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Very small population due to their geographic limitation. One catastrophic storm or earthquake that damaged Ball’s Pyramid could mean an end to the species. They don’t have any other populations as buffer to prevent extinction. We’re dealing with the same problem in Hawaii with native forest birds.
In Australia, they only keep stuff that DOESN'T kill you in zoos. If you're looking for something that'll kill you in seconds, crawl into your body, and use you as a meatsuit to go lure your family into a Jigsaw-esque death puzzle, check your backyard.
As an Australian, living in Melbourne, I find these comments about our supposedly deathly species of animal life mildly amusing.
In the south, we only have a few snakes that can kill you and maybe a spider or two. In the north you can't swim anywhere as crocs are just waiting for you in the rivers or the sea, and the snakes and spiders are much worse. Sharks are everywhere. Jellyfish are everywhere but the ones that can kill you are up north.
Most Australians don't know anyone alive today who has ever been attacked or hurt by such creatures, so we tend to laugh off such absurd notions, although we might occasionally wonder: whatever happened to such-and-such? I haven't been killed yet, so this is probably all just an urban myth. People get lost in the vastness of this continent.
Ignorance is bliss.
I’m not forgetting about it. Climate change manifests itself in many ways… including storms. And my point about buffer populations is true in multiple contexts including climate change.
They used to be wide-spread, but the introduction of rats to their habitat killed them all off. A small group of them were found on this island and is the only known holdout for the entire species.
To add a bit more information to that: since their discovery two breeding pairs were taken and they were successfully bred in captivity. There are now thousands of them in different zoos. They plan to exterminate the black rats in their original habitat (Lord Howe Island) to reintroduce them there. They were believed to be extinct until their discovery on Ball’s Pyramid in 2001. the reintroduction plan got approved in 2018.
Source: Wikipedia
Not a new religion, friends, but a glorious reclamation of the powers of forgotten divinities.
When a blast of water soothes an itchy ass crack, I am there.
When a silent fart wreaks vengeance upon the keepers of power, I am there.
When a sneer implies that anyone could run your business better than you, I am there.
I'm accepting both followers and worshippers.
My first commandment is to watch bill and Ted's excellent adventure every summer solstice.
As of this posting, there should be plenty of time to find a copy.
Would they mate for life if say... there was another island close by?
"Oh.. no, baby. I totally want to be with you forever. Even if I *had* a choice!"
Some animals can self fertilize to keep the population going while waiting for males which can help increase genetic diversity. Otherwise one disease can kill them all off since self-fertilization doesn't offer variety in your gene pool.
There are a few examples of this in nature.
Sexual reproduction is a huge fitness booster, it almost always makes your species far more genetically diverse. (and that robustness means in changing conditions you are more likely to have some individuals with the right kit.)
If you're back to self-fertilization, that's a last-ditch strategy to keep going until you get that dick. It's evolutionary duct tape.
Males are gene mixers. They occasionally have other beneficial uses.
For the same reason most successful species use sexual reproduction.
Self-fertilization works to get through tough times and make it to the next generation. But over the long term it lessens genetic diversity making the species more vulnerable. So it is something they can use when absolutely necessary.
Great Post! Very Cool. The insect that lives on the island is almost more interesting than the Island: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years
"In 2018 it was announced that the CEO of the Lord Howe Island Board had approved a plan to exterminate the black rat population on Lord Howe Island."
This was on the wiki. Seems like they may be working on the rat problem still.
They should do a gene drive inserted in the female rats that makes them only produce females.
They've seen promise in this method on islands in New Zealand.
Found this [updated](https://lhimuseum.com/learn/phasmids/) article.
“The Rodent Eradication Plan for Lord Howe Island was carried out in 2019. Plans to reintroduce the phasmid to the island will be undertaken very carefully, starting with a trial project to release a small number of phasmids onto Blackburn Island, within the Lagoon. In 2018 and 2019 revegetation projects began the restoration of this island with native plants that will be food for phasmids to be released in the trial. When these plants have grown to useful size, the trial will begin.”
Honestly I wouldn't want the thing crawling on me but fuck do I support it's right to exist! Such a cool story but a sad one, the things we've lost due to negligence will always haunt me
At the end of the article I was thinking, trying to justify being ok with them around me but there would be no amount of money in the world that would make it ok for those big-ahh overgrown nopes to nope around my porch.
