All go this week, I have had lots of new bugs come in. Some lovely Giant Prickly stick insects, a new species of cockroach and then yesterday I went to collect some magnificent Atlas and Rhinoceros beetles. A friend of mine imported some of these beetles several years ago and I did very well breeding them. The beetles are captive bred in Indonesia where they are reared for 'beetle fights', evidently beetle fighting is a popular pastime in some Asian countries. Certainly not my cup of tea but I'm really glad to see these beautiful beetles again. I have far more females than males which I am quite happy about. The males are larger and more impressive, with huge horns but it's the females that lay the eggs! I have already seen lots of mating. After I had collected the beetles yesterday, I then had to go foraging in the woods for leaf litter and rotten wood. The things I do for these animals! I took my wheelbarrow and loaded it up with the most rotten bits of Oak that I could find but the rotten bits were attached to much larger bits, it's a good job I go to the gym regularly. I was tired out when I got back and my newly washed jacket was once again covered in mud.
I had quite a few containers to sort out for the beetles because the males will not tolerate each other at all (hence the beetle fighting). It is fine to put several females with one male but certainly no more than one male to a cage. I set up each container with peat on the bottom, rotten wood next and then leaf litter. The beetles really love bananas and so do I, there are always plenty in our fruit bowl. I have also given them some cucumber and tomatoes from my greenhouse but I'm not sure what they will make of them.
The cockroaches that also came in yesterday are a new species to me. I swapped some Green Banana cockroaches for them. They are just nymphs at the moment but it would be good to get them in culture. I really do try to breed everything that I can, I hate animals being taken from the wild.
I spoke to my website guy earlier this week and I have committed myself to a new website. He is working on it now but I have told him that the next two weeks are going to be very busy for me so I don't want it ready to go until mid October. He is a great guy and explains things really well but I am hopeless. I have an 'if I can't see it, it doesn't exist' mentality and I just cannot understand anything mathematical or technical.
Next weekend I will now be having a stand at the annual Amateur Entomologist Society exhibition at Kempton Park. I was going to share a friend's stand and just sell off a few stick insects but we discovered this week that it is not permitted to sub-let tables. I therefore decided that I would go for it and have a stand of my own. I will have three tables upstairs, near the AES Bring & Buy stall. I intend to sell mostly stick insects, cockroaches and grasshoppers but I will also bring along some spiders and scorpions. I have some lovely, larger spiders that need to be seen to sell themselves. I did have tables last year and although it was great to meet people and have a chat, it was difficult to also go around the show and buy new stock. This year I intend to concentrate more on selling than buying. It has been such a poor year for sales, I will of course be looking out for a bargain or two. Times are hard for everyone, I am offered a lot of stock online from customers and other suppliers so it isn't as important as usual for me to attend the show and buy new animals. I'm always saying it but it's true "there are only so many animals that one person can care for". It isn't just animals either, I have a large family, my nephew's two girls were with me yesterday evening and I have all three this afternoon/evening. The youngest finishes pre-school at 12.15, I have already told her that she will be helping me in the bug house this afternoon. In reality I will probably be stuck indoors, she doesn't like bugs any more than the rest of my family. The only person in my family who really likes them is my niece's son and they live in Luxembourg. He will be coming over to 'help' me in half term. The week after the AES show my mother in-law will be having another operation so I will be needed for 'human care' once again. I have to just have a quick moan - I am also looking after my son's two cats while they are on holiday. It is a nightmare, the cats are lovely but they are shut in the living room and this means that my own cat and dog are banished to the rest of the house. One cat is terrified of children and managed to get inside the sofa to hide last night. It was some feat to get her out. They are my son and daughter in-laws's babies and they think that Mum will take better care of them than a cattery. I'm sure I actually said "no" when I was asked! I know I use the word 'me' quite a lot but I do mean just me, my hubby and daughter have not fed the cats once or cleaned the dirt tray. My hubby cannot even tell which one is which, Betsy is ginger and Poppy is black!
I probably shouldn't say this, I don't want to tempt fate but I haven't had any parcels delayed in the post for ages. I would go as far as to say months! I am really pleased that Royal Mail has improved so much but I cannot believe the price of my postal bill each month, I recall a time when I made a profit on each and every parcel and considered it payment for my time spent packing the goods. These days I lose on most parcels and substantially on many. Despite that, I have decided that I can neither put up the postage for the Winter or charge for heat packs in my parcels. I should of course, as my postal charges will be far higher as the weather gets colder but I don't want to lose custom so I have decided to pay the extra myself.
That's it for another week. I think it is very unlikely that I will find time to write my blog next week as I will be preparing and packing bugs for the show. If anyone would like to order online and collect their order from me at the show that will be fine, just let me know.
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