Top 7 Arthropod Pets for Dummies (and beginners)

If something related to bugs has piqued your interest, you may be looking at keeping one as a pet! However, the world of bugs is incredibly vast, and you might not be able to figure out what you want. Other sites aren't specific enough and don't give enough information about what pet you should choose as a beginner, so I aim to do so with completely updated data. This list primarily applies to the United States and the type of bugs that are legal there, as there are harsher (or lighter) restrictions on certain bugs in countries like Canada and Finland, respectively. Without further ado, let's get to it! This isn't in a particular order, as your own personal interests may match only some of these and not align with others.
Hissing Roaches
 There are many different types of hissing roach, but all live in Madagascar. The picture above is a standard Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, or Gromphadorhina portentosa. There are other color morphs and sizes, like the Zebra Hisser, with black and white stripes on its back and the Flat-Horn Hisser, which is very wide and flat. There are others that you can look up, but most get to the size of 2.5-3.5 inches. Males have characteristic horns on their pronotum--the wide covering above their neck--while females have fairly flat pronotums.
Now, I know what you're probably thinking. "Ew! Why would I keep a hideous, disgusting cockroach in my own house?!" Cockroaches have a lot of misconceptions tied to their name, and while some things about them are true, many unfounded accusations exist, especially when there's 4,000 described species of cockroach. I'll split them into a list, along with some questions you might have about a hisser.
1. "Cockroaches spread disease!"
It is possible that a cockroach could spread diseases, if you let it touch something that is diseased. If your house is clean, even a German cockroach, the most reviled pest roach, wouldn't give you a disease. Roaches have hair on their legs that is good at holding in germs, but the germs won't be there in the first place if your home stays clean. Touching roaches without washing your hands afterwards can possibly affect asthma and allergies, but that isn't really what people are talking about when they say roaches spread disease.
2. "Won't this be able to infest my house?"
Only a few species of roach are capable of large-scale infestation. If you let your hisser loose in a very warm and humid place, it might be able to survive, but it flat-out cannot infest a home, even in its native land of Madagascar. They just can't breed that much and live in a house without a healthy microclimate.
3. "Cockroaches are ugly!"
This is my answer to that.
4. "How do I take care of a hissing cockroach?"
I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here. There's many care sheets on the internet for roaches and other bugs, but I'll link you to a few.
General cockroach care sheet, it applies to hissers as well
Madagascar Hissing Cockroach care sheet
All hissers can be taken care of basically the same way.
5. "What are some reasons that I would want to get a hisser or another type of cockroach?"
Most cockroaches make great pets, but hissers are good in particular. They're pretty big, they aren't fast, so they're safe for holding, they breed well if you want to breed them, and they have cool colors. That applies for a lot of other types of cockroaches, but hissers are one of the easiest to take care of.
Florida Ivory Millipede
Millipedes are really cute, like worms that aren't as disgusting to most people. Most people also think millipedes and centipedes are the same thing, when in fact they're incredibly different. Here's a little rundown of the differences.
- Millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, while centipedes have one
- Millipedes usually have more legs
- Centipede legs tend to jut out to the side, while millipedes keep their legs under them
- Millipedes do not have venom and don't bite
- Centipedes are very aggressive and not great for handling, while millipedes are docile and safe to hold, though they can secrete an orange chemical if mishandled
- Centipedes eat live meat and millipedes eat vegetables, fruit, decaying matter, and sometimes other already dead bugs
Clearly from this list, you can see that millipedes are probably the better pick for a beginner. Why this one in particular? Well, it has beautiful bands of creamy ivory and black on its abdomen, almost like a backgammon board. It's very hardy and less sensitive to moisture changes than other millipedes. And, it gets pretty big! My first pick for a millipede would be an AGB (African Giant Black millipede), but they aren't allowed to be imported into the United States due to the mites that live on them, which are invasive, and the ones that do exist in the US are very expensive ($70+), while Florida Ivory millipedes are usually only around $4-10 and can even be found near you if you live in the American South!
Once again, there's already care sheets for millipedes. The best one is located here.
Various Mantises
Even people who dislike bugs generally tend to like praying mantids/mantises (two different spellings which are both correct). They eat pests in gardens, are cute, don't have a gross appearance, and seem to be praying! In captivity, young mantids will eat fruit flies, while older and adult mantids will eat crickets and house flies. There are several different species that are all good for a beginner, the Chinese Mantis, Giant Asian Mantis, Giant African Mantis, and the Carolina Mantis. They all tend to be about 3-4 inches at adulthood and are green to brown. These are some of the smartest bugs in existence and may be able to form a pseudo-bond with the owner. At the very least, they can recognize and trust people to touch them. They are safe to hold, but make sure they don't think your finger is a prey item. They do not have venom and their bite isn't too bad if they do happen to mistake you for prey. Adults can usually fly, but they don't usually do so, especially with someone they recognize.
Warning: spider ahead. If you have severe arachnophobia, you'll want to skip that section.