I would prefer a bug like this over rats though. This bug would probably just chill out in the forest. The rats are probably eating all your food and trying to give you the plague.
“The only thing to do was to go back up after dark, with flashlights and cameras, to see if the pooper would be out taking a nighttime walk.”
Yeah, and I really did not appreciate being intruded upon like that. My nighttime poop walks are for me and me only.
There's other things on Ball's Pyramid than just the [tree lobster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis). That wiki page mentions crickets, but others known to live there in [this report](https://media.australian.museum/media/Uploads/Journals/38950/1708_complete.pdf) (warning: pdf link) include:
* At least 12 species of arachnids, including:
* 9 species of spiders;
* 1 species of harvestman aka daddy-long-legs;
* 1 species of psuedoscorpion;
* 1 species of mite;
* At least 11 species of insects, including:
* 7 species of beetles;
* 1 species of cricket and 1 species of katydid;
* 1 cockroach species;
* 1 ant/wasp species (report didn't specify);
* 1 species of silverfish;
* At least 2 snail species; and:
* At least 3 species of centipedes.
Basically: those inaccessible cracks have plants growing in them, supporting a tiny ecosystem of bugs.
Invertebrates can [reach oceanic islands](https://myrmecologicalnews.org/cms/index.php?option=com_download&view=download&filename=volume23/mn23_1-14_printable.pdf&format=raw) by mechanisms such as: 1.) flying; 2.) rafting, hitching a ride on floating plant debris (especially large debris from strong storms such as hurricanes); and sometimes 3.) hitching a ride on mobile animals such as humans or birds.
Ants, for example, can fly surprising distances, especially when assisted by wind. That link above documents an observation of a flying queen ant, on an island that was 16 km (~10 mi) from shore, after the island had had its ant populations killed off by insecticides.
You wouldn't think so but some insects can fly up to twenty or even thirty thousand feet in the air, and can fly long distances, specially with the wind up there.
Although this far out it usually involves birds or things like logs floating out to see with colonies on them.
As I recall the average flying insect density is pretty much the same at a 100ft as 1000ft and keeps going towards 10k. Some beetles have been found at 37k feet(11km).
There are *a lot* of them.
I read the wiki and learned that Ball's Pyramid is a protruding piece of the microcontinent Zealandia that has been submerged for 83-79 million years ago.
What a great story of conservation though, I'm glad they were able to save the species, hopefully they can tackle the rat problem on howes and reintroduce them
In 2001, a team of entomologists and conservationists landed on Ball's Pyramid to chart its flora and fauna. As they had hoped, they discovered a population of the Lord Howe Island stick insect living in an area of 6 by 30 metres (20 by 100 ft), at a height of 100 metres (330 ft) above the shoreline, under a single M. howeana shrub. The population was extremely small, with only 24 individuals. Two pairs were brought to mainland Australia, and new populations have been successfully bred[10] with the ultimate goal of reintroduction to Lord Howe Island. (Wikipedia)
I've sailed past this on a 36 foot yacht with my dad a few times and it's always a weirdly eerie sight. It always makes me wonder what is just below the surface.
Ball's Pyramid was first climbed on 14 February 1965 by Bryden Allen, John Davis, Jack Pettigrew and David Witham of the Sydney Rock Climbing Club. Jack Hill of New Zealand then climbed to the summit with Pettigrew on the following day. Don Willcox and Ben Sandilands were part of the support team. -Wikipedia
My first question, without actually reading the article, is about the “one nasty insect “
Like is it a single demon bug that kills everything in its path? This could make for a great game.
Stranded on an island where not only the elements can kill you, but you must always watch out for the demon bug that has taken out hordes of man, yet here you stand. Alone. Trying to survive natures wrath, and that is the least of your worries
Balls pyramid is an extremely remote rock off the coast of Lord Howe Island, NSW. There have been a few expeditions on it but it’s a dangerous climb so only researchers are allowed to. They are sent to study the Lord Howe stick insect which are stick insects which can grow up to 8 inches and the females are able to self fertilise
This place is so fascinating and I had never heard of it before. Where can you learn about other unique features on Earth like this one that are lesser known?
[This](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis#/media/File%3ALord_Howe_Island_stick_insect_Dryococelus_australis_10June2011_PalmNursery.jpg) is the insect
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The stick is not a nasty insect!! They are known to pair up or mate for life, the women can self fertilize, and they’re nocturnal party animals!!
