My daughter sent me a picture of a walking stick bug that was crawling on her window. Walking sticks are common but rarely seen because they live in trees and are camouflaged to look like sticks. There are thousands of species of stick bugs. Most of them live in tropical areas. They “naturally prune” trees. There are two main species in North America that like to eat the leaves of deciduous trees (especially oak, hazelnut, walnut, locusts, and cherry). In North America where the winters are cold, the bugs lay eggs on fallen leaves and then die when winter arrives. The kiddos hatch in the spring and climb the nearest tree. The picture below is Megaphasma (“big ghost”) dentricrus (“tooth leg”). Here is a video that tells more about these bugs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dblhygB8inw
