Virginia Cheeseman Blog

A busy week, lots of bugs coming in and thankfully lots going out too. I have received many new spiderlings, some large Pink Toe tarantulas, land hermit crabs and a new species of millipede. My open afternoon last Saturday was very well attended. I hadn't expected so many people and my daughter wasn't here to help. It was a bit hectic at times but I think everyone went away happy, I did try my best to cope. I have already updated the site with my new open afternoon next month and my daughter assures me she will be here to help. Quite a few people have mentioned that they work on Saturdays and therefore cannot come to my open afternoons, so I thought I should say that you are welcome to call at other times. You would need to book an appointment (see 'notes to callers' on page 23 of my web site). The only day that I am not available is Sunday. I won't be here to write my blog next Friday as I have won a weekend in Switzerland! I do love entering competitions and I h...

It seems no time since I wrote the last blog entry but it is a whole week. Everything is going well, no thanks to Royal Mail, I'm not sure what is happening about postal strikes. I keep hearing news of strikes on the radio but I couldn't find any information on the Royal Mail web site. I thought there was a strike today but I'm not too sure now. I didn't post any livestock yesterday just in case. I do think that Special Delivery gets priority treatment, parcels generally arrive the next day whatever is going on. I have sent quite a few orders to Europe over the last month or so. I use a service called Airsure. It seems to work really well, parcels almost always take only two days to arrive and there have been no fatalities reported so that's good news. I was thinking of giving up on posting to Europe after a series of 'time waters' but things have certainly picked up since then. I have been having a major sort out and tidy up in my bug house this week, par...

Another busy week, although not quite so many orders, it is coming towards the end of the school term. Generally at this time of the year I would be selling off as much live stock as possible before my summer holiday but as I am not going on holiday until October it is still full steam ahead and I have been buying new stock each week. Sales are bound to slow down over the next few weeks as the schools, colleges and universities shut for the summer and people are off on their holidays. Obviously people don't want to buy new pets before they go away. Having said that, I do think the recession has had an effect and far more people will be staying at home or taking shorter breaks. I certainly had fun with all the new scorpions last Friday! I bought in nine new species from Chile, they are all reasonably small, fast moving, aggressive species. Many look very similar and I had to describe and name them all. I have had quite a bit of feedback on the names, thanks to those people who sug...

What a hot and sunny week we have had, it's been like the Mediterranean. I love the heat and so do the bugs, everything seems to be moving at double speed and breeding like crazy. My Giant Spiny stick insects 'broke out' of their cage a few days ago. They ate through the netting lid, I have now put a plastic lid on the cage but it took a couple of days to find them. Feeding the spiders was fun this week (not). I had to be so careful opening the boxes to pop the crickets in. If I wasn't quick enough the spider popped out and ran across the table. It really is a bit hot to be chasing spiders around the bug house. I always keep the door shut when I'm feeding the spiders! The praying mantids and cockroaches have been taking flight too, it's been an animated week. Sales are still good, I have received more tarantula spiders this week and I am picking up some new scorpions today and possibly some Laneatores too. I haven't seen these fascinating creatures for age...