Survived Without IT Support

Well I survived the week without my IT support (husband). Thankfully I didn't have any problems with the computer and he will be back tomorrow. It's been a very busy week. I had a lot of new spiders come in on Monday, from a breeder in Europe and I have ordered yet more spiders for next week. They should arrive mid week and there will be several different species. I also had some mantids arrive in the post and one of my egg cases hatched yesterday. The Orchid mantids are quite small but already they look beautiful with their pale pink and white, petal shaped body and legs. They are happily devouring crickets up to half their body size.

I have certainly spent a fair amount of time housing and feeding all my bugs this week (yes, even more than usual). It's a lovely time of year, everything seems to be having babies. I noticed that one of my Giant Crab spiders is running around with an egg sac today and yesterday I saw that one of my Cameroon Baboon tarantulas has laid an egg sac. I was really pleased to see that the mating had been successful. I still have the male, I will put him with my other female and see what happens. I wasn't sure that the females were fully mature but obviously they are! The Blue Tits in our camera nesting box are growing bigger and bigger. The poor mum and dad seem to be constantly feeding them all day long. I love watching them on my computer but I can't leave the program on for too long as it keeps crashing. Evidently my computer doesn't have enough memory.

My wildlife pond is looking good, it has been set up for a few weeks now so I think I may release the newts that I collected from my sister's garden into it this weekend. I hope they will stick around, newts are just so cute. They will probably wander off into the woods behind us but I have made a nice damp area for them. I haven't needed to water it this week with all the rain that we've had!

I have now sold the six Goliath Birdeaters that I purchased at a recent show. They were only spiderlings and ridiculously expensive but I wish I had bought more of them. I sold them as 'collection only or posted at your own risk', only one was collected but I'm pleased to say that the other five travelled through the post with no problems.

I have another open afternoon planned for next week on Saturday 20 th June. Hopefully it will be well attended, several people have said that they will try and make it so it looks like being a success again. The weather was beautiful last time, I hope we are as lucky again.

My great idea of sending bugs to Europe isn't going well at the moment. I've had loads of email enquiries, taking up lots of time but no actual orders. I will see how things go in the next few weeks.

Comments

A surreal week indeed!

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...

My biggest announcement ever!

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...

Getting there!

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...

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