Life is good

Life is good, hectic but good. The bugs are doing really well and slowly but surely my plans are coming together. I need to cut down on some of my stock to make more time for Ginny’s Jungle. I have been conscious of what sells and what doesn’t for some time now and also what sells but doesn’t make me any profit but takes up precious time! A good friend rang me excitedly last weekend and told me that he had some Giant African snails for me. I had to explain to him that snails cost far too much to feed and that they are perhaps the only bug that costs me more to keep than I ever make on them. I have my humongous snails Bill and Ben and now they have a few babies that is lovely and I certainly wouldn’t want to take on any more than that.

Tarantulas are by far my best sellers and are easy to keep, easy to pack and easy to show to people who want to come and choose their pet. I have a large selection of species and sizes and this is set to increase. For some time now, I have been buying in the more expensive but also more sought-after ones and this seems to be working well. I would like to have more people call on me, rather than just sending the spiders in the post but with customers up and down the country (and abroad) this clearly isn’t always possible. Mind you ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ as my mum used to say. This week I had a lovely guy come for his second visit to my bug room. He travelled on public transport all the way from the other side of London and has written a super review on my Ginny’s Jungle Facebook page. If you haven’t looked at my Facebook page for Ginny’s Jungle please, please, please have a look and like/share it. I really need to get it out there! My Virginia Cheeseman Facebook page has plenty of ‘likes’ but my other page has a pitifully low number and yet I have had several events booked and Facebook mentioned as the place they heard about me. My daughter and I went to the local primary school party that I mentioned in my last blog, it was incredibly hot, we worked our socks off. Many people took photos of their children handling the animals and promised faithfully that they would like the page and upload their photos but none of them did. It is no secret that I am most upset by this. It is certainly no secret to my family, I haven’t stopped moaning about it!

My stick insect sale is over and all surplus stickies have now gone. I still have some beautiful species but none of the boring, brown, stick like ones. It is a shame because I began all those years ago with stick insects and I still think they are really cute. The first of my Giant Lime Green stick insects have matured this week and they are stunning. I also love the Malaysian Green Jewel species, they are probably the prettiest of them all. I hadn’t realised until I was showing them at the school event last week, that even their antennae are exquisite, they are bright blue when viewed in sunlight. I had to hold onto them though as they are good flyers, both the male and female fly well and we were in a tent on the school playing field. All the animals were very active, one of the Hissing cockroaches leapt up off of a boy’s lap and legged it across the grass. The children were squealing with delight but I was thinking “no, I can’t lose a giant cockroach at the school, I will end up on the front page of the local newspaper, the school will be closed for fumigation etc. etc” J

I have had a few mishaps since I wrote the last blog. Last week I yet again got stung by an Assassin bug, I really need to be more careful, it does hurt and it was on the tip of my ‘typing finger’. My daughter laughs at me only being able to type with one finger and I wish I had learnt to type properly but I haven’t so typing that day was damn sore and then this week I was packing up an Asian scorpion, when it leapt out of its box.  Unfortunately, when I saw it heading for the edge of the table instinct took over and I grabbed it with my hand. What a really stupid thing to do, in all these years I don’t recall ever being stung by a scorpion. I felt a sharp pain immediately and there was no doubt it was a sting, not a nip. The good thing was A: the scorpion was fine and B: I was fine too. I have been told that the sting of these large lack scorpions is no more than a wasp sting and now I can confirm that. I would not recommend being stung because some people are allergic but I don’t suffer from allergies and have never had much of a reaction to any stings. I do sometimes react to mosquito bites (swelling and itching), I can now say that the scorpion sting was nothing in comparison and certainly did not compare to the sting of an Assassin bug. I am now using plastic pots to move the Assassin bugs around, not my fingers!

My mother in-law is taking me on a cruise the week after next. We will be floating around Europe for a week and then spending three nights in Croatia but before that I need to get all my bugs sorted out and ready to survive without me. Yes, the rest of the family will be here but they are neither willing nor able! They just tell me to write everything down but it isn’t that simple, I work mostly on instinct because I am always here, I just do things as they need doing. Hence trying to sell as much as possible beforehand! I have many special offers running so do take a look.

This week’s photo is of more baby spiders, my Haitian Brown egg sac is hatching and from what I can see there are lots of babies in there! I have plenty of Indian Violet babies left and have put their price down to under £5.00. I love to breed my spiders and bugs, I was chatting to a lady yesterday about breeding millipedes and how successful I have been of late. I just need to get the Giant Train millipedes breeding, fingers crossed! She was saying how she hates the idea of animals being taken from the wild, I do too, I have never been tempted to import. Some of my animals have been imported by others but my aim is always to breed them. Perhaps one day I will write a book on my breeding experiences but that really would take time J

And quickly – I am always striving to improve my website and I’m pleased to say that it is now a fully secure site. There was never any problem as PayPal handle any payments on a separate site but I know it worried some people so it is now secure and the little green padlock will appear when you type my web address into your computer.

Also, well done to George who was the winner of my June review competition. There were 11 entries during the month so thank you as always to all those who took part and wrote some lovely reviews. Please keep them coming, you could be the July winner? (I have 3 reviews already this month)