- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
- Messages
- 2,301
So, a long story short, some pictures I posted months ago got misinterpreted by some APHIS inspectors who since paid me a little visit.
Like the thread someone posted a while ago, they were very polite and all, and they had some useful information for hobbyists. First, it is possible, though very unlikely, for an individual to acquire the permit necessary for keeping phasmids. The reason it would be difficult is because most individuals don't have the necessary facilities:
-- Airtight seals around all doors / windows
-- No holes in ceilings / walls / etc (old nail-holes, for example)
-- Screens over all vents leading into room
-- Double-bagging, sterilizing, and THEN conventional disposal of all waste
-- Secured cages for specimens (locking cages preferred)
-- Inspection of all personnel leaving room to ensure no accidental stowaways
-- Etc.
To do things legally, specimens could be traded with an existing, approved facility once permits had been approved.
They also told me that the reason exotic mantids were recently added to the no-no list is because someone's specimens escaped and started displacing the native species. The individual in question pulled up a list from the APHIS website that showed mantids as being ok. The inspectors told me the list turned out to be several years old, so they at least removed the outdated information from the website.
They told me the inspection job is difficult because they don't have a handy cheat-sheet of what's ok and what isn't. The best bet is to email them personally with a latin name, and they would contact the permit people to see if it was OK or not (ain't beaurocracy fun? :?)
The good news is, they said that no arachnids are permit-required, and they didn't say anything about millipedes.
Like the thread someone posted a while ago, they were very polite and all, and they had some useful information for hobbyists. First, it is possible, though very unlikely, for an individual to acquire the permit necessary for keeping phasmids. The reason it would be difficult is because most individuals don't have the necessary facilities:
-- Airtight seals around all doors / windows
-- No holes in ceilings / walls / etc (old nail-holes, for example)
-- Screens over all vents leading into room
-- Double-bagging, sterilizing, and THEN conventional disposal of all waste
-- Secured cages for specimens (locking cages preferred)
-- Inspection of all personnel leaving room to ensure no accidental stowaways
-- Etc.
To do things legally, specimens could be traded with an existing, approved facility once permits had been approved.
They also told me that the reason exotic mantids were recently added to the no-no list is because someone's specimens escaped and started displacing the native species. The individual in question pulled up a list from the APHIS website that showed mantids as being ok. The inspectors told me the list turned out to be several years old, so they at least removed the outdated information from the website.
They told me the inspection job is difficult because they don't have a handy cheat-sheet of what's ok and what isn't. The best bet is to email them personally with a latin name, and they would contact the permit people to see if it was OK or not (ain't beaurocracy fun? :?)
The good news is, they said that no arachnids are permit-required, and they didn't say anything about millipedes.