Interesting article (link below) here about these huge, fascinating insects also brought up an interesting second article about the attempts to get rid of rats and mice from Howe island.
The “rarest insect in the world” also happens to be freaking enormous
.
Oh dear God you have got to be kidding me!!! :eek:
Puts the giant flying cockroaches in Hawaii to shame…
Dear Og - why? The skin on my back is still crawling to get away from that image.
I was at least hoping for something edible… Yes, I’m sure they’re technically edible, but where are the claws!? I need tree lobsters with claws!
They look like they could be fun pets. I had stick insects of a different variety for a while when I was a kid.
As for the rat eradication program: Good luck on that one, guys. Better nuke it from orbit to be sure.
No, no, no. Introduce yet another non-native animal. That never goes wrong! There must be some sort of snake, or, hey, even the house cat that would do marvelously at eradicating the rats. 
Tree lobsters? Right. Next you’ll be telling me there are cucumbers on the bottom of the ocean…
That is so 1900s. Let’s genetically engineer some kind of brand new Rat terminator. Maybe cyborg, with laser eyes.
If nothing else, that article certainly makes me want to go to the South Pacific. How beautiful!
AAAAAAAHHHHHH!
:eek::eek::eek::eek:
Here’s $50, lets subsidize the rats!
A big stick,walking softly.
They certainly are impressive critters! Awesome to look at, as long as they stay on / inside the screen. If they actually got on me, though, I just might be screamin’ a different tune…
I’m going to be “that” guy for just a moment. Paige Howorth (pictured on the linked site) is just gorgeous.
Yes, but which are better when boiled & served with drawn butter…? 
I’m snfaulkner and I endorse this message.
Now to go scrub that image from my imagination with booze.
Well, you won this thread!
A rather interesting Guardian article here.
I think I really should point out that these supposed stick insects don’t really look like sticks.
Thank god they are rare
I kind-of recommend the book Rat Island, by William Stolzenburg – about non-native predatory animals, rats above all, getting on to isolated islands: the havoc that they wreak on the island fauna, and the extreme difficulty of getting rid of them. A fascinating read, but wrist-slitting depressing.