Spring is in the air at last

Spring is in the air at last, only 24 days to go but who's counting J. My garden is full of snowdrops, crocuses and primroses (the weeds are also appearing unfortunately). The bugs are doing well, some will breed all year round but many seem to wait for the spring. I assume it is the longer, brighter, days that triggers them off as the bug room is hot all year round.

I was feeding the Tail-less Whip scorpions a few days ago and checked to see how many were pregnant. They are fascinating creatures with a pouch beneath their abdomen, you can clearly see the eggs incubating and as the nymphs grow the pouch enlarges and then it seems to burst into life with tiny but perfectly formed babies. The babies sit on their mother's back for a few weeks like other scorpions but of course although they are arachnids they are not really scorpions at all. Some people call them Whip spiders but they are actually Amblypygids. They are fascinating and active creatures but I don't think a lot is known about them. They are said to live in caves in the wild and in captivity they seem quite happy to live in a vivarium with plenty of hides such as coconut shells and cork bark.

I appreciated the comment from Richard that he posted on last week's blog. I honestly haven't read anything that I don't like about Costa Rica. I remember that a guy who worked at the London Butterfly House in the 1980's went to live in Costa Rica and set up a butterfly house out there. I wonder if it is still going? I will certainly attempt to find out. His name was Tom Fox, anyone know of him?

I am still trying hard with all this technology and social media. I'm learning things as I go along with my Apple Watch. I did see a bit of a tutorial on YouTube but it was heavy going so I got bored and wandered off. I seem to have forgotten all about Instagram, I’m not too sure what the point of posting pretty pictures is (sorry, I just don’t get it). I have joined LinkedIn but I haven’t yet put any information or even a photo on it. I probably will but I only joined to get access when I was attempting to track somebody down. This had nothing to do with work, a friend was being scammed on Facebook and my detective work actually paid off as I did get the information we needed. My daughter loves the American program Catfish and I must say it is quite addictive watching it. Perhaps I will give up the bugs and become a Catfish hunter (or maybe not). I’m getting quite good with Facebook, I posted some photos of my favourite tarantulas this week. I was feeding them and just thinking how beautiful they are, especially just after a moult when they have a lovely new fur coat. Some of their colours are stunning, I love the iridescent sheen that many of the arboreal spiders have. My three Saint Vincent (Tapinauchenius sanctivincenti) are stunning, unfortunately I have ended up with three adult females and no male. I know they are adult females as they all look the same and one has spun an egg sac and is lovingly looking after it but of course it is infertile which really is a shame. I’m not sure why some tarantulas have “phantom pregnancies” but again I have found this to be most prevalent among the arboreal species.

It is nearly the end of the month so coming up to my second ‘review’ prize draw. There are only half a dozen entries this month so if you haven’t yet reviewed an animal or product that you have purchased from me then please do so now, you still have until next Wednesday. I think this may be the first and last “who can find any mistakes on my website” draw as there are literally just two entries in that one. I suppose it’s good in one way if nobody can find any mistakes but I think there are bound to be plenty of mistakes and nobody is looking!

Anyway, that’s another week over but I’m sure I will find plenty to talk about again next week. I have many problems but finding something to say is certainly not one of them. I’m off out into the garden now to check my fish pond for frogs. If you are a regular reader you may remember that I gave away all our giant fish last summer. They were here when we moved in, were very boring but most importantly they ate every tadpole that emerged from the frogspawn. A friend with a huge garden and big pond took them so they are fine and I’m really hoping for a pond full of tadpoles this year. I love frogs and although I have several ponds they always lay their eggs in the fish pond. Last year I spent ages moving lumps of jellied spawn to my other ponds and giving it to anyone who wanted it. This year I intend to sit next to the pond with a Bacardi and coke in hand listening to the frog chorus in the evenings (it might need to be a bit warmer first!).