Living Twig Stick Insect Kit

Me and my kids love these! Was expecting to have to wait a few months for them to hatch going by the reviews, but within 2 weeks we had our first stick insect, followed by more a few days later. Kids were so excited and love getting them fresh leaves and spraying the inside as you can watch them drink which is pretty fascinating. Going to take them into the school to show the classes when they are a bit bigger, can't wait to try the butterflies next when the eggs are available to buy. Would definitely recommend this to any family, great for the kids no matter what age, my 15 year old was as excited as my 4 year old when they started hatching :)

Absolutely lovely!Couldn't be anymore straight forward, is a bit of a time lengthy process but kind of adds to the magic for the kids building the excitement 😀

I kept Indian Stick Insects when I was a child so thought it would be nice to allow my own children to do the same. This kit was a gift for my eldest daughter's 6th birthday and she was delighted with it. We sent off for the eggs and followed all the instructions carefully and still six months after their latest advised hatch date, they have not hatched. We have since visited a garden centre and bought some adult stick insects, they have laid eggs and they have hatched this week. I have no idea why the original ones didn't hatch because clearly the conditions were perfect for the ones from our own insects. I have only ever heard of a couple of people have the same 'non hatching problem' so I expect we just had a bad batch. If I was to do this again I would save the money (you have to pay P&P for the eggs that you send off for) and just buy ready hatched ones (they cost us £1 each and have laid so many eggs that we need never be without stick insects!!).Egg problems aside, this kit is excellent quality and I am considering buying another (though probably a larger version) just to house some of our new hatchlings. The early frustrations caused to the children have been more than made up for now that we are seeing new babies every day.

I purchased the Stick Insect Kit as a Christmas present for my 'insect mad' 5 year old nephew. It was an instant hit! I arranged for the eggs to be purchased prior to him opening the gift so everything was ready to go. When I spoke to him on Christmas Day I started to explain that he might need to be patient as the eggs may take up to 6 weeks to hatch. On saying that he advised me that one of the eggs has already hatched and he was able to show me up close on Skype (I am in Australia and he is in UK). When asked by other relatives what he got for Christmas this is the gift he always remembers and shows everyone. He is fascinated by them. Last count he had 2 hatched and 3 getting close! I would highly recommend as a gift.

Firstly I will warn those who say they never hatched wait a bit longer. We got our 7 eggs at the beginning of January, I half heartedly decanted them into the vessal (more on that later) a few days after their arrival, which isnt recommended. By March when nothing had happened I ranted about what a waste of money the eggs were and what I was going to do with the vessal. Luckily I am lazy and put off today what can be done tomorrow. Anyways end of March I happen to walk past and notice 1 stick insect about 1/2 an inch long, the next day there was another, and the following another. To cut a long story short I am (well my 7 year old is) the proud owner of 7 stick insects! Soi would say in the waiting for the eggs to hatch patience is a virtue (or laziness in my case). Ok now for the vessal, I purchased this kit before Christmas and to be honest when it arrived I was dissapointed with the net container which is like a mini pop up potatoe planter, I just felt we were not going to get a good view of the insects through the green net so I ended up buying a stick insect aquarium on amazon which is a tall rectangular case made of glass with a mesh lid (which they need, as they hang upside down when they start shedding). Also as mentioned by somebody else you need to destroy the eggs, they recommend freezing them. The insects themselves are easy to look after, I just put in ivy which is everywher, line the bottom of the tank with kitchen roll and spray the tank with a water spray every so often. They are also really interesting to watch. I only use the pop up mesh home when im cleang them out and I finf it hard to see them when they are in there (but I have bad eyesight). Honestly this set is just fancy gift wrap and you are probably best purchasing the stick insects at full price (£7.50, if you buy this kit you get avoucher allowing you to buy the eggs for £2.50) and buying a better home for them.

All as described

It was a lovely idea in principle but the stick instects all died dispite following the instructions on how to care for them. Also after using ivy for food an some dying I turn to brambles, as suggested, but the lid to the net surround made it diffiult to carefully pull out old twigs and place fresh ones in, the lid could do with unzipping further around. It may just be bad luck for us as the concept is good. the butterfly garden also purchase was a great success.

I purchased this as a Christmas present for my 8 & 5year old boys. We sent for the eggs and 10 arrived, they had a date of hatching between 13th January and 13 March, it's the 1 of February today and we have 7 hatched so far - I have to say I was a bit unsure about having insects as not a massive fan, but I am quite taken with them. They all have a name (not sure we are successfully distinguishing between the 7!) and my boys are fascinated with them. Easy to keep and clean - but bare in mind these are a living creature so they do need care and attention, admittedly not a lot.They are different to the butterflies as you cannot let them go - but really parents should be doing their research before buying these to avoid any disappointment and to learn that you have to actually look after and care for them!Highly recommend!