Sales are picking up now

Sales are picking up now (thank goodness). Pre-Christmas is an awful time for my work, the orders dry up and I’m left looking after a multitude of animals that are reproducing but going nowhere! This week I have received several orders from schools and from people who visit schools with their animals. I’m a day late with the blog as the week has been very difficult on a personal level. I can honestly say that this is the saddest January I have ever experienced. All around me seems to be ill health and friends and family needing my help. I haven’t even had time to go in the gym and that is pretty desperate as it is my sanctuary where I generally retreat to at least every other day. I even got a call from the gym yesterday asking where I was!

The bugs are mostly doing fine but my beautiful Burma Chocolate Brown tarantula appears to have eaten her egg sac. I searched the vivarium a couple of days ago thinking it may have hatched and hoping to see a flurry of tiny spiderlings but all I found was one lonely ‘fat’ spider. I will clean out the vivarium this weekend (she is going back into her previous box in disgrace) and get it ready for some Hermit crabs that I will be picking up next weekend. I love Hermit crabs, they are so cute and will be perfect for my children’s parties (if I ever get time to launch the business). I may not be able to write a blog next Friday as hubby and I have a couple of nights away booked. The trip was organised some months ago and will incorporate a bug show so the following week will see many new creatures on my website BUT I must be sensible and not go too mad as there is only one of me and I am already spread rather thinly at the moment. It should be a good break and hopefully hubby and I will get time to recharge our batteries plus the hotel does have a gym!

I will be writing out my bug ‘shopping list’ for the show this week. I have several sought after tarantula species to look out for and I hope to get some Giant Train millipedes, they are always popular as pets and for exhibitions. I did really well breeding my scorpions in 2015, I think they are beautiful and fascinating creatures but I mustn’t get carried away as not everyone shares my enthusiasm, they are nothing like as popular as tarantulas. I will also be selective about which new stick insects I purchase, I could do with some smaller Jungle Nymphs (my favourite stick insect of all time) and some Giant Pricklys (Extatosoma tiaratum). Talking of stick insects – I received a parcel last week which I was not expecting and turned out to be full of Indian stick insects. I am generally happy to take peoples excess stock but it is unfair on the animals and me to not arrange this in advance. Thankfully I was around but if I had been away my family would not have had a clue what to do with them.

Once again we have been rearranging areas of my bug room (sadly it never seems to make the room any bigger). My hubby fitted a tube heater close to the outer door which we hope will mean that the space is more usable as it has been too cold and damp to use effectively. Unfortunately we hadn’t thought about a plug socket and then realised there was nowhere free to plug the heater in. I set off to Tesco with my mother in-law that day but all the extension leads were too short or had too few plug holes (the timers for the lights take up the space of two plug holes on the lead). I then ended up going to Homebase where they had a huge number of fancy extension leads but nothing that I could see with a long lead and six plug sockets. I got on my mobile and had a good moan to hubby who had just come in from work (and didn’t want to go out again). Then thanks to all my whinging a guy also shopping there came to my aid and pointed out that there were more on the other side, he then helped me find the one I needed. I must admit that after all that I haven’t actually had time to rearrange the area but at least it is warm now!

One thing that I am pleased with myself about is that I am finally getting on with the task of entering more care advice on my website. I have been trying to add a “How I keep mine” piece each day. It is really hard to explain how to keep a cold blooded animal without actually seeing the set up that they live in. So much depends on the surroundings, it is easy to give advice in a warm room that doesn’t get too dry but not so easy if the temperature and humidity alter drastically as they frequently do in a centrally heated room at this time of the year. Heating is always an issue, I wish I could come up with something that was better than a heat mat. I’m sure others have tried but there doesn’t seem to be any real alternative at the moment. People so often tell me that their room is lovely and warm but then when I question them further it transpires that their heating goes off at night. This is no good for cold blooded animals as they clearly cannot generate their own heat and will perish. Roll on the Spring, how many days is it now?

Anyway I must get a move on, I got up super early today and it is still pretty dark outside. Thankfully it is the weekend and hubby is here to walk Teddi, I got drowned yesterday morning in the park, it’s his turn (not sure he would agree as he did the evening walk).