Cracked it!

Cracked it! In desperation I moved my obviously pregnant scorpions into new cages this week, I put them in my office for a couple of days (change of scenery) and then took them for a drive around in the car. The very next day one of the scorpions gave birth and the day after that another gave birth. I really don't know why and I'd love someone to tell me - why do scorpions hang onto their young and only give birth after they have 'been on a journey'? I have lost count of how many times I've posted out a scorpion, only for it to give birth a week or so later. I have had my scorpions for months and in the case of my huge Imperial, well over a year. I have known pregnant scorpions to reabsorb the young or actually die with the young perishing inside them. It is very sad and very puzzling. I will continue to take the remaining scorpions on trips but it is generally either too hot or too cold to leave them in the car and I don't really have any family or friends that would happily allow me to bring my collection of scorpions into their house when I visit them. I really hope to induce my Imperial scorpion. She is so lovely, I don't think she will live much longer if she doesn't 'give up' and produce babies soon. I will let you know next week if I have any success!

The photos of my Mexican holiday! What a saga they have become. It really isn't easy to see them properly on the computer (not once my husband had loaded them onto Snapfish) so we ended up getting 300 prints just so that we could look at them properly. They arrived yesterday and although there are some nice ones, many are out of focus or too dark and are only fit for the bin. I hope my hubby will be able to put some on the blog when I've finished writing this but if not, I give up! To be honest I don't have time for anything at the moment. Yesterday a customer suggested that I could be an agony aunt, he's so right, I feel like I am but I don't get paid for it and it takes up so much of my time. My biggest gripe with working from home is that nobody believes I'm working. I can't really go into details in my blog (you'd be amazed how many people read it - I'm amazed) but yesterday was a nightmare. I had numerous people 'popping in', relatives ringing up and I was very busy as I had end of the week posting to do and two lots of livestock arriving that needed sorting. I also needed to sort the livestock that I collected the day before. I hadn't had a chance because I was looking after my nephew's four year old. She is an absolute angel but it isn't very practical or safe to house up a large number of scorpions and tarantulas with her 'helping'. I prefer her to stick to spraying the stick insects and usually hoovering the floor with my mini Dyson but even that was off limits yesterday as I have lost a tarantula in the bug room. I'm sure it will turn up, at least the new room is completely sealed so it must be somewhere! Whilst looking I realised just how grubby my lovely new bug room has got. There are little spiders everywhere again, they come in on the bramble and breed prolifically in the heat. I need to give everything a good wash down (when I get the time, ha ha!). I do wish I had paid extra and got a darker coloured vinyl for the floor. It's true that I can see escapees easily but I can also see every grain of dirt.

So much for not getting too many new animals before the schools go back! I have bought in scorpions, tarantulas, stick insects, beetles, whip scorpions, millipedes and more this week. Next weekend I am going to a reptile show where I am guaranteed to buy new stock and I have another lot of tarantulas arriving mid week. I need another holiday!

Everything is thriving in the bug house, no thanks to the weather. It has been absolutely boiling so I need to turn everything off (heaters and lights) or torrential rain. The stupid design of my bug house / office roof (built on the side of the house) means that there is a drainage gully running the full length and down the middle. The roof is flat so if the rain is very heavy the water flows over the gully and seeps into my office and bug room. On Tuesday everywhere flooded, I had buckets, newspapers and towels to try and soak up the water. I had to move cages around and it was very difficult to pack up orders. Needless to say I managed but I was not in a good mood. However this weekend I intend to catch up. I am planning to knuckle down and get everything fed and everywhere cleaned (well more realistically, most things fed and some cleaning done). My hubby is working so I intend to plough on. He is off work today so I'm escaping and going up to London. I really want to see the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A but when I tried to book tickets they were sold out, hopefully there may be some tickets available on the door. If not, plan B is to visit the Natural History museum and visit the butterfly exhibition (I bet it won't be as good as Mexico).

Hopefully my hubby will sort out some photos to accompany this blog but if not I will try and get it sorted for next week! The biggest hawkmoth that I have ever seen in my life came out quite well, even though it was high on a wall (I thought of climbing up to get a better picture but I'd had a couple of cocktails so probably not a good idea). My resurrected cicada came out well, I removed it from the pool one morning, it looked drowned so I wrapped it in a tissue and popped in my handbag (as you do). That afternoon I heard a buzzing and realised it was alive and well, I let it go off the balcony. I have lots of photos of the racoons but sadly none of the Coatimundis (my favourites - I still want one) and the spider monkey photos are rubbish as the sun was behind them so the photos are all too dark to get any definition. Anyway I'm rambling on as usual and I need to get ready to go out. Lots of the special offers expired at the end of the month on my website but I am gradually adding new ones. I need to clear some of this new stock!

Photographs of Mexico