Back from holiday for one week but it’s been a very long week. I think I need another holiday now. I have caught up on all emails and correspondence, posted out everything that was ordered while I was away and placed orders for a great deal of new stock. Yesterday I received several species of spiders, scorpions, millipedes etc and next week I have even more coming in. My husband has had the last couple of days off work and has been constantly making up little spider houses. The volume of email enquiries that I receive is getting a bit out of hand. Many of them are queries that are answered on either my FAQ page or terms page. Many are simply too complicated to answer in an email but are very quickly dealt with on the phone. I have been trying to persuade people to call with their enquiries but it is an uphill struggle. It seems that people who don’t suffer from arachnophobia commonly suffer with phone-phobia (I’m sure there is a name for it, another thing to Google). Some people even text me, do you know how long it takes me to text someone? I speak much faster than I can type or text and my phone is generally attached to my belt. The only trouble with my mobile phone is that it doesn’t give an engaged signal. If I am talking on it then the answer machine clicks in. I am due an upgraded phone next month so hopefully I can sort this problem.

I did Google the beautiful green lizard that we saw in Rhodes. It was a European Green lizard, that doesn’t sound very exciting but it was absolutely stunning. I couldn’t find the mantids that we saw, Google kept coming up with the European mantis but I don’t think they were Mantis religiosa. There was a big difference between the size of the sexes and I didn’t think there was in Mantis religiosa. I will have to ask my friend’s Janice and Graham Smith they are sure to know.

Everything in the bug house is looking good. I have spent so much time out there this week that it is also pretty tidy. Probably the main reason for the tidy bug house is that two people were due to visit this week but neither turned up. My own silly fault I suppose, I said visitors on a Saturday only and I should have stuck to it. It is really nice to see people face to face but maybe I should just meet up at the bug shows and give up on people visiting my home. It takes a lot of organising as I am always busy. Most people who run a postal business don’t allow callers but when I was in London I had people calling regularly and it was worth it. I’m quite happy about people ordering online and collecting from me, that’s no problem as the order is paid for and I can pack it in advance.

One of the animals that I received yesterday and haven’t had time to put on the website yet, are some Mediterranean Jumping spiders. They are pretty small but so cute, they were a nightmare to get into their new homes as they certainly do jump. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I was feeding them on flightless fruit flies that were jumping all over the table. I also received some Trap Door spiders, the black ones are fairly standard but the red one that I got is huge and gruesome (I was going to say beautiful but even I can’t really say that). I’m sure she is an adult female and by the size of her abdomen she may well be gravid. I have never bred Trap Door spiders so this could be something new. I should have some Trap Door juveniles coming in next week from a European breeder. I have had juveniles before and they were easy to keep. I’m not sure if I mentioned before that one of my giant centipedes has laid eggs and is tightly curled up around them. I have been very careful not to disturb her, when I have had eggs before they have always been eaten by the mother. These ones look far more promising, the eggs were laid before I went away and everything still seems fine. I did have to unscrew the lid on the jar as I needed to put net under the lid. I was worried that any hatchlings may be able to squeeze out of the air holes. I really don’t want baby centipedes all over the place. I am still trying to eradicate the Pallid cockroaches but they turn up everywhere. They seem to really like my electronic label printer. Every time I open the cover to change the tape several emerge, they obviously like the warmth. Goodness knows how many are in the back of the fridge!

Well I had better get out to the bug house now, lots of little mouths to feed as I don’t do any posting on a Friday. Perhaps when Royal Mail is sold the new owners will introduce postal deliveries seven days a week. I live in hope, it would be so much easier if I could spread things out and not be so rushed off my feet on Mondays. I need to go shopping this afternoon half my family seem to have a birthday in September.