Snug as a bug

Snug as a bug, well at least my mini zoo is happy in it’s well insulated bug room. It is freezing (literally) outside now. I suppose it had to happen, I know it’s winter but I was thinking we could just coast along, enjoying the mild weather until the spring. I just hope we don’t have any more power cuts, evidently the recent one was due to a pheasant flying into an electricity cable. I have spent quite a bit of time in my warm bug room this week and everything is looking pretty good. I am trying hard to concentrate on what I’ve got and get everything sorted before I restock at the end of the month. I just seem to have so many animals and of course they all have their different needs. It would be so much easier if I just had one or two types of bugs, say spiders and scorpions or all stick insects or all millipedes but as you know I have a huge range. Oh well ‘variety is the spice of life’ as they say.

I was pleased to discover over Christmas that my Burma Chocolate Brown female is carrying around a nice fat egg sac. I actually left the male in the same tank with her for weeks and he is still alive today! I am trying to look on the daily question of “do you have a female tarantula?” as being like when my mum had Alzheimer’s disease. I was really good at being kind and patient as I realised on each occasion that although she was asking me the same question over and over again, to her it was the first time she had asked it. But it is tough going and I don’t know where it will end. I have a couple of cut and paste phases that I send but I do sometimes feel that it is ruining the whole hobby. Who are these people that have the time and skill to sex every spider and what do they do with the males that nobody wants? Adult male tarantulas may not live as long as females but they are often more brightly coloured and active and are interesting to watch and enjoy as a pet. I don’t want to know how to sex spiders, I put just as much effort into the males as females and it’s a natural 50/50 chance of having a male or female tarantula from me. I don’t want to have to destroy the males and I’m not prepared to lie and tell people that the spider I’m sending is a female but at times it is sorely tempting and I know that others do just that! If you want to ask me about any of my large size tarantulas, I can sometimes have an educated guess on the sex, there is no guarantee but at least I will be honest! Until they get to that size, I really have no idea at all.

I have finished sorting out all my little Desert scorpion babies this week, they are now in individual pots. I’m not sure if it was strictly necessary but some were looking suspiciously fatter than others! All the baby Asian Forest are getting bigger and I’ve seen no signs of cannibalism with them, the Flat Rock and Shiny Burrowing babies are also doing fine together. It is so much easier to feed them as a group than individually (as I’m sure you can imagine). I find that feeding maggots is a cheaper alternative to crickets. I buy the maggots from a fishing shop and they can live in the fridge for weeks. I put a few in with the scorpions about twice a week and they eat both the maggots and the adult flies. The flies take about ten days to hatch so it is quite easy to arrange a continual supply of food and very useful if you are going away on holiday. I no longer keep praying mantis but when I did, this method of feeding them worked very well. Spiderlings can also be fed this way but you do need to take care that mould doesn’t build up if your tubs get a bit too warm and humid. I do sometimes feed the adult flies to my spiderlings, the arboreal species seem to especially enjoy them and it gives the spider a good run around to!

I went to the London Travel show and Boat show last Sunday, it was great fun. I introduced my friend to the ‘world of competitions’, we entered all the prize draws and my friend was convinced that we would win something. I told her that I’m going to give up work and become a “professional dreamer” as you all know by now I love competitions and have won some amazing prizes over the years (I did indeed win a cruise from a travel show draw a couple of years ago). Only this week I won a Smart kettle, it has different temperature settings for different drinks (another gadget that I need to learn how to work). Sadly, I don’t think I could make a living out of competitions, it would be even less profitable than keeping bugs! On that note I really must get moving with my “Ginny’s Jungle parties”, I’ve got some great photos of my practice parties, I really need to get the flyers sorted. I have been looking on the internet at designs but I don’t have a clue where to start so I think it is a case of visiting a print shop and paying someone to do it for me. I have the ideas but they are in my head and they clearly need to be on a piece of paper!

Must get a move on, I was a bit late starting the blog this morning and there are lots of spiders waiting to be fed. I did two shelves yesterday and have three shelves to go. I must get them fed today as Saturday is a new week in the bug room and a new sticker colour. I can’t have some spiders with a yellow feeding sticker and some with next week’s colour, that would really put me out. Oh yes, I like to be organised and as hubby is always saying I am indeed a control freak but it’s a trait I need to keep going or I might sit down and watch daytime telly and then where would the bugs be?