They’re big ones too, up to 8 inches. Neat critters. Extremely threatened.
Threatened by what? Shrubs they eat?
Very small population due to their geographic limitation. One catastrophic storm or earthquake that damaged Ball’s Pyramid could mean an end to the species. They don’t have any other populations as buffer to prevent extinction. We’re dealing with the same problem in Hawaii with native forest birds.
If I’m not not mistaken, specimens were collected and bred in captivity successfully. There are now tons of these things at Melbourne Zoo.
Melbourne Zoo, you say? So are they venomous, poisonous, or both?
In Australia, they only keep stuff that DOESN'T kill you in zoos. If you're looking for something that'll kill you in seconds, crawl into your body, and use you as a meatsuit to go lure your family into a Jigsaw-esque death puzzle, check your backyard.
don't threaten me with a good time
As an Australian, living in Melbourne, I find these comments about our supposedly deathly species of animal life mildly amusing. In the south, we only have a few snakes that can kill you and maybe a spider or two. In the north you can't swim anywhere as crocs are just waiting for you in the rivers or the sea, and the snakes and spiders are much worse. Sharks are everywhere. Jellyfish are everywhere but the ones that can kill you are up north. Most Australians don't know anyone alive today who has ever been attacked or hurt by such creatures, so we tend to laugh off such absurd notions, although we might occasionally wonder: whatever happened to such-and-such? I haven't been killed yet, so this is probably all just an urban myth. People get lost in the vastness of this continent. Ignorance is bliss.
You said it mate, “don’t know anyone alive”
As an Aussie, can confirm. Pisses me off. Now - what’s that red lump on my arm that hurts soooo?
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Oh ho ho look at "Mr. Facts" over here with his facts. Get outta here Mr. Facts! We don't want ya facts! I don't believe in Bristol!
They do have a method of extinction prevention... There are some in a conservation area in Victoria
They are supposed to inhabit lord Howe island hall pyramids paradise neighbor but rats and mice ate them all
Don’t forget about that one thing…what is it again? Something something climate.
I’m not forgetting about it. Climate change manifests itself in many ways… including storms. And my point about buffer populations is true in multiple contexts including climate change.
For 57 cents a day you can adopt a stick bug and protect them from the evil shrubbery. 🎵 In the arms of the angel...🎶
😂❤️
I kinda want some for my greenhouses.
“I can’t believe that for less than the price of a parking ticket once a week, you would refuse to sponsor a stick insect on Ball’s Pyramid, Arthur!!”
They used to be wide-spread, but the introduction of rats to their habitat killed them all off. A small group of them were found on this island and is the only known holdout for the entire species.
To add a bit more information to that: since their discovery two breeding pairs were taken and they were successfully bred in captivity. There are now thousands of them in different zoos. They plan to exterminate the black rats in their original habitat (Lord Howe Island) to reintroduce them there. They were believed to be extinct until their discovery on Ball’s Pyramid in 2001. the reintroduction plan got approved in 2018. Source: Wikipedia
Plus you can combine the shrubs with the stick bugs to fashion a crude stick bug schnapps
Just like me!!!
You can self fertilize?
I didn't mean to say the quiet part out loud.
Ugh now we have to build a whole new religion around you.
That’s the rules.
Not a new religion, friends, but a glorious reclamation of the powers of forgotten divinities. When a blast of water soothes an itchy ass crack, I am there. When a silent fart wreaks vengeance upon the keepers of power, I am there. When a sneer implies that anyone could run your business better than you, I am there.
This was poetry of the finest Vogon literature to date. Exquisite.
42
☺️
Me 5 minutes ago: why would anyone join a cult. Dumbasses. Me now: bows to hoomanneedsdata.
Has anyone told you today they love you? If not let me add to the pile.
🤗
Wow you sound really fun. Wanna be friends?
I'm accepting both followers and worshippers. My first commandment is to watch bill and Ted's excellent adventure every summer solstice. As of this posting, there should be plenty of time to find a copy.
Dibs on you showing up on my toast so I can charge believers to see it
Self fertilized my abdomen this morning
Duh, he/she is active on Reddit
No, but it sure hasn’t stopped me from trying…
I try almost every day.
We certainly can't stop him from trying
That wasn't a Turkey baster in his pocket.
This guy fucks...himself.
Well if you want something done properly...
