Mysterious Insects Are Imports, Officials Say

State entomologists have narrowed their investigation of mysterious stick-like insects that were distributed to schools in southeast Los Angeles County last fall.

A week after receiving four of the bugs from a Walnut agricultural association, state experts announced Thursday that the so-called walking sticks are foreign to the United States, and must therefore be classified as minor pests. But the state remains stymied in its efforts to figure out what kind of bug it is.

“[State entomologists] have never seen this particular kind of walking stick,” said Kevin Herglotz, a spokesman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture. “Nobody’s been able to identify it.”

Herglotz emphasized that the insects should not be considered a threat to the state’s crops since they have not been found outside classroom terrariums and because they eat slowly. State entomologists are now working with other scientists to identify the bugs, which look like brown matchsticks with legs and antennae.

State officials surprised area teachers last week when they ordered the distributor of the insects, the 48th District Agriculture Assn. in Walnut, to stop handing out them out as educational tools and to provide a list of everyone who had them.

The association, which also was unable to identify the creature, had provided dozens of the insects to area schools since receiving them from a San Dimas teacher last fall.

County and federal agriculture officials joined the call for caution, saying the plant-eaters could pose a threat if released into the wild. Walking sticks tend to reproduce quickly, they said, and little is known about what kinds of plants they would choose to feed upon.

At least one local entomologist believes he has the bugs pegged. Based on photographs he has seen of them, Arthur Evans, director of the insect zoo at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, said he believes the insects are Annam walking sticks, a species that originated in Vietnam.

“I know this stick and I know what everybody calls the Vietnamese stick, and that’s the same stick,” he said, adding that his zoo contains specimens of the Annam stick.

If it is the Vietnamese variety, he said, the insects would be less of a threat to the state’s agriculture industry if released than to area gardens. Annam walking sticks prefer to eat roses, he said, although they also feed on some tree leaves.

“If it were considered a pest, it would be considered more of a garden pest,” he said.

Meanwhile, area teachers who have the walking sticks are keeping an eye on the bugs. A deputy manager for the agriculture association said teachers have been confining the insects to their classrooms since the state ordered them to do so last week.