First Day Of Spring

First day of spring tomorrow and it has certainly been a beautiful week here. I was out in the garden in a t-shirt yesterday. The bramble is beginning to grow again and I hope it is a sign of things to come that there seem to be a lot of butterflies around. Hopefully if we have a hot, drier summer this year the butterfly populations may recover a bit. I saw very few Peacock butterflies and no Small Tortoiseshells at all last year. I know there is a lot of talk about parasites but I truly think that the weather plays it's part too.

I've had a very busy week with buying in lots of new stock. I have housed most of it but I haven't had time to put everything on the site yet. I have bought in spiders, centipedes, millipedes, assassin bugs, adult praying mantids and more. The most popular items that I seem to be selling at the moment are spiders, millipedes and cockroaches. I ordered more Giant Pill millipedes as they are doing so well. I have often found them difficult to keep but the two species I have are proving no problem at all, I haven't lost a single one! I am keeping them in deep plastic boxes (from Wilkinson stores) I have peat on the base to about 12cm deep and then oak leaf litter on top. I put in a small amount of rotten oak wood and give a little fruit or vegetables once a week. It would be fantastic to breed them. I think the reason that they often die in captivity is that they are always wild caught and weakened from their long journey. I have noticed that they can feel too light and I would assume that they have got a little dry. Millipedes always like to be kept moist and away from direct sunlight. The ones that I have are from Madagascar and they all seem in great condition. I have quite a few now so I would expect to have both sexes. I am not sure how to sex them but difference in size is usually a good indicator and they are various sizes.

The Flackwell Heath post office reopened yesterday after the ram raid some weeks ago. It has new owners, I haven't met them yet but I hope they are friendly and not 'bug phobic'. I have got used to using the new post office that I discovered, it isn't much further away and is rarely crowded, I may stick with it. I intend to check out the post office later but it won't be the same without Mr & Mrs Patel, they ran the Flackwell Heath post office for 21 years and everyone loved them.

I am finding it increasingly difficult to get cardboard boxes for posting. I assume my local Tesco has a new policy of not putting out their wine boxes. They were always by the till for the customers to use but I don't think I have seen any out since Christmas. Everywhere I go I'm obsessed with looking for small boxes. My daughter works in the aquatic centre of a local garden centre on Sunday's so I have a look for boxes when I drop her off or pick her up. They often have a few suitable boxes and Homebase is quite good for boxes. I find myself popping into random supermarkets and buying one or two items while I search for boxes. Unfortunately there seems to be a trend for ripping up all the boxes as they stock the shelves. I was also upset to hear that Tesco no longer accept films for processing which means that I can't get my supply of film pots anymore. I was told that the company they dealt with went bust, a sign of the times. There were less and less but I hope I can get some elsewhere as I post most of my spiderlings in them!

Well the sun is shining, I had better get out to the bug house for the endless round of feeding and cleaning. I got two new Corn snakes this week, they are beautiful. I got a Motley Caramel and a Super Hypo Ghost (I think that's what it was called), I need to think up some nice names for them, they are both girls. Now that the weather is looking better I can move my pet reptiles out of the bug house and into my office. I have just ordered a new Exo Terre tank for the baby snakes.