Virginia Cheeseman Blog

I'm getting back into the swing of things after my holiday in the sun. The tan is fading but I've got lots of photos to help me remember (see below). I have emailed the Mauritius animal welfare organisation twice now but I haven't received a reply so I guess that's it for rescuing my doggy friend. I have bought in lots of new stock during the last week, land hermit crabs, scorpions, millipedes, praying mantids etc. I hope my hubby will get time at the weekend to photograph the new millipedes. I have some giant pill millipedes from Madagascar, they are really beautiful. Next week I have more scorpions, millipedes and spiders coming in. I'm pleased to say that I have also sold quite a few things this week, especially spiders. It is really dawning on me that some spiders are far more popular than others. The most popular pet tarantula is still the Mexican Red Knee. They are beautiful spiders, long lived, docile - yes, it's easy to see why. Some tarantulas are b...

I'm back from paradise, missed the snow but we did have plenty of rain. We had a lovely relaxing time in Mauritius, the hotel was amazing and the food was delicious. I wouldn't go again in cyclone season. The sea was off limits for a whole week due to the wind and we only had three days without rain but one of those was my birthday so that was very nice and it was always hot. The hotel gardens were really extensive, they employ an army of gardeners who were always working hard. I didn't see any evidence of insecticide spraying and there were Giant African Land snails everywhere. It was so weird to see the snails that we keep as pets climbing around all over the gardens. The snails were very large but there didn't seem to be any control of them and the plants looked fine. There were some beautiful flowers and when the sun came out there were beautiful butterflies too. We didn't see much in the way of bugs but as usual I enjoyed looking. There were large land crabs in...