How honest should I be?

How honest should I be? Oh well, I always tell the truth so here goes. I am sitting on the terrace at our favourite hotel in Cyprus as I write this. It is boiling hot and the bright blue sea is calm and beautiful. Absolutely perfect :) But life at home is not perfect, it is chaotic and non-stop (I have the ulcer and insomnia to prove it). I love my bugs and my super customers but things have got to change. I have been trying to slow things down for a while now but come February, I finally get my pension and after Christmas I will be looking after my gorgeous grandson Milo when my daughter returns to work. It will only be one or two days a week but I am also carer to my mother in-law with dementia and there are others in the family who require my help (I cannot elaborate in an open blog).

I am under a lot of pressure to give up the bugs but I don’t want to. I have many breeding projects in progress, especially with the arachnids and millipedes. However, things cannot go on the way they are. I have developed this crazy business over many many years but there is still only one of me and it is all consuming. I will be looking at what sells and what doesn’t and cut down accordingly. I gave up the time consuming stick insects and praying mantis some time ago and although I love them both, I haven’t missed keeping them at all.

I intend to just cut things down to a more reasonable level, drift along and see what happens. My hope is that I can keep going this way but really it is up to my customers. Since adding Trust Pilot to the website, the wonderful 5 star reviews that I frequently receive are amazing and heartwarming. I appreciate each and every one and they certainly spur me on. In this busy world it is almost impossible to contact anyone in person and I know from my reviews that my personal approach is one of the reasons that my business is still going strong after all these years. I am always happy to chat on the phone and give advice on care and individual species but I must admit that the large number of emails I receive is a different matter. So many are along the same lines “I only want a female tarantula” my reply - “I don’t sex tarantulas” (would like to reply - don’t we all!), “have you got xyz” - my reply, the information is on my website (would like to reply - please look at the website before contacting me!). You get the idea, I could go on about people asking for info on things I don’t keep eg. reptiles and animals that they have bought elsewhere etc. Anyway, I hate to ignore emails but moving forward I think I’m going to need to (a bit).

I do understand why people ask my advice, the information may well be there on the internet but finding it is something else! Often the advice given is so conflicting. I really am happy to talk on the phone, I stick my wonderful Air Pods in and carry on :) Just before we came away I listened to advice on the internet and it was a stupid thing to do. I had been waiting forever for the egg sac to hatch from my lovely Dominican Purple tarantula (Phormictopus species). There was no sign of hatching but she seemed to be caring for her brood perfectly. Anyway, after consulting Google I was convinced that hatching was way overdue and I should open the egg sac. Patience is a virtue and confidence is key but I ignored the evidence, opened the egg sac and was then left with the most gorgeous little eggs with legs. What a ‘beep beep’ idiot, I was now left with my prized spiderlings just as I was about to go on holiday for 12 days. Normally I would have tended them daily but I had to set them up as best I could and cross my fingers. I am now halfway through my holiday and my daughter says they are doing fine.

There was a discussion on my Facebook page recently about going on holiday and what to do about care. What could I say, it’s a nightmare and I involve everyone when I go away :) My daughter is in charge of bugs, her partner is back garden waterer, neighbour opposite is front garden waterer and in charge of bins and various others also have their roles. I love my garden, the plants and the wildlife in it. Felice will be missing me but nobody wanted to feed her for me (if you want to know you will have to call me, I’m not telling everyone). It’s a real responsibility for my daughter, one of my beloved snakes is so old that he can’t live much longer (his partner died of old age two years ago). I told her that he should be ok as he ate a small mouse before I left but if not, put his body in the freezer and I will bury him when I get home. She says there is no way she would put him in the freezer just in case he was still alive. I told her that she would know if he was alive or dead but I just have to say that the night before we came away I had a frantic call from my daughter in-law, their cat had brought in a snake and my son was at work. She sent a photo so I reassured her that it was only a grass snake and told her to put it in a box with something on the lid. She was sure it was dead but I wasn’t. We drove over, had the big reveal with Bob aged four standing by. Sure enough the snake was very much alive and had squeezed out of a small hole in the box. As most of you will know by now, I adore snakes. Cyprus was once known as the island of the snakes but sadly no longer. Almost every Cypriot seems to hate snakes and they are deliberately killed. This year we haven’t seen any, it is looking like the hottest year on record, I hope they are just hiding from the heat. The heat has had a devastating effect here, the plants are dying, the local damn is almost empty and the bushes all around the area are infested with mealy bugs. Sadly, no flowers, no butterflies and I haven’t even seen a single Hummingbird hawk moth but it’s still amazing here and there are several days to go until we return home.

That’s all for now the sea is calling me. My hubby left me to it ages ago. If I find any snakes this blog will be updated. I have found a few interesting bugs, I will put the photos on Facebook upon my return.

Update – Arrived home at 5am this morning! No snakes seen but my eggs with legs are moulting into proper spiderlings so all is well. Just have to sort through a mountain of admin and feed/clean everything all over again J