Tuesday, December 30

Insect Shopping

30th December
There are lots of things we need for spring filming, I’m searching the internet for suppliers of various insect species and their eggs or larvae. It's a strange world out there, here’s the Hot List of Top Ten best sellers at Blades Biological;
Acetobacter aceti-
Aspergillus oryzae
Blood Splatter
Analysis Kit
Ants
Black Ants
Flour Beetles Wild Type
Flour Beetles Wild Type
Larder Beetles
Human lleum
Aquarium Heater/ Stats


Do visit Blades: if you get there quick I see they have Diapherodes Gigantea on a special offer of £8.31 for 2.

It also seems strange to keep live things in the fridge, some butterfly cocoons were delivered the other day and I sent an anxious email to the suppliers who responded:

Dear Lulu
It’s fine that they’re just all loose in the bottom and there should be NO holes, so if you have made holes tape them up again. The fridge is fine too, it keeps them at a constant temperature until you need them

Also the black ones are not dead.

Best Wishes etc.


As far as possible we want to film things in the wild and there are some ant species we can’t find so we drove out to visit a chap who is famous for his work on the reproductive strategies of ants.

Our expert is a small elderly man with a sideways tilt to his head and a scuttling walk that is decidedly ant-like. His house is stuffed with ant-related art. I spent a swivel-headed afternoon translating while The Director and Antman got lost in myrmecological debate.


Cat update:
Since it’s been colder I’ve been putting food out regularly for Kevin and Julie - they’re still catching small furry creatures but now they leave the bodies on the back step for us to eat.

13 comments:

  1. What, no tasty locusts or grasshoppers? I am not familiar with most of these species, I hope you will post pictures of them. I like the sound of the larvae.

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  2. well. if we lived close i could lend you my head (and my daughters) which are full of um, eggs, larvae and jumping things called lice...oooooergh....happy to read this blog...via bill at just a moment of miscellany...great find! he has nominated you as one of his fave reads, and rightly so... x janelle

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  3. ok, so the black ones are not dead -
    but what the heck
    are they mutants?

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  4. If you need a leaf, twig, moss and fern provider, please give a jingle.

    Of yes, we have plenty of banana slugs too.

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  5. not only is the blog a great read but so are the comments....
    would a "good" garden and a compost pile invite some useful subjects?
    and perhaps the dead offerings from the cats will yield interesting subject material has they descend back to dusty beginnings....

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  6. Oh, how cute! you are feeding the cats... and they are feeding you! :-)

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  7. Wow, I just love reading about your antics (groan!) over here - so very different to the things I'm translating I imagine. Bonne annee!

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  8. Gorilla - as a herbivore you should stop eyeing up the locusts.

    Welcome Janelle - funny how these days when people tell me about their co-habitees I just want to come at them with a magnifying glass.

    Welcome Ms/Mr? projectivist - I shall be watching to see what hatches out - something from 'Alien' perhaps

    Bill - I love visiting your blog so I know all about your vegetation. Do you think the snow will ever melt off it though?

    Deborah - My compost heap attracted loads of butterflies last summer.

    Kelly - I'm getting bored with fried mice now though - do you have any good vermin recipes?

    Hi Daisy - But you're in PARIS I'm soooo envious

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  9. I am concerned that the Blood Splatter Analysis Kit is #3 on their list.

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  10. I noticed that too XL and I can't help feeling that listing Larder Beetles twice is wrong

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  11. What a wonderful, newsy post.
    That may be the oddest bit of business correspondence I have ever seen. I remember that my daughter's first-grade teacher ordered ants for a science project and they arrived frozen stiff and not capable of resurrection (even at a Catholic school). The kids were more amused than horrified, as I recall. What are you making out of the bits of furry creatures left for you by the cats? Are you using the meat and the fur, or just one or the other?

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  12. Hello. Forgive me for being so bold, but I am having a little giveaway on my blog. I am offering a chance to win a free caricature created by me. There are no gimmicks. It's just my way of celebrating two years of blogging. Please do me the honor of signing up for a chance to win.

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  13. Hi KSV - I am making strogonoff out of the mouse meat and fairy shoes from the pelts.

    Hello Rick - I am already a walking caricature but I will certainly pay you a visit.

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