Beasts for Rental

These Peruvian stick insects have a very striking appearance. Their velvety black body and bright hind wings give this insect an attitude. This is all counteracted due to the fact it looks like it has put on lip stick...badly. They use their rear wings to fend off predators by flashing their bright red colour at them. Black Beauties also have the ability to squirt an irritating liquid from glands in their head, this makes them less perfect for handling. They feed readily on privet and hon..

There is estimated 20,000 different types of Darkling beetles found worldwide. This small beetle is named because of the way they change colour as they get older. Once they emerge from their pupae stage they are white, then turn orange, then brown and eventually remain black.  At Rent a Beast we use these to show a life cycle in action. They hatch from eggs and into the larval grub form which we all know and love as mealworms. These mealworms then grow and eventally pupate. These loo..

Dubia roaches are also known as the Argantine roach, orange spotted roach or the Gyanna spotted roach. We all know and love them as Dubies. Their favourite thing is to hide and they do it well. You can have 30 of these critters in a box and you will find them ALL hiding under one log. The males and females are easy to tell apart as the adult males have wings. DON'T PANIC... they can't fly!  They are commonly used and bred for feeding to other animals such as reptiles, tarantulas ..

This little chap who usually resides in Mexico, South and Central America resembles another cockroach called the Death Head cocokroach. The true Death head roaches have a mark on the top of their head resembling a skull. Our roaches have more of a black blob...not very scary! There are fast little blighters and they have wings. Fear not, they can't actually fly nor can they climb smooth surfaces. They are very easy to care for.  They eat just about ANYTHING and live up to a year ..

These gentle giants originate from East Africa. They can reach a good size of 7 inches and like to bury themselves in the soil. They are vegetarians and love to feast on salad and soft fruit in captivity. Like all snails they are hermaphrodites, which means they are both male and female. If you have 2 snails you will undoubtedly end up with lots of eggs. They can lay around 60 eggs at one time. These snails should not be released into the wild as they may become serious pests to our own count..

These are one of our favourite types of beasts. Their impressive size matched with their gentle nature is a great combination. In the wild these guys hang out with the orang-utans in Borneo. They go through five moults in their life time getting bigger each time they shed their skin. The females are much larger than the males. This is because she has to produce a lot of eggs using her ovipositor to lay them in the ground. The smaller males with hitch a ride on the back of the female. ..

These beasties come from the island of Madagascar (bet you didn’t guess that). They live on the forest floor eating all the dead matter that the forest produces. Life’s natural recycler.  They produce a hissing noise as a self defence mechanism and during fights. The noise is produced from their breathing holes in the side of their body (called spiricales) when they push the air out. They can grow up to 7.5 cm long and can live till they are 5 years old. Each female can have 60 young at ..