Skip to main content

Half term and bank holiday

Half term and another bank holiday have meant that this week has been very slow for orders. Hopefully next week will see a change as I am inundated with new stock from the recent BTS show and I seriously need to clear some ASAP! I have massively reduced all my male tarantulas today, sadly they are of no use to me as I don't have any corresponding adult females. I was however delighted to see that one of my Tanzanian Blonde Baboon spiders had moulted into a male this week. Some of you may have seen the photo on Facebook of the pair. I will attempt to mate them next week so fingers crossed I'm successful. Not only have I got a lot of stock from the exhibition but my own animals seem to be rapidly reproducing at the moment. I had another Asian Forest scorpion give birth this week and I have plenty of spiderlings, millipedes, cockroaches, grasshoppers etc. etc.

I won't be around tomorrow as I am taking my sister to Tiggywinkles. The trip was already planned but it was a strange coincidence last night when we saw a hedgehog in our garden. Our daughter saw two hedgehogs in the garden when we were in Cyprus but I hadn't seen them (I haven't seen one in years). It was very exciting, however today when I picked some salad for tea I realised how the slugs had been munching on my lettuces, as I daren't put slug pellets down. Never mind, I can feed my lettuces to the bugs (they don't care about the holes and slime) and buy a lettuce at Tesco. I would much rather have hedgehogs than lettuces in my garden!

I am writing this blog a day early yet again. It seems to have turned into the Thursday evening blog rather than Friday morning. This is because I can't post orders on a Friday so it is my 'out and about day' and now that my hubby is only off at weekends in his current job, it falls on me to walk the dog and do all the other household chores first. I have in fact abandoned the ironing to get this blog written, as my mum used to say a "woman's work is never done".

I noticed in this month's Practical Reptile Keeping magazine that one of the reader's photos was of a Black Beauty stick insect that has a front leg missing. I can only assume that the monthly competition run by the magazine doesn't have enough photos of bugs to publish. It is a nice photo and probably most people wouldn't notice but I think everyone should get a copy of the magazine and send in an entry for next month! It's a great magazine, I get it on subscription and have been buying it from the start. It is very well produced and there are always articles that interest me (just read that back, I would like to point out that I am not on commission). You just need to send in a photo of your pet spider, reptile or bug. If you do win please let me know. You all know by now how much I like competitions.

I think this blog is probably a bit shorter than usual but I do need to get on with the ironing and I still have to put the bugs to bed. Looking at my diary for next Friday the morning is clear (at the moment) so I will try harder. I am trying harder with Facebook but it is still hit and miss if I notice messages sent to me. My hubby is out with friends on Sunday so I intend to catch up on non essential tasks and Facebook messages are certainly on that list. In the mean time feel free to email me, you will definitely get a quicker reply. I am running behind this week as last weekend was taken up by family birthday celebrations, Monday was bank holiday and tomorrow I am out but hopefully I will catch up this weekend. You will notice that I have given up on weekends off. When my hubby changed jobs that was the plan but one of the things when working with anything live is that it is seven days a week. Especially if you work on your own!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A surreal week indeed!

A surreal week indeed! I sent off my last orders on Monday and the remainder of my bugs will be leaving me on Friday. So many people are congratulating me on my retirement but I prefer the good luck messages. I didn’t think I would ever retire but it all became too much, not just for me but my family too. Our home was taken over by my work. The bug room was my domain but the rest of the house had gradually filled up with ‘stuff’, plastic boxes, cardboard boxes, tanks etc. and I never ever had any time. Whatever task I was doing, I was always thinking of the next job on the list. People keep asking what I am going to do with my time now. In the short term I will be clearing everything out, especially the loft which is full to the brim. I’m a bit of a hoarder so that really doesn’t help 😄 Lack of time was indeed the main factor for finishing my business but there was also the constant “I only want a female tarantula” 😤, leaving Europe was a big blow, Covid, the animal welfare licensin...
3 comments
Read more

My biggest announcement ever!

My biggest announcement ever! It is with a heavy heart that I am informing everyone of my impending retirement as “The Bug Lady”. I have been running my business for approximately 45 years so it has been pretty good J Things change over the years, I was one of the only bug dealers in the early days and possibly the only woman but these days, every man and his dog is selling tarantulas and “proper bugs” seem to have fallen out of favour. I have been cutting down on stock for some time and had hoped to keep going without the tarantulas but it hasn’t worked out. I expect to fully retire by the end of this year but a lot depends on my wonderful customers (you!) as I need to sell off a large number of little creatures. I still have 24 species of tarantula (multiple numbers of most), millipedes, cockroaches, isopods, scorpions, slugs etc. Do take a look on my website, once they are gone, they are gone! If you want to help me, please spread the word to all your bug mad friends. I have lots of...
7 comments
Read more

Getting there!

Getting there! My plans for retirement are going pretty well, I cannot believe all the wonderful messages that I have received over the last few weeks, many of them have had me in tears. It is very emotional to give up my little friends after a lifetime of keeping them and my human friends too but the time is right so I will keep plodding on until everything has gone. I won’t be changing my phone number and I hope to keep my email address, therefore, those who want to, can stay in touch. I had planned for a big sale on September 1st but orders are still going strong so an all-out clearance sale doesn’t sound such a great idea. I have decided instead to reduce items individually but I do keep changing my mind J It is really difficult to retire over a period of time, I couldn’t make the decision and then stop, like most people are able to. I can’t set a date in the future because I simply don’t know when sales will dry up. The idea of an open day sadly became unworkable, I just don’t hav...
1 comment
Read more