Chaco Golden-Knee Tarantula or Grammostola pulchripes
Beginning bug keepers often want to handle their pets. Whether or not that's good for the bugs, especially tarantulas, is a subject of contention among many hobbyists. I won't get into my opinions on that, but if you do want to handle your tarantula, you should be looking at either this guy or Grammostola pulchra. All tarantulas have venom, but this one is veeeeery unlikely to bite unless you get the rare aggressive specimen. As it is a New World tarantula, meaning it's from the Americas, it has urticating (irritating) hairs that it can flick, but it doesn't do that much either. It grows very large, is attractive, and is docile, so it's one of the best tarantulas for a new keeper. It's also cheap in comparison to its sister species, the Grammostola pulchra or Brazilian Black, which usually costs upwards of $60 while this species only tends to cost $20-30. It is always best to gently stroke your tarantula with a paintbrush before attempting to handle it, just to make sure it's in a good mood--it will strike a defensive posture or kick hairs at the brush if it isn't.
This tarantula is a great one to start out with if you want to alleviate arachnophobia. As it won't try to harm you, you'll see that spiders aren't so bad. Just make sure your phobia isn't crippling enough to make you not want to open its cage.

Giant Vinegaroon
Strangely enough, this is not a scorpion! It looks quite like one, and is a fellow arachnid, but is in an entirely different group. It also isn't an insect; while it seems to have 3 pairs of legs and antennae, you can see that it only has two body segments. The "antennae" are actually modified legs! Vinegaroons' bodies can reach three inches long, and their antennae and whiptail can add an extra 3 inches. Their name comes from the ability to squirt vinegar from their tails when disturbed! It isn't the kind you'd use for cleaning and cooking, it comes out in a very fine, almost invisible mist. However, it has a very strong smell. 
Vinegaroons, like most arachnids, are carnivores. They eat a few crickets or roaches every week or so, which they catch by using their claws.
Why did I suggest vinegaroons for a beginner? Well, these ones are very tolerant of cool or dry conditions. They live in the desert, though they like it to be a bit humid, but they can handle a lot of variation in their climate. Of course, it's better to keep them warm and humid. They are also very slow and docile, making them a prime candidate for handling, unlike their cousins, the scorpions.
Blue Death Feigning Beetles & other darkling beetle species
If I had to choose the most easy to care for bug, I might have to pick desert darkling beetles and especially blue death feigning beetles. Their name comes from their color (obviously) and the fact that the feign death when disturbed (in theory). My blue death feigning beetles have never played dead and are great for handling, a characteristic of many beetle pets. They have a powdery light blue color that turns dark if it's too humid. These are a desert species, so it's important to keep them dry and warm. They're fairly small, about 0.8-0.9 inches, but are still great for display because of their beautiful colors. They are also very funny to watch with other beetles and bugs, as they'll romp around and climb on each other. For the best variety and a fun show, I recommend keeping these and other desert darkling beetles.
Care is very simple. They like a bit of space so they can run around and climb on things, as well as a hide. Plain sand with dirt works as a substrate (substrate is like "bedding" for small mammals), and they eat dry pet food and vegetables. They never cannibalize each other, and some have been reported to live up to 17 years! That's one long-lived bug!
Description 8 porcellio scaber.jpg
Isopods
You've probably seen some type of isopod before, especially if you looked for bugs under rocks as a kid. They have many different common names, such as roly-poly,  potato bug (a name also shared with the Jerusalem cricket and several types of beetle), sowbug, pillbug, and woodlouse. You may be surprised to learn that these bugs make good pets for beginners! However, the care is a bit different than the others on this list, as these aren't the type of bug you just want one of.
Isopods are fairly social little creatures and often end up staying with the colony that they were born in. They prefer to have other isopods to huddle up with, so this is a colony pet. Isopods are sexually mature far before they actually mature in size, so they breed very quickly and you'll want a large tank for a colony. However, you can feed isopods to your other pets like tarantulas.
Care is very similar to millipedes, and isopods can actually live in the same tank as a pet millipede. However, there are anecdotal reports of isopods attacking molting millipedes and millipede eggs, so you should take that into account. Humidity is doubly important for these, as they are actually land-dwelling crustaceans, so they need lots of moisture in the air to be able to breathe.

Let me know if I missed anything for this list by commenting!

Comments

  1. Nice article! I definitely learned some new things. I've always thought bugs were cool! As a kid, I loved catching bugs, and one of my favorite things to do during recess was dig for ant lions. (Technically they were the larvae, but I didn't know it at the time.)

    Great blog!

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