Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Christmas and New Year were certainly different! I got flu on 20th December and was laid up until last week. I didn’t get off the sofa, no festive food, drinks, crackers etc. I also had a chest infection but I’m on the mend now, just feeling incredibly tired a lot of the time. What a horrid illness, I have never in my life, been off my feet for that long. I kept thinking “what on earth would have happened to my bugs if I hadn’t retired in October?” Anyway, onto happier things, the SEAS show in Kent is Sunday week and I’m really looking forward to it. Catching up with friends and bug life in general. My old bug room renovations came to a grinding halt when I fell ill so I can’t get carried away as I would have nowhere to put anything new. I may get a couple of praying mantids (a photographer friend really wants to photograph them but knows nothing about keeping them) and I’m still thinking about buying Milo a Mexican Red Knee spider for his birthday next month. He will only be 2 but...

It’s nearly Christmas, too near. I’m not ready but I’m sure it will be fine, it always is in the end, that’s what my husband says! I find Christmas a very stressful time, it may be the most wonderful time of the year for children but it’s pretty damn hard work for us women (sorry, sexist, not allowed these days but it’s my blog 😁). Retirement still seems quite new but I will soon be saying “I retired last year” and that sounds very weird to me. How are the bug room renovations going? Hmm, what can I say? It looks like a project for 2026. When the bugs were in the room we had the windows covered with polystyrene, partly to insulate and partly to stop the sun shining onto my glass tanks. It turns out that two big window panes were broken (due to this summer’s heat no doubt) and the frames had rotted due to excessive moisture. My husband has been working hard to build new frames and get them fitted but it has taken weeks. I would love to have had my ‘chill out zone’ ready for Christmas b...

Life does go on but it is very different. I am still sorting out over forty years of bug things. It’s bin day again today so I have distributed, plastic boxes, tanks and wood from the shelving, into my friendly neighbours bins. Many little everyday things seem odd to me, throwing fruit and vegetables away is truly weird, I have always fed them to one animal or another. I’m thinking of getting some guinea pigs, they are great pets, the boys would love them and they could live in my ex-bug room in the winter and outside in the summer. Only a thought, after so many years of being tied down by all my animals I am trying hard to resist the urge of getting anymore pets at the moment. Sadly, my lovely snakes are not interested in eating a plant-based diet 😊 We had a super weekend in Brighton recently, just before the cold weather descended. It was good to simply lock up and go and then when we returned I sat down and relaxed! Normally we would get back and I would be replying to emails, feed...

Who am I? My bug room is cold, my bug room is quiet. I have lost my identity, they say we are defined by our job. Am I still “the bug lady”? I think so, I hope so, it’s all very weird and as someone who has always hated ‘change’, it’s difficult. I’m really glad I kept a tank of Hissing cockroaches, I always said that I would and I find it strangely grounding. The tank is now full of hissing cockroaches and anything else that I have found while emptying the room (odd cockroaches, cave crickets, a banded cricket   😂 ). One thing I love about this blog is that I can now use emojis, my old blog didn’t support them and I love emojis! I hear that I’m not supposed to use certain ones and that some may mean, “not what I intended” but ignorance is bliss so I won’t know unless you tell me   😊 I feel almost as busy as ever but with a lot less stress. The world has become busier and busier, people expect more and more and I needed to get off that crazy roundabout. I’m such a people plea...

A surreal week indeed! I sent off my last orders on Monday and the remainder of my bugs will be leaving me on Friday. So many people are congratulating me on my retirement but I prefer the good luck messages. I didn’t think I would ever retire but it all became too much, not just for me but my family too. Our home was taken over by my work. The bug room was my domain but the rest of the house had gradually filled up with ‘stuff’, plastic boxes, cardboard boxes, tanks etc. and I never ever had any time. Whatever task I was doing, I was always thinking of the next job on the list. People keep asking what I am going to do with my time now. In the short term I will be clearing everything out, especially the loft which is full to the brim. I’m a bit of a hoarder so that really doesn’t help 😄 Lack of time was indeed the main factor for finishing my business but there was also the constant “I only want a female tarantula” 😤, leaving Europe was a big blow, Covid, the animal welfare licensin...

Getting there! My plans for retirement are going pretty well, I cannot believe all the wonderful messages that I have received over the last few weeks, many of them have had me in tears. It is very emotional to give up my little friends after a lifetime of keeping them and my human friends too but the time is right so I will keep plodding on until everything has gone. I won’t be changing my phone number and I hope to keep my email address, therefore, those who want to, can stay in touch. I had planned for a big sale on September 1st but orders are still going strong so an all-out clearance sale doesn’t sound such a great idea. I have decided instead to reduce items individually but I do keep changing my mind J It is really difficult to retire over a period of time, I couldn’t make the decision and then stop, like most people are able to. I can’t set a date in the future because I simply don’t know when sales will dry up. The idea of an open day sadly became unworkable, I just don’t hav...

My biggest announcement ever! It is with a heavy heart that I am informing everyone of my impending retirement as “The Bug Lady”. I have been running my business for approximately 45 years so it has been pretty good J Things change over the years, I was one of the only bug dealers in the early days and possibly the only woman but these days, every man and his dog is selling tarantulas and “proper bugs” seem to have fallen out of favour. I have been cutting down on stock for some time and had hoped to keep going without the tarantulas but it hasn’t worked out. I expect to fully retire by the end of this year but a lot depends on my wonderful customers (you!) as I need to sell off a large number of little creatures. I still have 24 species of tarantula (multiple numbers of most), millipedes, cockroaches, isopods, scorpions, slugs etc. Do take a look on my website, once they are gone, they are gone! If you want to help me, please spread the word to all your bug mad friends. I have lots of...

It’s driving me crazy! I only want a female, can you sort me out a female, is it female, aghh! I hear this day in and day out, which is why I’m giving up on tarantulas after all these years. I’m always concerned about how honest I should be in my blog but I can’t help being honest and outspoken, it’s just me! I used to state that my USP (unique selling point) was that I don’t lie but I thought it looked rude on my website and not everybody lies, but at times I understand and cannot really blame people for lying about sexing tarantulas. It is not that simple AND most importantly what are people doing with all their unwanted males? I clearly lose very many orders because I refuse to sex my spiders. I have sometimes reared my tarantulas for several years. They are all treated with the same love and care, tending them weekly and for what? I’m as disappointed as everyone else when one of my beauties matures into a male but such is life, there’s a fifty-fifty chance. Surely, they are pets an...

This quote just came to me as I was thinking of a title for the post, it seems very appropriate and comes from "The A-Team" from way back in the 1980s, it was spoken by the character Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, the late, great George Peppard. My plan is indeed coming together and going very well, both January and February have been really busy months, despite me selling off my tarantula collection. I have reduced things down considerably but I am way off giving up on tarantulas just yet. Having one posting day a week seems a long way off too. I’m not actually sure I could ever have just the one day to post orders. I am currently posting out on a Monday and Wednesday and it is going fine. Spring is now just around the corner, the first day of March tomorrow J It seems to have been a very long, damp, dark winter. As you all know by now, I absolutely hate the cold! We are booked to go away to Cyprus in May, I can’t wait (should be a good time for bugs, flowers and m...