, for sure.

The sticks we have here are the thinner ones like in the wiki link photo.

You can't really blast them with water cause they just move to the opposite side of the leaf... and actually, they are tough to spot because they look like, well... a stick!

When I mist my chids though they scamper & are easy to spot when they move away from the water.

[jayfar]

The October issue of Orchids features a Praying Mantis on its cover atop a Platanthera integra, apparently growing wild in New Jersey.

[orchidea]

OMG, such a skinny thing likes to eat so much......
I have seen only big green ones here.....my cat likes to hunt them....