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A tough week emotionally!

A tough week emotionally! I have never had so many orders to deal with and the extra work has bought with it many problems. I have had several parcels delayed (I despair of Royal Mail), I had my first fatality of a spider posted abroad. Last but certainly uppermost in my mind is the death of another aunty. I hadn't been to a funeral in years and now I have two in less than a week. The second funeral is next Tuesday, it is again a long distance away so I will not be available the entire day and of course that will mean that I only have three days to post orders next week. Please be patient, most people have been really nice and understand that I am struggling with everything at this sad time. There is only one guy that I would like to strangle but if I am not allowed to strangle him I would certainly like to find a way to ban him from using my website! I know you can't please everyone but I can't help trying to.

The bug house residents are doing great. My Natal Brown tarantula has at last laid an egg sac and is happily carrying it around. I have put both pairs of Wandering spiders together (2 separate tanks), I keep checking to see if the males are still there and all looks good so far. The biggest problem is that I don't know if the females are fully mature. When I attempted to mate this species in the past I found that the females had two more moults to go, after the point at which I 'thought' they were adult. Hopefully I have got it right this time but I cannot be totally sure that the females don't have another moult to go. I haven't seen any mating activity but I have put in plenty of food and would really appreciate it if the females didn't eat the males, especially prior to mating!

I must just mention the size of spiderlings. I feel quite guilty sending off tiny dots but work is such at the moment that spiderlings are coming in and going out immediately. They simply aren't here long enough to moult and grow. This isn't the case with all species but it is certainly the case with the more popular species. The 'new' automated website has changed everything, before the website I sometimes had spiders for several months (I hate to admit it but sometimes years) before a buyer came along but now thousands of people are checking my site regularly and with the click of a button they are buying a spider that I have only had for days (sometimes hours). I am saying this because I wanted to clarify the situation not because people have been moaning at me because everyone has been great. It is very odd for me because I used to grow on spiderlings and then put them up to 'medium' size but there are far fewer now. I have put some spiders on as small-medium, I know this is a bit confusing, they are not spiderlings but not yet 'medium' either. Their body length is generally about 1.5cm. Most of these spiders are not grown on by me, they have come in at this size and therefore cost me more. The price of each spider is obviously governed by how much they cost me, whatever their size. I have some super spiders coming in next week as I have bought a collection from a customer of mine whose circumstances have changed and he can no longer keep them. This is so sad and not that uncommon.

I received a parcel of wild caught tarantulas yesterday, obviously I prefer captive bred wherever possible but one of the spiders is completely new to me. It is a Panama Red Rump (Sericopelma rubronitens), a stunning spider, so stunning in fact that I actually went 'wow' when I unpacked her (I think it is a her). Sadly I only got the one of that particular species. I haven't had time to put her on the website yet but hopefully I will get a photo of her this morning and put her on at sometime today. Well, what I actually mean is my husband will take a photo and put it on, I still don't know how to do it (one day, when I get some time!).

It is our anniversary today, my hubby has a day off but we will both be very busy, me with the bugs and him with the building work on our house. We are planning a meal out this evening and after the week I've had I may have a couple of Bacardi and cokes, my favourite tipple.


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