Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Getting there! My plans for retirement are going pretty well, I cannot believe all the wonderful messages that I have received over the last few weeks, many of them have had me in tears. It is very emotional to give up my little friends after a lifetime of keeping them and my human friends too but the time is right so I will keep plodding on until everything has gone. I won’t be changing my phone number and I hope to keep my email address, therefore, those who want to, can stay in touch. I had planned for a big sale on September 1st but orders are still going strong so an all-out clearance sale doesn’t sound such a great idea. I have decided instead to reduce items individually but I do keep changing my mind J It is really difficult to retire over a period of time, I couldn’t make the decision and then stop, like most people are able to. I can’t set a date in the future because I simply don’t know when sales will dry up. The idea of an open day sadly became unworkable, I just don’t hav...

My biggest announcement ever! It is with a heavy heart that I am informing everyone of my impending retirement as “The Bug Lady”. I have been running my business for approximately 45 years so it has been pretty good J Things change over the years, I was one of the only bug dealers in the early days and possibly the only woman but these days, every man and his dog is selling tarantulas and “proper bugs” seem to have fallen out of favour. I have been cutting down on stock for some time and had hoped to keep going without the tarantulas but it hasn’t worked out. I expect to fully retire by the end of this year but a lot depends on my wonderful customers (you!) as I need to sell off a large number of little creatures. I still have 24 species of tarantula (multiple numbers of most), millipedes, cockroaches, isopods, scorpions, slugs etc. Do take a look on my website, once they are gone, they are gone! If you want to help me, please spread the word to all your bug mad friends. I have lots of...

It’s driving me crazy! I only want a female, can you sort me out a female, is it female, aghh! I hear this day in and day out, which is why I’m giving up on tarantulas after all these years. I’m always concerned about how honest I should be in my blog but I can’t help being honest and outspoken, it’s just me! I used to state that my USP (unique selling point) was that I don’t lie but I thought it looked rude on my website and not everybody lies, but at times I understand and cannot really blame people for lying about sexing tarantulas. It is not that simple AND most importantly what are people doing with all their unwanted males? I clearly lose very many orders because I refuse to sex my spiders. I have sometimes reared my tarantulas for several years. They are all treated with the same love and care, tending them weekly and for what? I’m as disappointed as everyone else when one of my beauties matures into a male but such is life, there’s a fifty-fifty chance. Surely, they are pets an...

This quote just came to me as I was thinking of a title for the post, it seems very appropriate and comes from "The A-Team" from way back in the 1980s, it was spoken by the character Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, the late, great George Peppard. My plan is indeed coming together and going very well, both January and February have been really busy months, despite me selling off my tarantula collection. I have reduced things down considerably but I am way off giving up on tarantulas just yet. Having one posting day a week seems a long way off too. I’m not actually sure I could ever have just the one day to post orders. I am currently posting out on a Monday and Wednesday and it is going fine. Spring is now just around the corner, the first day of March tomorrow J It seems to have been a very long, damp, dark winter. As you all know by now, I absolutely hate the cold! We are booked to go away to Cyprus in May, I can’t wait (should be a good time for bugs, flowers and m...

Happy New Year everyone, 2025 seems like the perfect time to contemplate retirement as I have been running my bug business for 45 years! So, I have thought about it and don’t much like the idea J I have instead decided that working part time sounds much better! My plan is to work just three or four days a week, not six or seven, it would be great to have a distinction between the week and the weekend. I have been trying to cut down for some time and it just hasn’t worked out. I have realised that keeping tarantulas is a major stress to me, if I were to be incapacitated, I have absolutely no backup. I have to face facts that I am not getting any younger. My family and friends would not have a clue how to look after my spider collection. Times have changed, tarantulas have become mainstream pets and the market is pretty much flooded. I have a wonderful collection but I will gradually be phasing them out. I always have far more than are shown on my website as some are in the process of br...

All going well J I have just re-read my last blog entry (I don’t usually). Wow, it was spot on! I wrote it when I was on holiday in Cyprus and it shows. Away from the chaos of home, I clearly had time to think and put it all down in words. I have been true to my word and have been cutting back on animals and paperwork since returning from our holiday. I feel much better for it and I still have a crazy number of bugs to care for, especially tarantulas. I have been working on sales and last month was excellent. I started the month with a 10% discount off all items sold through my website and it was so successful that I continued it throughout the entire month. This month I am concentrating on tarantulas and have the “make me an offer on tarantulas” running. I am still trying to get down to a number whereby I can carry out a proper stock take and sort out exact numbers. I feed them all once a week (different sizes on different days) but it takes so long that I can’t find the time needed t...

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 ...

Making a start on the blog but not sure how long I have with my little grandson in his bouncy chair. Unfortunately, Milo’s dad had an accident at work this week and is back at the hospital this morning, having the wound assessed, yuk! It’s a crazy busy month of the year, the bugs are growing, the garden is growing. My hubby has just returned from his annual motorbike trip to Spain. I am desperately trying to cut down on the bugs a bit before the summer (assuming we will have one, I’ve still got be my heated blanket on most nights). I’ve been really successful with breeding so many animals but especially arachnids this year. I recently set up a new category called “Bulk Buy Babies” to sell some of my surplus and I’m certainly open to offers on my tarantula collection. I have three amazing spiders with egg sacs currently, they are Caribena versicolor, Neoholothele incei (gold) and Phormictopus cautus. I also have a number of gravid scorpions and some with babies on their backs, plus my a...

Honestly, I’m not getting any younger and I never seem to stop. I have such a huge number of bugs to look after (many are not shown on my website because I am trying to breed them or when it comes to tarantulas, I am keeping them until they moult and are ok to post out). I spend so much time feeding and cleaning. I am still learning all the time and doing really well with most of my breeding projects. It’s that time of year when everything is having babies, tarantulas, scorpions, cockroaches, millipedes etc. I can’t believe how well my idea of keeping only bugs that don’t need daily care is going. This means that I can lock up and go away for a weekend at last! Of course, I still have my wonderful daughter to check in but she too now has a baby. He is simply adorable and I love him taking up my time (: I’m really surprised that I don’t miss keeping stick insects but I honestly don’t. I really, really don’t miss collecting bramble (such an embarrassing part of my job, I could tell some ...