About me

Hi, my name is Tom and welcome to Xoticbugs! Thank you for visiting my site – a passion project I’ve been working on for quite a while now. The site is not only to provide a platform to make my surplus stock available for purchase, but also a place where I can share care information, write and publish articles, and showcase photos of the species in my collection.

Unsurprisingly (and maybe not so weirdly to a visitor of this site), I’m a huge fan of all things bugs! I’ve been keeping a wide range of species for over 10 years, which has given me the chance to explore an incredible variety of behaviours, husbandry nuances, and care tricks. It is a world I am constantly learning more about and one I love discussing with fellow enthusiasts who are happy to hear my spiel.

My admiration for bugs started from a young age. Since then, I’ve kept over 150 different species – from stick insects, beetles, and snails to cockroaches, millipedes, leaf insects, isopods, and praying mantises. Each species with its own requirements, life cycle and story to tell.

Like many keepers, one of the first species I looked after was Carausius morosus, commonly known as the Indian stick insect. That’s when I quickly discovered the wonderous process of parthenogenesis (a process which I have written an article on) when nymphs where quite literally popping up everywhere. This is just one fascinating process that bugs have in their itinerary.

My bug-keeping journey came to a halt when I went to university to study Biological Sciences. However, I maintained my interest in the study of animals taking courses in plants, conservation, birds, and mammals. In my final year I specialised in genetics, writing a report on the overexpression of genes in the bacterium Escherichia Coli for protein production. As fun as that sounds… it was far less interesting than bugs.

Since graduating, I’ve spent the last two years rebuilding my private collection with a focus on rare, unique, and personally fascinating species – especially phasmids (stick and leaf insects) and isopods (a relatively new phenomenon in the bug keeping space).

As I mentioned any surplus stock from my collection will be made available through this site. I also share updates and photos of my collection on Instagram: @xotic_bugs, so feel free to follow along there.

Thanks again for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the site – and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out via Instagram or email me at info@xoticbugs.com.