The Olympics and Paralympics are finally over, it was great fun but now I need to knuckle down and sort out my bug business. I was away so much last week that this week has been absolutely crazy. Firstly last week we had a family day out on the Wednesday before my nephew's children went back to school the following day, Thursday was unfortunately my lovely next door neighbour's funeral and Friday/Saturday my daughter and I were up in London at the Paralympics courtesy of my Cadbury competition win. This week has been far less eventful but just as busy. I can't spend too long writing this blog as I have a mountain of emails to answer, phone calls to make, bugs to feed and lots of cockroaches to count and pack. I have a customer coming over to collect them at lunch time. It takes ages to sort out 200 Hissing cockroaches, 50 Cuban Burrowing cockroaches and a few tubs of various species. It is certainly good to be busy again!
I cannot believe how poor my sales were during July and August but September is looking good and we are half way through the month (it is my son's birthday today). The new website is definitely going ahead, I will call my web guy next week and get the ball rolling. I just hope I can get the hang of it ok, it took me long enough to understand this one but I have been assured that the two sites can run at the same time until I am confident that everything is ok. I am extremely pleased that all the information on my website can be transferred across without me needing to re-enter it (when would I ever find the time to carry out such a lengthy task?). It is so difficult to explain to people what I actually do and how busy my daily life is. I get some lovely feedback from my customers and it is always appreciated. I very rarely get any negative comments but of course being the world's worst worrier, I really take it heart when I do. Yesterday I had an email from a lady who had just received a 'despatched' notice from my website. She was livid that her order had not been sent the day before and was demanding a refund on her postage. I sent a polite reply (my husband was off work yesterday and wanted to send an impolite reply) pointing out that I cannot send orders each day and that this is explained in my terms. I did not in fact send out any orders on Wednesday as I didn't have the time. I spent much of the day with my disabled mother in-law who is awaiting another operation in a few weeks. My work and home life are both pretty demanding. I wish I could explain to people just how long it takes each week to simply maintain my collection of animals. I cannot believe the length of time I spend cleaning and washing cages and containers, each and every day. It is so important to maintain the cages as it is easy for them to be overlooked and this can result in the death of animals. Temperature and humidity are vital for the survival of little animals in cages. They can become too hot and dry out or too cool and damp, then fungus can soon develop. I do of course have my weekly 'tick list' but I am sometimes up against it to finish every task.
I would love to cut down on the amount of cages I have but it is very difficult. I am, as I have said before, cutting back on stick insects before the Winter but if I put them in together it is sometimes impossible to tell them apart. I now have a large net cage with many species in it, lots are lovely spiky ones but I can no longer be sure which species they are! Many look very alike, especially when they are young. I am selling them as 'mixed' but have sold very few as most people want to know the species they are getting. I am being very careful to keep the Eurycantha calcarata and Eurycantha coriacia in separate cages, they are quite different as adults but impossible to tell apart as nymphs. Although I no longer have a stand at exhibitions I am hoping to sell some excess stick insects on a friend's stand next month. It will be great to cut down on numbers before collecting bramble becomes a major chore again, in the cold, wet and sometimes snow.
A few quick notes from my bug house before I get out there and the day really begins. I released my Cameroon Baboon male into the female spiders tank but he promptly ran into her burrow. I was horrified and sure that he was gone for good. She is a monster who always greets me with her fangs held high, dripping with venom (just like you see in photos). I was amazed a few days later when I checked on her tank and found the male sitting in a flowerpot completely unharmed! He is now called Houdini. I have decided to stop selling Bean Weevils, they are such a trial. They all hatch at once and don't live long, I was forever starting new cultures but of course everyone wants them as the adult beetle stage and when they were at that stage I didn't have enough orders and they were just dying on me. I purchased a large number of Pumpkin Patch spiderlings back in July, they were a good price and I expected them to sell quickly. I am therefore mystified that I have sold just one! (if you know why please let me know). I bought just two earlier this year and sold them at three times the price that I am selling them at now, they sold within a week. Is the market flooded with these pretty little tarantulas? What a waste of my time it is to continue caring for them but what else can I do? I have invested so much time and money in them that I cannot simply give them away.
The bug house is looking pretty good, hubby helped me give it a clean yesterday. He vacuumed the floor while I washed the shelves. He will vacuum the floor because it doesn't entail touching anything. Most people don't realise just how uninterested and in some cases petrified, my family really are of my little friends! (That's why the bug house is at the far end of our garden).I do wish people would read my terms and conditions before ordering and realise that I am just one person doing my best to be managing director all the way through to chief bottle washer!
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