It's been a while!

It's been a while! Seems ages since I wrote my last blog. I have been concentrating on getting 'Ginny's Jungle parties' off the ground and I have my first party booked! I have also been concentrating on caring for family members who are sadly in very poor health.

My bug room still seems pretty full despite the fact that I have cut back on the number of animals I keep. I haven't brought in as many but as usual I am breeding any that I possibly can. It is still fun and exciting to breed my bugs, even after all these years. Just yesterday I was feeding my multitude of larger tarantulas and thinking how beautiful they look after a moult. My largest Giant Columbian Red Leg (Megaphobema robustum) had shed and looked stunning. I have some new creatures arriving next week (probably Tuesday), tarantulas, scorpions and millipedes.

I did have an unfortunate bug related incident last week. It was the Tuesday after the bank holiday and I was packing up orders when I realised that the tubs I needed were in the shed at the bottom of the garden. I popped down to the shed, put my hand into the box containing the tubs and felt a searing pain. I instantly realised that I had stuck my hand into a wasp's nest. I quickly retreated and shut the shed door. I didn't know how many stings I had received so I took an antihistamine but I was fine, it just hurt! I have now ordered a bee keeper’s outfit from Amazon so that I can get into the shed and retrieve the tubs. A couple of days later a guy working on the house next door called me over to point out that I have a wasp’s nest in my shed. I replied “you don’t say”! Anyway he thought I was bonkers when I said I like wasps and they are not doing any harm. It got me thinking so I did a google search, yes I think he’s right, nobody but me likes wasps. Every search came up with a method of eradicating them. It took me back to a couple of years ago when I went to a local talk about moles. It turned out to be a talk given by a mole exterminator, I was furious as it was advertised for nature lovers. At the time we had a mole in our front garden and I wanted to know how to look after it! Live and let live is my motto on most things. I do still like wasps, I think they are pretty and they wouldn’t have stung me if I hadn’t thrust my hand into their home.

Millipedes seem to be a big hit at the moment and I was delighted to see that my Madagascar Ringed millipedes have produced a multitude of tiny babies (you might have seen them on my Facebook page). It’s strange how some millipedes readily breed in captivity and others just won’t but I will keep trying. I found just two tiny babies in my Madagascar Fire millipede box last week. This is a species that I have never managed to breed, despite keeping them many times over the years. The problem is that the entire box is covered in mould so I had to sort through it. I don’t know what this white mould is but I’m sure it comes from the coir that I am forced to use, since I can’t buy peat anymore. I have now hung onto the old substrate ‘just in case’ and put the babies and adults into a new ‘clean’ box. I hate coir! I’ve had terrible problems with mould in my millipede boxes this summer. I say terrible problem but it doesn’t appear to harm the millipedes at all but I’m sure it isn’t good for me to breathe in so I’ve bought some protective masks from (can you guess?) Amazon. I just can’t believe how cheap things are on Amazon and there’s free delivery as well. I honestly don’t know how they do it but I think I’m getting addicted! I won’t bore you with all the things I have bought off of Amazon in the last few weeks but I’m thinking it will be an Amazon Christmas this year Ho-Ho-Ho.

Anyway I had better get a move on, I have to set off and get over to my sister’s house soon. We have birthday presents to buy, next week it is my niece’s, brother, best friend, son, daughter in-law and great-nephew’s birthdays. That’s a lot of birthdays in a week.

Forgot to say, my Horned Baboon (Ceratogyrus darling) egg sac has just hatched. I will take a quick photo and put it on here. I will need the tubs from the shed to house them all up. The trouble is that I was too mean to pay for express delivery and chose the free delivery route which means a wait of a couple of weeks, I think my bee outfit is actually arriving from China.