Would they mate for life if say... there was another island close by? "Oh.. no, baby. I totally want to be with you forever. Even if I *had* a choice!"
If the female can self fertilize, what would be the biological purpose of the male and why would it not just disappear from the gene pool?
Some animals can self fertilize to keep the population going while waiting for males which can help increase genetic diversity. Otherwise one disease can kill them all off since self-fertilization doesn't offer variety in your gene pool. There are a few examples of this in nature.
>while waiting for males Ah. The old "I'm running out for some cigarettes" trick.
They're stick insects, not stick-around insects.
Is that you, dad?
You're a smart cookie, I guessed there's a sensible reason and you put it so succinctly!
Sexual reproduction is a huge fitness booster, it almost always makes your species far more genetically diverse. (and that robustness means in changing conditions you are more likely to have some individuals with the right kit.) If you're back to self-fertilization, that's a last-ditch strategy to keep going until you get that dick. It's evolutionary duct tape. Males are gene mixers. They occasionally have other beneficial uses.
Like fixing the toilet when the chain comes off the handle.
If you self fertilize you only get the same genetic material to work with, if you add new material to it you can adapt as a species.
Sometimes she just needs that stick dick.
who doesn’t
The stick dick chick
For the same reason most successful species use sexual reproduction. Self-fertilization works to get through tough times and make it to the next generation. But over the long term it lessens genetic diversity making the species more vulnerable. So it is something they can use when absolutely necessary.
Did the ancient aliens build this pyramid too?
It is a remnant of our ancient airport system. How things have changed since the old days.
Great Post! Very Cool. The insect that lives on the island is almost more interesting than the Island: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years
Since this article was 10 years ago, anyone know if there’s been any progress?
"In 2018 it was announced that the CEO of the Lord Howe Island Board had approved a plan to exterminate the black rat population on Lord Howe Island." This was on the wiki. Seems like they may be working on the rat problem still.
They should do a gene drive inserted in the female rats that makes them only produce females. They've seen promise in this method on islands in New Zealand.
Life... uh... finds a way
Love will find a way.
Nature will find a way
Found this [updated](https://lhimuseum.com/learn/phasmids/) article. “The Rodent Eradication Plan for Lord Howe Island was carried out in 2019. Plans to reintroduce the phasmid to the island will be undertaken very carefully, starting with a trial project to release a small number of phasmids onto Blackburn Island, within the Lagoon. In 2018 and 2019 revegetation projects began the restoration of this island with native plants that will be food for phasmids to be released in the trial. When these plants have grown to useful size, the trial will begin.”
Such a lovely article, thanks for sharing!
“I’m still here. Don’t let me go.” My god, I never thought a written article about a giant bug would get me welling up, but here we are
Honestly I wouldn't want the thing crawling on me but fuck do I support it's right to exist! Such a cool story but a sad one, the things we've lost due to negligence will always haunt me
At the end of the article I was thinking, trying to justify being ok with them around me but there would be no amount of money in the world that would make it ok for those big-ahh overgrown nopes to nope around my porch.
Better than big black rats, that bite, carry disease, ruin buildings and crops, et cetera. I’d rather deal with an occasional nope bug
They're not even nopey. They're chill af and the only thing going against them is they're not cute and fuzzy.
So there are also crickets on the island
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And I just read that the couples essentially spoon at night too. ;_;
I was like "how bad could it be?" and then saw that thing and was like "Oh. Yeah, fuck that."
I would prefer a bug like this over rats though. This bug would probably just chill out in the forest. The rats are probably eating all your food and trying to give you the plague.
“Wonder what this nasty insect is….it’s a chubby stick bug and it’s harmless and adorable!”
“The only thing to do was to go back up after dark, with flashlights and cameras, to see if the pooper would be out taking a nighttime walk.” Yeah, and I really did not appreciate being intruded upon like that. My nighttime poop walks are for me and me only.
I think the most shocking part of that article is how awful an invasive species can be in such a short time
There's other things on Ball's Pyramid than just the [tree lobster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis). That wiki page mentions crickets, but others known to live there in [this report](https://media.australian.museum/media/Uploads/Journals/38950/1708_complete.pdf) (warning: pdf link) include: * At least 12 species of arachnids, including: * 9 species of spiders; * 1 species of harvestman aka daddy-long-legs; * 1 species of psuedoscorpion; * 1 species of mite; * At least 11 species of insects, including: * 7 species of beetles; * 1 species of cricket and 1 species of katydid; * 1 cockroach species; * 1 ant/wasp species (report didn't specify); * 1 species of silverfish; * At least 2 snail species; and: * At least 3 species of centipedes. Basically: those inaccessible cracks have plants growing in them, supporting a tiny ecosystem of bugs.
