Hi and Welcome

Hi All

Little basic introduction from my side. My name is Westley Price. I am a South Africa geologist, currently working and living in Namibia with my wife. No children as of yet. We live in a small toen in northern Namibia which, contrary to what most people think of when imagining Namibia, is quite a nice, sub-tropical place region with the highest rainfall in the entire country.

When I lived in South Africa, I had an extensive collection of snakes, with my main focus being on Asian Colubrids. I just loved the captive husbandry of snakes, but I am also a amateur field herper and try to get into the field as much as possible.

When we moved to Namibia, I was forced to sell my entire collection of snakes due to the different legalities in Namibia, so I decided to focus more on field herping. It went well for a few months, but they I realised I had a hole in my heart; I terribly missed keeping reptiles.

I started investigating alternative exotic pets I could keep, which could fill this gap. I started by narrowing it down to invertebrates (all exotic reptile banned in Namibia, mammals too much effort, fish...same thing). I investigated which invertebrates I could successfully keep and because I am TERRIBLE at breeding feeder insects successfully, I further narrowed my search to herbivorous inverts.

I really struggled to find a group that I found interesting; snails were boring, katydids are okay I guess, but then I came across some Extatosoma tiaratum ova for sale on a website. This single event changed my life since, because it sent my down the wormhole investigating phasmids!

I had no idea there was such a wide variety of species out there, and I was even more surprised to learn that there's an entire global (mostly European) community of people who keep and breed many of these species and simply exchange the ova with other enthusiasts. After being involved in the reptile community, which resolves around buying/selling and large amount of money, for so long it was refreshing to make contact with like-minded people who are simply in the hobby for the fun/satisfaction of it.

So yeah, my next post will outline my first (read unsuccessful) dabblings in the fascinating world of phasmids. I hope by sharing all my experiences/care tips and notes, I will be able to firstly help other who are looking at starting this freaky and fascinating hobby and secondly make contact with others who also share my interest.

Cheers and thanx for reading!
Wes