i’ve been raising katydids the past three or four years now, they only take a month to fully grow, they are the best pets e v e r

For those who don’t know, a katydid is a member of the order Orthoptera, along with grasshoppers and crickets. They tend to live in trees or tall shrubs, so they’re not easily found just by looking. They’re much easier heard at night, when they make clicking noises or zzzt repetitions. The katydids I’m referring to here are Scudderia bush katydids, two species found in the northeast US are Scudderia furcata (the Fork-tailed B.K.) and Scudderia fasciata (the Treetop B.K.):

Depending on where you live, members of this genus can be very common or not, for me they’re hard to find as adults but little ones come to our patio garden and start eating our basil every summer, so I take a few and raise them. Basically I keep them in containers and up the size each time they molt, because if they’re in a big terrarium when they’re tiny then they never find their food. They eat sweet basil, spinach, lambsquarters (Chenopodium), apples, blackberries, and petunia flowers (gotta make sure this stuff is free of sprays and pesticides though). They molt about every ten days, they have six instars (states between molts). 

I had three this year (one is still with me but since I’m leaving for college on Monday I’ll have to let him go early), two furcata and one fasciata, named Raven, Charles, and Erik (wink wink). They’re super fun to have around, charismatic, great friends. You can see some films of them here and here.

As far as raising insects go, these guys are some of the easiest. No fuss, no special requirements, short life cycle. Great summer companions!