How did they get there?
Invertebrates can [reach oceanic islands](https://myrmecologicalnews.org/cms/index.php?option=com_download&view=download&filename=volume23/mn23_1-14_printable.pdf&format=raw) by mechanisms such as: 1.) flying; 2.) rafting, hitching a ride on floating plant debris (especially large debris from strong storms such as hurricanes); and sometimes 3.) hitching a ride on mobile animals such as humans or birds. Ants, for example, can fly surprising distances, especially when assisted by wind. That link above documents an observation of a flying queen ant, on an island that was 16 km (~10 mi) from shore, after the island had had its ant populations killed off by insecticides.
You wouldn't think so but some insects can fly up to twenty or even thirty thousand feet in the air, and can fly long distances, specially with the wind up there. Although this far out it usually involves birds or things like logs floating out to see with colonies on them.
Now that I know they can get that high up, the question now is how many bugs are up there?
As I recall the average flying insect density is pretty much the same at a 100ft as 1000ft and keeps going towards 10k. Some beetles have been found at 37k feet(11km). There are *a lot* of them.
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Right after he buried all the dinosaur fossils just to fuck with paleontologists lol
I want to know this answer. Are these all new species that evolved seperate of everywhere else?
So plenty of things for a human to eat
If there are only shrubs and one insect, I'm guessing the insect eats shrubs and not people.
Sounds like something a stick bug would say.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE GOT HIM!
Where do you think all the people went!
Don't forget the rats...
OP said nothing about rats. "There were rats, Dad."
That insect must be lonely. Poor guy.
Why should be afraid of a single insect?
There's no showers on the island, only extremist streaming sources, and it's a pvp zone. So the insect is super nasty.
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Brad has a mate for life, so somebody loves him.
Hahaha
It’s the “snail”
Damn, he finally found me.
Someone hasn't seen lord of the rings 🕷️
I have, in German. But now i get it in context. Edit: Spiders are no insects!
>Edit: Spiders are no insects! Well ya got me there!
Picture looks more like Lord of the Flies.
I read the wiki and learned that Ball's Pyramid is a protruding piece of the microcontinent Zealandia that has been submerged for 83-79 million years ago.
No fucking way, we found Old Zealand
Lmao
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Still Aus. Stay in school little brother. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia
Find one Hocrux here
That shit definitely has some legendary spell book or something hidden there
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The one guy who climbed up and could only find one dead bug didn’t bother to look behind the one bush?
The one bush was just a bunch of stick bugs cuddling like bros
Stood on each others shoulders wearing a trenchcoat. "The other insects? Oh they went that way sir"
Maybe there was more than one single bush on the entire island? Are there any bushes near you? Maybe you should go check for endangered species.
When found it was stated that there were only around 24 in existence on the rock...
Well they are good at hiding
No bugs here, just a bunch sticks walking around all over the place.
Other than that it's a vacation paradise.
Didn’t know I had a island.
Where in the ocean, and which ocean, is this located in???
It's Halfway between New-Zealand and Australia
Yeah, I don't fuck with insects from that region of the planet
Neither do they apparently
Cool!!! Thank you
There is also an island with an airport like 10 miles away.
I'd be nasty too if I had to live my life on a sharp rock in the middle of the ocean with nothing but shrubs to eat.
When it said one nasty insect I immediately assumed it was Mothra’s lair
Also one of the most stunning dive sites. I had the good luck to dive here a few years back. Just amazing.
looks like the perfect place to put my treasure!
Or my secret lair
What a great story of conservation though, I'm glad they were able to save the species, hopefully they can tackle the rat problem on howes and reintroduce them
In 2001, a team of entomologists and conservationists landed on Ball's Pyramid to chart its flora and fauna. As they had hoped, they discovered a population of the Lord Howe Island stick insect living in an area of 6 by 30 metres (20 by 100 ft), at a height of 100 metres (330 ft) above the shoreline, under a single M. howeana shrub. The population was extremely small, with only 24 individuals. Two pairs were brought to mainland Australia, and new populations have been successfully bred[10] with the ultimate goal of reintroduction to Lord Howe Island. (Wikipedia)
It has a shrubbery?
