Deserted!

Deserted! My hubby is off whizzing around Spain on his annual motorbike trip with his friends and my daughter is in France to see the Le Mans 24 hour car race. I must admit I don't fancy either but it is sad that my whole family like mechanical and technical things and have little interest in nature, which of course is my passion. Never mind, I have joined a local natural history group this week and I'm going on a Glow Worm and bat walk - so much more fun!

The bugs seem to be doing well, I am still finding runaway Orange Baboon spiderlings from last week's breakout in my bug room. I have left the male Tanzanian Blonde Baboon spider in with my female. They seem happy and let's face it nobody else is likely to want him anyway. Hopefully they will reproduce, the female is a lovely healthy specimen.

I have lots of baby millipedes of various species and re-housing them is high on my list of things to do this weekend. If the tiny babies are near the vents in the boxes it seems they just dry up. I'm really not sure why they don't move to a more moist part of the box but they just don't (very odd). Anyway I have sorted out some new boxes with no vents on the side, the only ventilation is in the lid so hopefully I will solve this recurrent problem. I will just have to try and not let them get too damp now! I have had a lot of success breeding millipedes over the last couple of years. I got fed up with most pet millipedes being imported as adults so I did my best to recreate the right conditions for them. The ones that still elude me are the Giant Train millipedes and the Pill millipedes. I would love to breed them but so far I have just three Giant Train babies and I have never seen or heard of anyone breeding the Pill millipedes. I am certainly realising that not all millipedes enjoy the traditional damp environment. My Train millipedes seem far happier in an open Exo Terra vivarium with branches to climb and a light on during the day and the pretty Giant Orange Blush millipedes always seem to congregate in the drier areas of their enclosure. However, many of the smaller species do thrive and reproduce rapidly in the damp, slimy 'forest floor' type enclosure, these millipedes feed almost exclusively on leaves and rotten wood. Possibly the key is in the food, the larger species eat more fruit/vegetables and in the case of the Train millipedes meat (they are quite partial to a little dried dog food and really enjoy moist, sachet dog food).

My nine year old great-niece was sitting at my desk with me yesterday and reading my 'tick list' (daily jobs to do that I tick off as I complete them). She was horrified to see 'squash spiders' on there but honestly it is vital that I try and control the ordinary British spiders that invade my bug room. They hide under the shelving everywhere and of course if they lay an egg sac, that's hundreds of new ones! I cleaned out my Horse-Head grasshoppers last week but their large tank always seems to have some in there. I just see the newly hatched nymphs dangling lifeless in the corners of the cage in the morning. I rarely see the offending spider but I try to keep on top of the problem.

Talking of problems I have just glanced at the time and realised that I have to walk Teddi and be out in less than an hour! (I'm not even dressed, one of the perks of working alone and from home - that doesn't sound good, I mean I'm still in my night clothes) I have to pick up my mother in-law and get into town for an opticians appointment - better go! Everything else will have to wait until next week. Must just say that my most beautiful Emerald Skeleton Tarantula that I put on Facebook not long ago, has moulted into a boring brown, leggy adult male. Not impressed, I felt sure it was female!