Panic over, lots of orders have come in this week - thank you

Panic over, lots of orders have come in this week - thank you. I always panic, it could be my middle name (it would be an improvement on Joy). I have been trying to re-organise my shelves in the bug house this week. I was thinking of buying some new shelving racks but I realised that I don't need to if I use the available space more efficiently. I now have a lot of spiders, both tarantulas and non tarantulas, they are spread out around the bug house but it would obviously make sense to move them closer together. I will need to make sure that they are apart from the stick insects and other creatures that need daily spraying. My mother in-law will be house-sitting while we are away next month and she is totally spider phobic. She says she can cope with the bugs but she doesn't want to see any spiders. This is quite difficult to arrange when you have hundreds of spiders!

I am having a long awaited Open Afternoon next week (details on my home page). I haven't had one for months and people have been asking for ages when the next one will be. I just hope people turn up and make it a success. I would love everyone to visit by appointment on a Saturday but they just don't, the idea of popping in, if you feel like it on the day seems to be a lot more appealing. If it does go well I may even have another one in August. It is nice to meet customers in the flesh, rather than by email or on the phone. I have some lovely spiders and it is much better if you can come and choose your pet. Spiders are very long lived and do become a 'proper pet' unlike stick insects and beetles that generally only live for a few months. That reminds me, I was admiring my daughter's pet Mexican Red Knee tarantula in her bedroom this week. I pointed out that Stephanie is a stunning specimen and that she is probably worth about £300. It was just an observation but my daughter turned from her computer with her ears pricked up and said 'really, do you think we should sell her then'. I was horrified, how could she think of selling Stephanie, we have had her for 14 years, most of my daughter's life (teenagers are great).

I now have so many Hissing cockroaches that I have had to split them up into several tanks and everyone who has ordered them this week has received extra. I often try to send extra bugs but it obviously depends if I have bred them or bought them in. I have only ever had one person complain about me sending extra with her order. I received the Imperial scorpion 'film stars' this week. I do hope to sell some soon as I now have several tanks of those too. Everyone keeps saying that I should hang onto them as they will become very rare now that there is a ban on their import. That is easier said than done as they are a lot of work in large numbers and they eat a lot of crickets. I wish I could breed my own crickets but I just don't have the space. It is much easier to breed cockroaches for food (not my beloved Hissing ones of course) but most of the cockroaches are too large for the smaller spiders. I have unfortunately decided that I need to eradicate the Pallid cockroach from my bug house. I say unfortunately because they are small enough to make great food for the spiders, scorpions, mantids etc. but I just cannot stop them escaping and breeding in the bug house. They have got to go! It may take some time, as I mentioned recently I am still finding the occasional Surinam cockroach which I have been trying to get rid of for several years.

I am resigned to sitting at my desk this morning, trying to reduce my paperwork pile and then this afternoon I have to pop up to Reading to collect my World Cup competition win. I am not expecting great things as it is a goody bag filled with 'football themed items', still it's a win and I do love my competitions. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my blog but I won a Nintendo Wii a couple of weeks ago. One last thing - cheques are continuing to be a problem and I may be faced with no other option but to cancel the 'paying by cheque/postal order' application on my website. So many people never send the cheque and I then have to cancel the order and put back all the items on the site. This takes time and also stops other people from purchasing those items while I have been waiting for the imaginary cheque to arrive. I don't want to stop payments by cheque & postal order because a small number of my customers prefer this method and are reliable. It's a dilemma but at the moment it is looking likely that I will have to stop them.