🪵 Thorny devil stick insect

📊Overview

A heavy, ground-dwelling New Guinea species that is nocturnal and hardy, but not a gentle handling pet — mature males wield a large spur on each hind leg and will clamp it into skin when grabbed, sometimes drawing blood. Some also release a musty defensive odour, so it suits keepers who mainly want to observe rather than hold.

⚡Ownership snapshot

🧭Temperament & needs

📈Compared with other Stick insects

🧠Personality & temperament

The thorny devil is a stocky, nocturnal, ground-dwelling phasmid that looks like a chunk of armored bark and spends daylight wedged into a hide. Males grow a large curved spur on each hind leg and will arch the abdomen scorpion-like before snapping the legs shut, a jab that can puncture skin. It is a hardy, fascinating species to keep, but defensive by nature and not a hands-on pet.

📜Origin & background

This species is native to New Guinea and neighboring islands of the western Pacific, including the Solomon Islands. It lives on the forest floor and in low vegetation rather than high in the canopy.

🏃Exercise & enrichment

It is moderately active after dark, roaming the ground to forage, so it benefits from horizontal floor space plus hides. Give it bark, cork tubes and leaf litter to wedge into, along with low branches to climb and explore at night.

✂️Grooming & hygiene

No grooming is required; upkeep means spot-cleaning frass, replacing browse and holding steady humidity for clean molts. Keep the substrate lightly moist but never soggy, and mist so the insect can drink and shed without limbs sticking.

🍽️Diet & feeding

Bramble (blackberry) is the staple, with oak, ivy, hawthorn, eucalyptus or rose as alternatives; keep the stems standing in water to stay fresh. Replace leaves weekly and mist for drinking, as it browses mainly at night.

🏠Housing & environment

It needs a secure enclosure with more floor than height, roughly 40-45 cm each way for a small group, over a few centimeters of moist coco-fiber substrate with plenty of bark, cork and leaf-litter hides. Keep it warm (about 24-28 C) and humid (60-70%), mist regularly, and ventilate to prevent mold. A tight-fitting lid is essential, because these are strong insects that will push out of a loose enclosure.

🩺Health & lifespan

Mismolts from low humidity or too little vertical clearance are the biggest killer and can leave dropped or deformed legs. Overly wet, poorly ventilated cages breed mold and mites, and rival males can injure themselves and each other with their leg spurs. Kept properly they live about 1-1.5 years.

🎓Training & socialization

They are not trainable and should not be handled routinely. If you must move one, scoop it from below rather than gripping it, since a large male can drive his femoral spurs into skin hard enough to draw blood.

💰Cost of ownership

Costs are low: a modest enclosure, substrate, hides and a heat source cover the setup, and food is cheap or wild-foraged bramble. This is one of the more economical large phasmids to keep.

💚Who it's good for

Keepers who want a robust, unusual ground-dweller and don't mind a hands-off animal.

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