A nine-year-old boy from Cumbria has set up his own business selling packets of Indian stick insect eggs.

Alec Kemp from Windermere sold his first few eggs over the internet after becoming fascinated with the stick insects.

He then created 1,000 presentation packs, each containing six eggs and instructions on how to hatch them.

Since the packets started to sell at the "Amazonia, World of Reptiles" visitor centre in Bowness, Alec is considering distributing his product to pet shops.

Giant snails

Alec told BBC News Online: "I thought this would be a good way to share them with other people - they are unusual and foreign.

"Friends just gave me some eggs, and now I have 200 stick insects.

"I got my neighbours to help with the drawings, but my mum helped quite a bit with the packaging and the warnings, like 'do not eat'.

"You put them [the eggs] into a box with a tea towel and a rubber band on top, and they should hatch after two months."

Alec is also creating a website to help him to sell 300 Giant African Land Snails he is attempting to rear.

He said: "Friends think I am pretty mad, but they understand what it is all about."

His mother, Joan Kemp, told BBC News Online: "It is going well. I didn't mind the stick insects but the thought of hundreds of giant snails in the house is a bit different."