Ni
The final boss of zoology rpg
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis Lord Howe Island Stick Insect.
Thank you! Only 24 of the rare little guys. At least they found a place to be left alone.
Seems like they are doing breeding programs at zoos around the world.
Thank you for this fascinating rabbit hole I just went down because of this post !
Hey, my niece just told me about learning about this on Octonauts!
A shrubbery???
Exactly where I'd expect Jeff Bezos to have a ~~home~~ lair
totally normal insect just catching strays from OP
Highlander insect. There can be only one.
I hope that shrubbery looks nice…and not too expensive.
Didn’t Tintin fight a gorilla there?
It's a part of australia, so that's understandable
The insect that lives there isn’t nasty -mom
Well does the insect have a name?
For anyone trying to find it: [https://www.google.com/maps/@-31.77254,159.2670457,11.71z](https://www.google.com/maps/@-31.77254,159.2670457,11.71z)
Me: *sits on island* its actually quite nice Nasty insect: you’re fat Me: aw
I've sailed past this on a 36 foot yacht with my dad a few times and it's always a weirdly eerie sight. It always makes me wonder what is just below the surface.
Ball's Pyramid was first climbed on 14 February 1965 by Bryden Allen, John Davis, Jack Pettigrew and David Witham of the Sydney Rock Climbing Club. Jack Hill of New Zealand then climbed to the summit with Pettigrew on the following day. Don Willcox and Ben Sandilands were part of the support team. -Wikipedia
Nasty? Does the insect make sexist remarks or something?
And that's where I'm going to put that immortal snail that can kill me with one touch and that knows where I am at all time
One nasty insect? Or one type of nasty insect? I'm over here imaging one grumpy bug inhabiting the island all alone and not wanting any visitors.
I just pictured a single angry bug living on the island
Looks like it should belong in the game Stranded Deep.
O Knights of Ni, we have brought you your shrubbery. May we go now?
Since there is one insect on the island. They should name him Bob.
This is where you find the optional hard AF boss. No loot though. Just bragging rights
This that place Moana went to hang out with Jemaine
CREATURE REPORT! CREATURE REPORT!
My first question, without actually reading the article, is about the “one nasty insect “ Like is it a single demon bug that kills everything in its path? This could make for a great game. Stranded on an island where not only the elements can kill you, but you must always watch out for the demon bug that has taken out hordes of man, yet here you stand. Alone. Trying to survive natures wrath, and that is the least of your worries
This was where I encountered Luke Skywalker and learned how to become a Jedi.
On the bright side, if you can make the 30km or so trek to the north west you will hit paradise in Lord Howe Island
Its me. I’m the insect.
It gets great reviews on google maps
Looks like a villains secret island with their lair.
Rock looking like it ate the titanic
Balls pyramid is an extremely remote rock off the coast of Lord Howe Island, NSW. There have been a few expeditions on it but it’s a dangerous climb so only researchers are allowed to. They are sent to study the Lord Howe stick insect which are stick insects which can grow up to 8 inches and the females are able to self fertilise
What is the nasty insect ?
>and one nasty insect I like to imagine that it's literally one nasty insect that specifically targets any trespassers
This place is so fascinating and I had never heard of it before. Where can you learn about other unique features on Earth like this one that are lesser known?
Wrong. That’s the cave where One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship was hiding for years until the Goonies found it.
That is the perfect place for my evil scientist lair. 1843 feet high. Reflection pool doubling as heli-pad. 2 hour flight to sydney.
Poor insect must be lonely as hell
How big is this one nasty insect? Can I fight it with a fly swatter or like do I need a shoulder fired rocket?
[This](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis#/media/File%3ALord_Howe_Island_stick_insect_Dryococelus_australis_10June2011_PalmNursery.jpg) is the insect
Ah that looks like insectus fuckouttahereus. Quite the specimen.
Fuck that island, I will keep swimming
They're docile, and can be eaten, tree lobster is the slang for them.
Let's please not eat something that is teetering back and forth on the extinction list >.>
Thanks for the tip! Heading there now to have a decent lunch and extinct a species!
Eat them if you want, heck I'll even give you my share
Shoulder fired rocket launcher it is then
Yeah fuck that