Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Back by popular demand. I have had some really nice emails pointing out that people understand but really miss my weekly blog or weekly whinge as I call it! Anyhow I have decided to keep going but at a slower pace. I aim to write a monthly blog (monthly moan perhaps? J ) I'm also thinking of putting it on my Facebook page and then it could be more interactive. I had an email this week from one of my customers suggesting that I might like to have 'guest bloggers'. I'm not sure I totally understand so feel free to tell me if I have got completely the wrong end of the stick. If anyone wants to write their own blog about their life and bug keeping I would be quite happy to put it on the website. I have of course been very busy with the bugs since last writing. I have many new creatures in my bug room. Last week I had a lot of new stick insects come in. Some are now showing for sale on the website and others I will be keeping for breeding (and some I haven’t had time to put ...

I have so much going on in my life and very little that is suitable for sharing in a blog that is open to all! I'm still plodding along and when things settle down I will get back into the swing of it. I know there are lots of people who enjoy reading my blog at the end of each week but I just need a bit of a break. If you miss my weekly whinge feel free to give me a call, I'm always happy to chat. I did have a lovely break last weekend down in Dorset, we visited Monkey World and went snake hunting along the coast. I actually got to see several adders, as you all know by now I adore snakes so it was fantastic. I put some photos on my Facebook page and I will put one on here too.

It's been a while but I'm back. Operation over and slowly on the mend. Lots of new animals are coming in throughout the next few weeks. I had scorpions, spiders and giant millipedes come in yesterday, I will be sorting them out and getting them listed on the website today and lots of captive bred tarantulas are due next week. I may have been down but certainly not out. My two weeks off were spent catching up on paperwork and generally getting things in order in the bug room as well as convalescing. Everything is looking pretty good now and the bugs and beasties are thriving. I certainly have plenty of captive bred (by me!) millipedes and they are selling well. As always, I have a large number of cockroaches but I have noticed a drop in their sales recently. I have no idea why? At one time, I thought about getting lots more species in (I really like cockroaches, most people go ‘Yuk’ however they are related to the praying mantis and most are really cute if you look at them close...

Sorry no blog this week, I have had an awful lot of family things going on and I am very behind with the animal care, which has to take priority. I will be at the Ideal Home show next Friday but will write my blog again the following week. Spring is fast approaching, the photo is of my front garden bursting into life.

Everything is 'Springing' to life. My male snakes have gone into mating mode as I call it. They are constantly bashing around in their tank both day and night. I have two female and two male Corn snakes but since letting them breed and not being able to even give the babies away, they are kept well apart in separate vivariums. I went into the woods across from where we live yesterday to collect bramble and found that the shoots are growing into pretty, bright green leaves. I have seen it mentioned many times that the new leaves are poisonous to stick insects but I don't recall ever having problems myself. I always try to give my stick insects a mix of old and new leaves but the old leaves are often so dry that the stick insects make a beeline for the new fresh ones. I have plenty of frogspawn appearing in my pond so I'm happy. I have been having a bit of a spring clean in my bug room this week. I never like to put all my eggs in one basket as it were, so I generally hav...